Our Thoughts

Social Media Interferences

Since the beginning of times, humans have lived together, have shared resources, have hunted together and have communicated between them. One can say that mankind has always lived in a society, and, as in every environment, an individual plays a part and has a purpose, that´s what we call, today, “having a job”. Social media play an important role nowadays in the professional world, as they´re present among us, and it can be bad or good.

Some people find their purpose early on their lives, others have to change careers to find their place or sometimes end up in a job and stay there because they have no other choice. No matter where you are or what you do, social media can impact your life in a good or bad way. The latter happened to the Portuguese football player Bernardo Silva, who´s playing for Manchester City at the moment. In an unfortunate moment, Mr. Silva published a “joke” between him and his mate Benjamin Mendy on Twitter. The “joke” was a comparison between Mr. Mendy and the mascot of the Spanish brand “Conguito” since both of them are black and dark. That “inoffensive” joke has created a lot of problems to Bernardo, even though Mendy came out in his defence, and the FA (Football Association) made him pay a 64,000$ fine and face a one match suspension but it could have been more. Just a simple publication on social media led Bernardo Silva to a lot of problems and consequences.

Not all is bad, there´s always a silver lining, social media can be both harmful or helpful. Social platforms connect us with everyone around the world and for those who are job seeking that can be and is a blessing. Platforms like Linkedln or Twitter can help you land the job you have always wanted. Linkedln, for example, is a social website on wich you can create your profile and connect it with your curriculum vitae and with that you are connected with more than 600 million users who are actively searching for candidates for their positions and candidates who are applying for them.Regarding the professional world, it can be said that social media are a double-edged sword. It will help you find new jobs and you´ll have a lot more opportunities, but it can harm your public image and your future, just like it happened to Bernardo Silva and many others who posted on social media. All in all, social media are a powerful weapon and have to be used carefully.

Written by Gonçalo Coelho

Creation & Destruction

The world is always evolving and with it humankind progresses as well. Newer technologies are replacing older ones and with that transition, older jobs are being replaced with ones that facilitate the implementation of the recently developed careers. The concept of this cloud-based social networks isn´t indifferent to this progression, and social media are creating and also destroying work.

It is known that social media are growing and impacting everyone´s lives, social media are prominent in every social environment. Since they are  being implemented and having an important role in today´s world, consequences, both positive and negative, are becoming clear. As it always has happened in the past, when a new technology is introduced new jobs are created, for example when the printer was invented lithographic employment was born or when the automatization happened new jobs for specific functions were needed. The same principle can be applied to social media, new people for new positions and functions are needed. Nowadays companies need to maintain a presence in the web to be popular and reachable (see how every corporation has a Twitter or Instagram account) and for that to happen they need a “social media manager”, a person or a collective who manages their social media presence. Another one is the “hacker”, a person who tries to find exploits on company´s or people´s sites to try to fix them before it´s too late, one real example about its importance is “The fappening”, one day in 2014, hackers released private photos of celebrities like Jennifer Lawrence .

There is also a bad side for such things, as I´ve mentioned before, not only jobs are created, they are also destroyed. Following the article of the Washington Post, more than 75 million jobs will be lost as companies move towards automation and 133 million new jobs may be created, it sounds good on paper but we have to keep in mind that those 75 million people who have worked all of their lives in the same field will be left jobless. The same thing applies to social media as newspapers, magazines, radios are moving towards a more digital future. According to BBC, more and more people are using social media as news service and leaving TV for those. With that transition people will lose their jobs as they become unnecessary.

New technologies are always being adopted and leave older ones behind. With that sort of transition, society also shifts requiring more jobs specifically designed to maintain or improve their current needs and wants. A comparison between jobs and recycling can be made: older professions wich aren´t needed are being replaced with newer and more required ones.

Written by Gonçalo Coelho

Dangers & Surveillence

Social media can be used to help our society evolve, however in the wrong hands they can be a nightmare for many people. Scams, fake accounts or bullying are unfortunately current nowadays.

