Social Media and Social Responsibilities - Essay Example

Social Media and Social Responsibilities by Critical thinking plays a significant role in any process than involves information and communication between the sources and receivers of media content. In connection to the social media critical thought and the ability to see facts and subjects of research clearly are important tools that provide the fullest and therefore most logical and true information. Ethical aspects of the informational interconnection between the users and producers of the social media data and their moral reasoning are not less important. Above that it is the form of the research in which any objective information should be presented due to the crucial value of the proofs and evidence in order to support the delivery of some definite statement, point of view or opinion. In other words and most precisely it is sincere, ingenuous and frank way with which any information must be provided. More than that it’s the direct critical and skeptical approach to any information that may only look truthful and fact-based but as it often happens is only an illusionary vision of the real nature of things. Developing and providing the core theme of the further research essay it won’t be odd to state that any lies can be called information too. Heading from that the main goal of the following study will be to support this statement and show an utter importance of truth in information and provide an objective point of view on the significance of the critical approach towards any kind of information in order to achieve the right knowledge of whether it is true or not. Moral and ethical aspects of the social media in connection with the critical way of thought and skeptical approach towards the nature of information are all the details of the hard but holesome process of paving the right direction towards the absolute truth. For better comprehension and for the benefit of a profound structure further essay will review separately five issues which are: 1) the importance of critical thought and skeptical approach to information; 2) significant role of ethical and moral reasoning while working with, creating, receiving or passing information to the social media (internet); 3) the impact of academic knowledge on the social elements and institutions; 4) active citizenship and its probable future effect on the basic foundations of social media; 5) usefulness of modern informational technologies and their helpful support in gathering data, proofs and sources for some definitive research. Being taken overall and altogether mentioned above parts will provide a background. With the help of this background it will be possible to obtain the important knowledge of the high value of real information and harm done by misinformation especially in the social media. Being critical often means regarding facts from different perspectives in attempt to elude lies. Critical approach means a lot in the sphere of informational exchange such as radio, TV, internet, printed press, books. Information surrounds us everywhere and always. All that we see, feel, hear, comprehend and study is based on some information. Unfortunately, often the real and noble basics of any information become distorted. In that case what people see as information really is lie which should not be trusted to. The borderline between the truth and lies, between the real and fictive is very thin. To stay either on one side or on the other it is important to see this line clearly. Critical thought is exactly the tool that helps and makes it possible basing on the logical and rational ground deliver right, direct and strict verdict on whether some information is real or only shows itself as real (Halpern 2002). Critical thinking is a tool and as any tool it needs some skill to use it. Critical thinking starts when those who seek the truth asks themselves a simple question - “is this right or wrong?”, “can I believe it or not?” or “is it possible?”. It is obvious that such questions can appear in the head of any person but not any person has the ability to filter information. On the contrary in the most cases almost any information is often taken for granted without any research, thinking or an attempt to find some proofs (Mandiberg 2012). In other words critic is someone who determines the quality and value of information. In our case with internet being the core of social media millions of people all around the world are at the same time critics (not in the fullest meaning of this word of course) and consumers of information. Let’s look at it closer on some simple example: assuming someone posted a photo of police officer beating an innocent kitten. If such information is truthful then it means that a person (accidentally or on purpose) embodied an exposition of a bad police officer. On the contrary if such a person posted not a real photo but a collage or retouched photo from Photoshop on the Internet which proves that police officer didn’t really touch the kitten it reveals that information in fact was a misinformation based on lies instead of truth. Critical thought should be educated in all spheres of life, in schools and universities because only with its help truth can be found and lies – judged. Because of the lack of critical judgment person who posted the photo with kitten and police officer and those other persons all across the world web who read it can easily be misguided and it will be an innocent officer who will turn out wronged and not some fictive kitten. It will be fair to say that the meaning and significance of critical thinking today is crucially important and seriously topical. That is because internet and most of all its leading components like Skype, YouTube and Facebook provide people all across the world with the possibility to share, produce and receive information (Albarran, 2013). Almost everybody knows that the main problem with internet is light and easy censorship which makes it real for a lot of different people with different opinions and views speak freely about anything and everything without proper consideration of the consequences of their words. It is exactly because of that you can easily meet 10 different variations of Jesus, look at one place thinking that it is another one or even believe in Yeti or UFO’s. Ethical and moral reasoning stand at the core of any reliable and credible information. To put it most simple everyone knows that lie is unethical and immoral and therefore any misinformation in the social media is an abuse of truth. Even when speaking about not internet but communication between different people at all in general it will be obviously unfair to lie and state something that goes at odds with the real way of things (Williams, 2012). In other words to define ethics and morality in connection with the information is to define a fair, truthful, correct and direct approach towards using