Social Well being Q1-3

Question #1. Are social media sites just opportunities for people to become, as Ronson says, “Unpaid shaming interns?” Share your thoughts.
While social media sites can create an environment that allows people to shame others without taking accountability, it can, on the flip side, provide positive opportunity for connection and growth. Different education blogs and educational twitter accounts (or any industry, really) can provide lots of useful information and discourse that people in the field can read and respond to. Industry professionals have the opportunity to build a community of
thinkers around them in a way that is otherwise prohibited by geographical distances. In this sense, it can connect people from far and wide on a global level that is quite extraordinary. One must be mindful of how they are healthily using these sites and for what purposes.

Question #2. What are some of the benefits of social media in terms of providing opportunities for the democratization of justice?
The Ted Talk suggests that social media can be used as a gross interpretation of freedom of speech that can snowball into hate. These platforms also have the ability to rally people with an efficiency that no other movement has provided before, however. In other words, if used correctly, platforms like twitter and instagram can help people do good things and help people get involved with causes that are important to them. It brings these issues directly into peoples' laps at a more rapid speed than any newspaper. A newspaper does not allow for active participation on part of the consumer either, while social media provides the opportunity for direct participation. It can bring attention to causes, stories, and events that can be debunked and held accountable for everyone to see so that all of society is informed and can speak up right away, at any given time.

Question #3. Are there ways of meeting “nice people like us” on social media? Or, is it a place that only offers opportunities for us to mutually approve of each other while demonizing someone else?
Of course there are ways of meeting nice people on social media. Just as school is a place where students have to discern between who may be a good person to hang out with be versus who may be a "bad influence", the internet provides these same forums for decision making. It is important to teach children how to become "tech literate", which helps them discern between fact and fiction from the inundation of information that is provided online. It also important to teach the healthy ways to having a positive social media presence that does not become destructive. One must be mindful of the sites and people they follow, so as not to surround themselves only with sites, opinions, and accounts that trigger a negative emotional response. Their has to be a balance between social media and face to face social interaction in the real world also. Educators can help to build these social media habits, just as they help to build social skills habits when children are in school.