Who has never received a fake email saying that you have won some prize, that your order “FedEx or UPS” is stuck somewhere, telling you to connect to your social media or to your bank account with the pretext of solving some problem. This phishing email attacks are on the rise, 25% increase in threats evading security (Davis, s.d.). These scams are truly frequent, and spam can’t filter all of them.

Fake accounts on social media are created every day for many purposes, some to get your email address, others to try to trick or scam you somehow (Drolet, 2019). According to Europol, fake accounts are mostly created to advertise, offer or sale counterfeit products, in some cases they try to wire money or make you reveal sensitive information (europol, s.d.). Despite social network companies try to uncover such cases, more fake accounts are created then those that are found and closed (Fung & Gardia, s.d.). Some people were hacked and had photos or messages posted on their social media. This can be quite serious, and even more serious if you are a public figure followed by millions. Offensive or racist messages can be posted (Charles, s.d.), and some people were blackmailed because otherwise hackers would publish private photos or videos (Stokel-Walker, s.d.).

Amber alert is a way to use social media as a noble cause, “967 children were rescued specifically because of Amber alert” (amberalert, s.d.). However, unfortunately there are fake amber alerts on social media making people complain. Some were furious, criticizing the system or even asking to disable it on their mobile phone (Rodrigues, 2019). This system could be discredited or become unreliable because of those fake alerts.

Even if we have to be cautious, there are many ways for social media to improve our lives. I’m thinking about messages sent to our mobile phones warning us of potential fire or risk zones by the Civil Protection (Valente, s.d.), or how in France the use of media radio messages and the social media hashtag #DonDuSang on twitter asking  people’s help after Paris terrorist attacks  (Parthonnaud, s.d.) was helpful. Even if we are advised against phishing by authorities, the blood donation centers were overflowed by people willing to help the victims, and some even waited in lines for hours in front of hospitals to donate their blood (Vantighem, s.d.).

There are so many ways of using social media to help, save, alert, and surely new ways will appear, that even if we have to be cautious about what we read and hear it would be a pity if we wouldn’t use these powerful tools that can improve our lives and make our society evolve.

Written by Hélder Magalhães

Social Media´s role promoting solidarity

Social media are powerful tools that can help to promote, develop, and spread good ideas and start new projects.

I’m a volunteer in a non-profit association “Fruta Feia”, an association that fights against food waste and helps local farmers by distributing their fruits and vegetables. Some have flaws or don’t have the expected aesthetic appearance, others don’t have the expected size or shape. These fruits and vegetables are perfectly edible and would finish either in waste or as animal food. This is an unacceptable social, environmental and economic harm, because Europe loses or puts to waste 20% of the food produced each year (Comission, s.d.).

The use of social media by this association isn’t that much important nowadays, the association is well-known, associates, volunteers and collaborators promote it sufficiently by talking to friends, families or by posting comments or photos on their own social media. But as Inês Gomes collaborator of “Fruta Feia” for two years and a half and head of northern delegation says, social media were crucial at the beginning to promote the idea, to create a network of local producers and to bring people either to become a member, a collaborator or a volunteer.

I’ve participated in a similar project in the past, and when I came to live in Oporto I have searched for this kind of association. In my researches I found articles, videos and eventually went to their site to gather more information. Soon enough I became an associate, a few weeks later I was a volunteer helping to prepare baskets that associates come every week to collect.

Social Media are used by many charities or non-profit associations to help them get enough resources (Sekar, s.d.) (Han, Bok, & Kean, 2019), however people tend to be more cautious and less trustworthy. They don’t take for granted what they see or hear anymore, “trust in charities is at an all-time low”  (Shawcross, 2016).” In fact, “Britons are less trusting of social media than other major nations” (Hern, s.d.). However social media change the way people interact with those associations. Social media catch people’s attention, with the photos, the proximity, and the possibility of texting or having a conversation with the collaborators. This can increase the will to know more or participate. If one of those associations is successful, it will probably bring to the attention of a traditional medium, such as television, a a piece of news that could make it seem more reliable, and capture even more people’s attention, like the one made by RTP about “Fruta Feia” (Feia, s.d.).