this information. In connection with social media nothing can disturb society more than the ability to use, produce and exchange information without moral and ethical groundings. That becomes the reason of things like inaccuracy, lack of judgment and total misinformation. The trickiest thing lies in the fact that most people redirect, repost or pass inaccurate information for the further distribution which creates a chain of lies that becomes more and more likely and believable. That happens because of the lack of critical thought which was reviewed before. Most common problem shows itself in the inability to filter right information from fictive one. Despite a lot of negative aspects in the modern social media environment it is nevertheless has some strong abilities to develop most accurate and full information. A lot of users whose numbers count in millions and millions all across the world have the ability to work as one mechanism. So it will be fair to say that despite frequent difference in opinion it really is silly to be wrong or blind in the internet where all the information can support truly rightful judgment or opinion. But at the same time and somehow paradoxically it is exactly because of the many users and their collective efforts that some even most obvious fact can become a subject of an angry dispute. The exorbitant amount of information not only in the internet but all over the society easily distracts people from simple and basic truth (Tamborini, 2013). Imagine that you have only two roads from which one will lead you to the desirable direction while the other one will bring you to the dead end. Your chances to pick the right path (even without skill of critical thought) are 50 to 50. Now imagine that you have 100 roads before you from which some are right and some are wrong and you don’t know which is which. Chances here are tricky and way more complicated. Even if user in internet doesn’t want to lie or be lied to (nobody wants) still this exact user risks to lost in the informational stream because of its large and massive extension. And more than that even if every user was an example of nobility, morality and ethics (which of course is a Utopia) there still would be a lot of misunderstanding on the matter of handling the facts and the way they are represented. There are a lot of examples in the internet when the same information was presented in different contexts and by people with different opinions. The result was totally different but an ideal way is to give each person a choice of judgment and those who present information should do it in an unprejudiced way and most of all with skeptical and critical approach. So what can be done to enrich and fertilize the roots of morality, ethics and critical thought in the people who live side by side with information everywhere and every second of their life? The basic principle of information is its credibility and its credibility can be achieved only with the presence of some moral and critical basics as they are the tools with which information reproduces itself in a more or less qualified form depending on the user of social media (Kieran, 2002). How can academic knowledge and social media benefit from each other and what is the nature of their connection? For now it is no longer unknown for us that critical thinking and moral reasoning has an utter and crucial meaning in the sphere of informational exchange for they belong to the core of the real information and help to separate real from fictive, probable from correct and believable from exact. Nowadays projects like Coursera and Ted Talks show that it isn’t necessary for those who want to study to leave their room and that can be rightfully called progress. ON the following link a good presentation on the matter of internet education is given by the representative of TedX: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9d933nhJMg Academic knowledge is the basis of human education and the nature of the academic knowledge extensively implies any kind of scientific education. Science in the modern rational environment gave people such things as social media which is the theme of the recent research. More than that if not for the critical approach there wouldn’t be any science because critical and skeptical mechanisms are one of the most needed tools in the difficult search for truth. Social institutions and social elements of global and local proportions are affected greatly by the academic knowledge simply because both these panoptic concepts just can’t avoid being affected by each other. If we look closer we will see that without academic knowledge there is no possibility to build any kind of social institution at all. At the same time universities, colleges, schools and scientific departments who are the direct producers of academic knowledge are social institutions and social elements themselves. In fact there are little things that can’t be called social elements because the world in which people live today is social in almost all the ways and from all perspectives. Most precisely they are interdependent and commensurable which means that they are the parts of each other. So what about impact? Anything done to one of them logically affects another one so it could be any impact. What is more close to our research is the ability to inculcate morality, ethics and critical thought into the social elements with the help of academic knowledge (Hana & Hendricks 2012). Even spiritual concepts like religion has its subjects and spheres of education like theology which suggests that social elements with the help of academic knowledge must develop (or engrain, strengthen and improve) basic ethical, moral and critical ideas and thoughts. There are a lot of highly recommended books that are not some modern textbooks, manuals or guides but authoritative works of art and philosophy that go back for centuries. Critical thought? Rene Descartes’ and his “Discourse on the Method”, Immanuel Kant’s “Critique of Pure Reason” on the matter of critical thought (and other universal panoptic issues too). Ethics? Almost any work of Soren Kierkegaard or Arthur Schopenhauer. Morality? French school of moral writers like Blaise Pascal, La Rochefoucald or La Bruyere. But most simply morality implies that no harm must be done to other human beings at any cost without hurting one own moral self. A lot of discussions and disputes can be noticed all around the world on the matter of privacy in the internet where people put almost all their information. Government espionage, propaganda and surveillance are all unethical at their core and so in fact there shouldn’t be any discussion on whether it is moral or not refusing to give free people their own private life (Trottier, 2012). Man is born free but lives in chains as one famous Frenchman once said. (Rousseau, 2012). Nowadays internet and social media technologies give people a possibility to