Social Bias in Web Technology

There has been many recorded incidents where newly, found technology involving algorithms have created biasness within our social media platforms. Computer based software has generated automatic tagging in social media photos for instance, sometimes tagging essentially a black person as a gorilla. This software system has created more of a biasness amongst us than ever before. We already deal with racial and sexist issues in our society in general, but now as technology advances it is creating more of a rift between us. These systems can even cut out certain web surfers, to where only ideal web surfers can see certain information exposed on the web such as job listens for only certain applicants. Advances in technology are suppose to essentially cut this out, creating more of a smooth operating system, not prejudice. I believe that when it comes to corporations and certain businesses, this certain operating system runs in their favor. They have certain prejudice motives to where they want certain ideal candidates. For instance it is like when you shop at a certain online store, anywhere else you surf online it is going to show you certain online advertisements for that particular store. The companies of course want that because its a reminder to the people who already shop there, not just technology working for you.

Social Media Creates an Unrealistic View of Who You Are

I remember there was a time right after high school when I moved into my first apartment right by my community college. I had my own minimum wage job that I worked for right after school and financial aid that helped pay for all of my bills as a young student. One month I couldn't afford to pay my internet bill, and was forced for that month to go and use the school's computer lab in the time being if I had any projects or reports that had to be typed up. I remember feeling so aggravated at the time because I wouldn't be able to go online through Facebook and see what all my friends were up too. Time passed very quickly though within this month and soon I had enough money for my internet to come back on. I remember the feeling of not having access to social media made me depressed, but soon a couple days went by and I actually felt happier than ever... 

Social media has a way of drawling us in and creating an illusion or perception of other peoples' lives. We see this on the daily and think to ourselves: "Wow she is so pretty", "I wished my eyebrows looked like that", "He gets to travel everywhere", "How is she or he able to travel everywhere", etc. These innocent, momentary comments are what is actually killing us on the inside. We perceive these pictures or filtered pictures of others that they choose to share in a way that makes us think that we are less than them. In reality we don't known what happens behind those pictures, and same with ours. We don't post our struggles, or our bad photos, only the ones we want others to see. We all want people to see the accomplishments in our life, not our struggles, but in reality how can we ever be happy with one another if we can't be ourselves and we live through a facade. Its not our accomplishments that make us who we are, but our struggles. In order to reach success, we had to struggle. We are human, but what is up with social media now a days making us out to be someone we aren't? I struggle with this daily on social media because I am one to compare myself with others, but then I realize we all are walking through different paths in life. We all need to stop comparing ourselves to others, and living life off a checklist, because the only way to reach happiness is to embrace ourselves through the struggles and success. 

The Need for Instant Gratification

We humble ourselves now a days by being on social media and defining ourselves by who our friends are, how many followers we have, or how many likes we have on a single picture. We like the instant gratification about ourselves making us feel that we are important and meanwhile becoming impatient if things take time to nurture and grow.

While some might think instant gratification just has to do with the speediness of a file downloading or how fast your internet is, and which it is, I believe that the need for instant gratification bleeds into all other parts of your life. If you do not want to wait for a simple file to load or be on hold for a telephone call, what makes you think that in all other parts of you life like your relationships or work priorities are going to be successful? These are all intrinsically connected. To be successful in life or have anything worthwhile or worth your time, it is going to take time and you are going to have to be patient. Instant gratification doesn't teach us anything in life, but that we are only happy in that moment and we don't know what happiness really is if we can't achieve it through patience and time. Yes time is valuable, but also time is only valuable where you put the effort and patience into it.

The "Chilling Effect" of Mass Surveillance is Controlling All of Us

Technology has evolved tremendously since we have been in the 21st century. The way we communicate and interact with one another is different as well. We have these social media platforms we interact with each other on as well as through text messages and emails. Since technology is more advanced and the free flow of information is at a click away from your computer, sometimes peoples concerns are with how we are monitored through our own government. 

I do believe this has caused a lot of people, consciously and subconsciously, to not express their own viewpoints on political and economic issues of the world, especially on these social media platforms of fear of being scrutinized when their own points is of the minority. I notice myself not expressing my own opinions though, not only from the fear of being monitored, but also from fear of not having the majority viewpoint. I feel like our media now a days tells us only what we want to hear and creates controversy where they want to create controversy. With us being monitored, this allows them to have control of us and our thoughts and free flow of information. I believe this also goes hand and hand with this generation not actually researching general topics to form different opinions, but going on social media platforms like Facebook, or Twitter, or biased news channels to get their generalized, watered down news. It is a controlling mechanism in my opinion and we each are going to all think alike and act alike, and not express our own thoughts or viewpoints especially when our opinions are not well liked by others. This monitoring and surveillance makes us feel like we have to be like everyone else and be in an autopilot mode.