Internet availability has increased dramatically throughout the years, and some believe the internet is a Utopic society, completely separate from their everyday lives. While the internet may have intended to be a utopia, a place where life was perfect and people could escape the realities of everyday, it did not work out that way. In actuality, issues that are evident in our real lives are also apparent in our virtual ones. Often platforms like social media, and news sites are making us more aware of the problems we have. Online spaces are not utopian spaces free from societal issues. In fact, they both magnify and reflect issues in society and our everyday lives. Users ability to connect to the online world has increased over time,
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We frequently see how digital environments are too shaped by race and class, not just physical ones. Danah Boyd gives the example, “Teen Preference for Myspace or Facebook went beyond simple consumer choice; it reflected a reproduction of social categories that exist in schools throughout the United States. Because race, ethnicity, and socio-economic status shape social categories (Eckert, 1989), the choice between Myspace and Facebook became racialized. This got reinforced as teens chose to self-segregate across the two sites, just as they do in schools,” (Boyd 2). It is hard to believe that issues we see with race in our society everyday are taking place on the internet as well, a place meant to be a Utopia, a perfect world where we did not have to deal with our life issues. But, it is in fact happening and it is because the users want to magnify that these are real problems occurring and we need to do something about them. I see it constantly on Twitter. There is an account called “Funny Racist” which tweets out offensive and racist tweets aimed at many different ethnicities in an effort to be comical. While some may see the comical light to his tweets, it just further demonstrates how there are serious issues in society and the internet further makes them visible to us. However, some like Tatum argues social segregation gives teens a sense of belonging to a group and this being now …show more content…
There is very little privacy on the internet and that causes problems to arise. As Aziz Ansari points out “Every interaction with someone online creates a digital paper trail,” (Ansari 198). Ansari is emphasizing the fact that once something is sent out into the virtual world it stays there forever. Our constant availability of access to these digital spaces brings up concerns that were not once problems. Ansari gives an example “Now you can be in bed with your spouse and ask, “Hey honey, what are you looking at on your phone?” She could reply, “Oh, just reading this op-ed in the Times,” when she’s actually sending your neighbor a photo of her Mrs. Pouterson,” (Ansari 185). Present day media makes it so easy for people to cheat, something that was much more difficult 30 years ago. When people can hide behind a screen they feel less guilty about committing the act. For example, one reddit user said “He started an affair that he simply wouldn’t have had the gumption to start without Facebook. They worked together and were casual acquaintances. One day he looked her up on Facebook and sent her a message asking, “Would you like to get a drink sometime?” Soon after the affair began,” (Ansari 188). It is that easy for someone to log on and send a message asking someone out, in the past you would have to approach that someone in person making it a much harder task. Another issue brought along by our
We frequently see how digital environments are too shaped by race and class, not just physical ones. Danah Boyd gives the example, “Teen Preference for Myspace or Facebook went beyond simple consumer choice; it reflected a reproduction of social categories that exist in schools throughout the United States. Because race, ethnicity, and socio-economic status shape social categories (Eckert, 1989), the choice between Myspace and Facebook became racialized. This got reinforced as teens chose to self-segregate across the two sites, just as they do in schools,” (Boyd 2). It is hard to believe that issues we see with race in our society everyday are taking place on the internet as well, a place meant to be a Utopia, a perfect world where we did not have to deal with our life issues. But, it is in fact happening and it is because the users want to magnify that these are real problems occurring and we need to do something about them. I see it constantly on Twitter. There is an account called “Funny Racist” which tweets out offensive and racist tweets aimed at many different ethnicities in an effort to be comical. While some may see the comical light to his tweets, it just further demonstrates how there are serious issues in society and the internet further makes them visible to us. However, some like Tatum argues social segregation gives teens a sense of belonging to a group and this being now …show more content…
There is very little privacy on the internet and that causes problems to arise. As Aziz Ansari points out “Every interaction with someone online creates a digital paper trail,” (Ansari 198). Ansari is emphasizing the fact that once something is sent out into the virtual world it stays there forever. Our constant availability of access to these digital spaces brings up concerns that were not once problems. Ansari gives an example “Now you can be in bed with your spouse and ask, “Hey honey, what are you looking at on your phone?” She could reply, “Oh, just reading this op-ed in the Times,” when she’s actually sending your neighbor a photo of her Mrs. Pouterson,” (Ansari 185). Present day media makes it so easy for people to cheat, something that was much more difficult 30 years ago. When people can hide behind a screen they feel less guilty about committing the act. For example, one reddit user said “He started an affair that he simply wouldn’t have had the gumption to start without Facebook. They worked together and were casual acquaintances. One day he looked her up on Facebook and sent her a message asking, “Would you like to get a drink sometime?” Soon after the affair began,” (Ansari 188). It is that easy for someone to log on and send a message asking someone out, in the past you would have to approach that someone in person making it a much harder task. Another issue brought along by our