CARE

A.How have you personally used social media to care for yourself and/or others, your own community, your own government, etc.?

B. What does it mean to "care" and how is it done at the local and global level?

C.How does social media and other online communication tools facilitate caring behavior?

Give examples of all (e.g., websites, organizations, etc.).

This is an interesting question to me because I think that people “care” WAY more than they will ever say.  When I use social media (I only use Facebook, Twitter, and Blogger) I really do care about what I am putting up on those pages.  Sure we all say how we really don’t care but hello yes we do.  I care about what all my profile pictures look like, I care that if I see a gross picture of me tagged that I make sure to untag myself.  It is so disgusting and I hate that I am like that but hey I know I am not the only one.  Facebook has become a way for us to so called “stalk” people.  I have caught myself looking at others pictures for over an hour…just critiquing the pictures…how does he look in this one...”oh ew gross” “oh dang he looks good here” etc.  We ALL do it. It is hard to describe how much I really do care because there are so many different instances.  I know that I would care about finding a nasty picture of my friend because I am embarrassed for her but then at the same time that is just me.  I care A LOT, probably more than the average person, who would not even think twice about a gross picture of a friend.  But, I can definitely say that if there is an inappropriate picture of me that I find then that is when I care the most and I usually will call that someone and have them take that picture off.

Caring at the local level is completely different.  Half the time people do not really care.  SIDE NOTE: I am going to try and not go off on a tangent here because this is a topic that I get really upset about…I do not understand why at a local level most people stop caring.  If it isn’t about them or someone they know then it’s like their heart just shrunk to the size of the Grinch (yes there are exceptions but just as a general whole). For example, on my blog I have seen people write some mean things and I just do not understand.  There is a difference between critiquing and being mean. Online communication is the worst, think about Youtube…the things people write on others’ videos is ridiculous! I mean I just do not think people really care.  They think, “oh no one is going to know it was me so why does it matter.” Well buddy if you had made a video how would you feel if someone wrote that, because then it becomes personal again and relates back to the post above and how much that person is going to care about what they did and it is going to hurt because we CARE SO DANG MUCH ABOUT WHAT OTHER PEOPLE THINK! Half of why we are all insecure is because of what other people have done or said.  If we would all just CARE a little more I honestly think the way of life would be so much happier.  It takes that one comment that you remember for the rest of your life and that will impact you forever.  Think about this in reverse…when somebody does CARE and makes that effort to say or do something that shows that they do care IT MEANS THE WORLD.  (I honestly do not know if this is the girl talking in me but it is just how I feel).  In the end…I think people overlook this, they care so much about their Facebook page and their twitters and what not and do not think enough about what they’re doing to others’ Facebook or twitters or Youtubes etc.

(All three of the questions kind of ran into on big blog ^^ )

Rights

A.    How have you personally used social media to exercise your own rights and/or defend the rights of others, locally and globally?

-I have never personally used social media to exercise my own rights.  But I have sometimes used social media to defend the rights of others.  The other day when we were discussing the Westboro Church I made a point to post in on my Facebook to create awareness to the public about this issue. I was not posting this to defend their rights but to create discussion about our rights in general.

B.     What does it mean to exercise your rights, both at home and abroad, and how is it typically done?

To exercise your rights means to utilize your rights. For example, we have the freedom of speech.  In some cases, such as the Westboro Church, we take advantage of these rights.  We have different rights in so many different areas.  It can be as big as what your rights are in another country, to what your rights are when you go down the street into a bad neighborhood.  If I were to go to a third world country where women were not accepted then my rights would be downgraded from what I am used to.  I would probably not even be able to use any rights because there would be no rights to be utilized for woman.  If I were going into a bad neighborhood where I was a minority and was instigating a problem with race and using my freedom of speech this would not be a good idea.  In saying this I feel as though even though we have rights, sometimes we feel like we do not have these rights at the same time; it all depends on where we are and what the situation is as to what is seen as appropriate or not.

C.    How does social media and other online communication tools facilitate the exercising of rights?

Social media and other communication tools are exactly this.  This is all they do.  They use all the rights that are possible; the main one being freedom of speech.  You can find EVERYTHING within the social media/other communication tools. Whether it is appropriate or not; it is out there. I was doing a project for my Deviant Behavior class last semester and it was on pro anorexia and at first I did not think I was going to find any information on it.  Little did I know that the media would provide me with more information than I needed on how to be anorexic.  The next day in class everybody discussed what their topics were and it was very disturbing.  One of the girls even found online communication in dealing with men and children sex. This was a turning point for me.  It made me realize how much stuff is really out there. The social media and other online communication tools seem to almost have taken advantage of exercising their rights.