Emails, Facebook, Snapchat, Messenger, Instagram, Twitter, and repeat. Digital content is never more than a swipe or click away; it has a pervasive presence casting a shadow on users’ everyday lives—and at times, the online world can prove difficult to escape. While technology can help to foster creativity and aid[Read More…]
Tag: Social Media
Interacting with my ‘Dopplenamers’
What do you do when someone has the same name as you? Is your first instinct to befriend them—or rather, to fight them to establish dominance? Encountering another person with the same name, better known as a ‘Dopplenamer,’ brings ambiguity to one’s sense of self. An individual’s identity is often[Read More…]
The finstagram phenomenon: A peek into the private
Commonly referred to as ‘finstagram,’ or ‘finsta,’ the ‘Fake Instagram’ phenomenon is on the rise. A rather curious oxymoron, the trend is taking over the popular and ever-evolving Instagram app. Over the past decade, the world has witnessed a digital boom, revolutionizing how—and what—people share. Within seconds, social media[Read More…]
Instagram on the right track with new self-harm prevention feature
The combination of academics, finances, and relationships can strain students’ mental health. A 2013 survey of over 30,000 post-secondary students conducted by the Canadian Organization of University and College Health revealed that 63 per cent of students reported feeling lonely, and 50 per cent of students reported feeling hopeless. Significantly,[Read More…]
The dangers of the endless scroll: Social media use as a mental health indicator
The internet has a dark side. A recent McMaster University study is the latest to confirm the adverse effects of too much screen time: The connection between internet use and mental illness is even stronger than previously thought. The survey of 254 McMaster University students, using the Young Internet Addiction[Read More…]
MTL Blog’s repurposing of Instagram content highlights grey area of control on social media
MTL Blog is a normally benign clickbait website known for publishing articles such as “The Whole Foods Market Close to Montreal You Have To Road Trip To ASAP.” Recently, however, the blog moved away from think pieces on snow and poutine, and engaged in truly tasteless journalism. Two of the pieces[Read More…]
Letter to the editor: Bernie Sanders’ campaign especially culpable in social media misinformation
In February, Jenna Stanwood argued in her piece, “Social media normalizes misinformation in US presidential primaries,” that users of social media have become swept away with catchy slogans and misleading information, to the detriment of good decision-making, and that this trend is a worrying sign for democracy. All of these[Read More…]
A student’s take on SSMU elections
Two weeks ago the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) bylection for Vice-President (VP) Internal turned ugly… again. SSMU elections have been a source of controversy for years with the most recent one marred by a particularly malicious online culture. While much of the student body is generally disenchanted and[Read More…]
Confirmation bias on social media limits conversation
Between Facebook posts, online publications, and Reddit threads, it is overwhelming to begin to imagine the amount of different opinions, ideas, and information a regular internet-user processes in a single day. Consequently, the digital age is heralded for supposedly allowing people to become educated on a broad assortment of topics[Read More…]
Commentary: Give Facebook’s ‘dislike’ button a chance
For many years, Facebook users have clamoured for the addition of a ‘dislike’ button. In a way, their wishes were addressed last month, when Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that his team has been working on a feature akin to a dislike button. Setting aside vague debates about how this[Read More…]