exchange information in super-fast ways. But for what cost? Were people ready for such innovation and is it right that moral and ethical principles of human very often lag behind the technological progress? Academic knowledge can and should provide necessary moral basis for the most honest, right and useful delivery of information. Active citizenship even now affects social media greatly just as well as social media is affected by the active citizenship concept. What is the best way to state your opinion or show others your concern with what happens in your country? It’s social media. There are a lot of examples in the recent history of international and national relationships when people moved political structure of their country simply by blogging and posting messages on the twitter. Revolution in Ukraine in 2014 was greatly observed and supported by people on the internet who helped to provide necessary instructions for those who were in danger on the streets. Egyptian revolution and a lot of other revolts during the Arab Spring in the Middle East admired modern technologies greatly because people decided what they were going to do by synchronizing their efforts on the internet. It even led to the fact that some of the countries tried to reject access to the most popular sources like Twitter or Instagram. What does it all tells about the importance of modern technologies in connection with social media? Active citizenship is not blind patriotism or foolish nationalism because it is logical and rational concern about the place where you live. If government goes against its own people the best way to stop it is showing everyone all around the world what such government is capable of. That is why Russia is so afraid of internet, that is why politicians and religious bigots from Middle East countries search internet for too liberal thought expressions and ban servers for hosting sites which distribute information that for the government propaganda is not comfortable to live with. In 5-10 years social media and the internet (which clearly are almost identical) will unite even more in order to eliminate any possible kind of misinformation. It will be easy because it is a natural process and any truth comes around later or earlier. Of course the truth doesn’t necessary mean its right treatment and there still will be a lot of points of view, arguments, discussions and polemic on the matter of different opinions. But that can and should be overcome successfully and to the rational point. That will be possible with the help of moral and ethical reasoning which can be asserted by the widespread of academic knowledge on both local and global scales. Modern technologies give all the possibilities’ to search and find truth (Dijck, 2013). The only thing needed for that is desire to find as well as clear view, morality, ethics and active position concerning nation and society. With all that any kind of government surveillance or espionage like in “1984” will be quickly eliminated with collective effort by honest people all around the world. Possible motto of such both realistic and optimistic future could sound like “think thrice what you deliver and twice what you receive”. Reference Review Hana, S., Hendricks, J. (2012). Social Media: Usage and Impact: London: Lexington Press It is a brilliant book with a lot of interesting and serious issues which are observed with critical thought and supported by strong research material. In chapter 7 authors talk about the connection between the academic knowledge (education) and social media. Qualified research materials show that internet is a handsome source of undoubted advantages but its implementation is a complicated process due to the hard task of putting it right and for the correct purposes. Overall this book is a tremendous compilation of different information on the matter of social media and its connection with various aspects of people’s life which is interesting because the nature of each of such connections is different and so it gives an opportunity to look on the social media phenomenon from different points of view. Albarran, A. (2013). The Social Media Industries. London: Routledge Great book even for those who doesn’t know anything about the social media as a subject of research and study. Author points different connections of social media with different spheres of life and accurately narrates the history of developing of social media as a concept. Chapter about privacy speaks professionally about the negative sides of internet (but more of other users than of internet itself as it is only a tool) which go side by side with its benefits. The risk of informational espionage and loss of private information is one of the greatest disadvantages of using internet. Author also points out very interestingly that despite the fact that internet is almost free it is nevertheless paid by private information which is gathered from users to know their habits, tastes and preferences. Dijck, J. (2013). The Culture of Connectivity: A Critical History of Social Media. Chicago: OUP USA Another example of professional study about the roots of social media. Most interesting is the part about the Wikipedia and its paradoxical free nature. In the age of private conglomerates and global trans-national companies how can one of the main sources of information continue to stay free? Author comes to it with critical point of view and tries to develop an answer on whether it is possible that in future some self-interested country government or company will be strong enough to buy Wikipedia and decide which facts will be real and which not. The basis of Wikipedia is neutrality and equally balanced representation of different points of view without preference and with maximum critical thought. That is additionally interesting in connection with this study. References Albarran, A. (2013) The Social Media Industries. London: Routledge Dijck, J. (2013) The Culture of Connectivity: A Critical History of Social Media. Chicago: OUP USA Halpern, D. (2002) Thoughts and Knowdledge: An Introduction to the Critical Thinking. London: Taylor & Francis Hana, S., Hendricks, J. (2012) Social Media: Usage and Impact: London: Lexington Press Kieran, M. (2002) Media Ethics. London: Routledge Lavery, J., Hughes, W. (2008) Critical Thinking: An Introduction to the Basic Skills. New York: Broadview Press Mandiberg, M. (2012) The Social Media Reader. New York: NYU Press Rousseau, J. (2012) Basic Political Writings. Chicago: Hackett Publishing Solomon, L. (2011) Doing Social Media So it Matters. Chicago: ALA Smets, A. (2014) Academic Knowledge Available Online retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9d933nhJMg Tamborini, R. (2013) Media and the Moral Mind London: Routledge Trottier, D. (2012) Social Media as Surveillance. Boston: Ashgate Publishing ltd. Williams, B. (2012) Morality: An Introduction to Ethics. Cambridge: CUP Read More