Social media can help reshape the world and bring more awareness to our minds, by spreading new ideas, by promoting new behaviours, social media can help our society evolve and become more reasonable and balanced.

Written by Hélder Magalhães

Online Dating

The development of technology and its influence on people, started changing aspects in society, including people’s ways of establishing relationships – romantic or not. With this development something called online dating started to appear. According to the Oxford Dictionary, Online Dating or Internet Dating is based on «using the Internet to arrange to meet someone and possibly begin a romantic relationship with them». Even though the majority of people have in mind using apps or sites to find their true love, not everyone uses it for the same purposes.

Some people use dating apps because they are shy or lack confidence and social skills. Other people find it amusing and use it just for the purpose of having some fun, meeting new people and making new friendships around the globe – which is easier and quicker nowadays, due to the portability of our devices. But most of the people on apps or sites like Tinder, Bumblebee and OkCupid are looking for long-term relationships or casual hook-ups.

Either with a serious relationship or just a casual one, we need to be aware of the risks and constrains of using these apps. The first red flag is the fact that in dating apps people choose to approach each other based on appearances and profiles that may not be showing the true self. Another problem related to this is placing private information such as phone numbers and home addresses, that may cause harm if it falls in the wrong hands. Another risk is the possibility of being manipulated or even threatened if we are not cautious. We don’t know what type of people are at the other side of our screen, and sometimes they mask themselves as nice people and they turn out to have a totally different personality. In this kind of relationships, the exchange of intimate photos and videos is very common, especially in long-distance relationships – that happen to be another red flag. If the relationship turns sour along with time, or if one partner doesn’t agree on some proposal, the other may threaten the first to get away with his desire.In conclusion, if we are thinking of dating online we might as well think about the risks it may bring, and probably try to work on our social skills – if that is the case – or simply stop looking and love ourselves, as the right person will appear with time.

Written by Inês Duarte

Distance Learning

According to the Oxford Dictionary, Distance Learning is «a system of education in which people study at home with help of special Internet sites and television and radio programmes, and send or email work to their teachers», but it doesn’t have to be strictly like that. In fact, there are various types of distance learning. Normally, distance learning would happen through Correspondence. Students would receive their materials like textbooks, assignments and study guides through post and work on them at their pace. However, nowadays with the influence and development of technology, other types of distance learning have emerged.

Electronic learning, more commonly known as E-Learning is a way of accessing your study materials on a computer. CDs, DVDs and applications can also be used to deliver e-learning courses. Another type of distance learning is Online learning. This type requires you to have access to the Internet as you will be able to communicate with tutors, instructors and fellow students in real time. Also, in this type of learning you are able to download your materials from the Internet and have an online student portal to participate in virtual classes and to upload your assignments.

But when talking about these types of distance learning we need to address 2 very important types that are involved in all the others. Those are Synchronous learning and Asynchronous learning. In Synchronous learning you are able to interact with instructors and fellow students, get instant feedback and participate in discussions and learning activities. On the other side, in Asynchronous learning you are free to choose your own schedule and be more flexible. You can also work at your own pace, that way you’re able to focus on where you struggle the most.

Yet everything related to technology has its disadvantages. The biggest disadvantage in distance learning is that self-motivation is needed. Because our schedules are flexible, we need to be organised and plan our work in order to succeed. Another disadvantage is being isolated. Even though you are in a virtual classroom you may feel lonely because of the lack of face-to-face contact. Lack of response or delay from other peers and tutors may occur as well.In conclusion, there are several types of distance learning, but when choosing one, keep in mind the advantages and disadvantages, and make sure to choose according to your needs and capacities.  

Written by Inês Duarte

Memes

In his book, The Selfish Gene, the author Richard Dawkings defines the term meme as contagious patterns of “cultural information” that gets passed from mind to mind, and from one generation to another, directly generating and shaping the mind-sets and forms of behavior of a social group. Nowadays meme has been redefined as a popular term for describing widely propagated ideas on phenomena online, that can be spread as written texts, images or some other cultural unit.

Memes have always been part of human cultures, but recently such concept had been developed and accepted as having descriptive and explanatory power regarding cultural development. Something that is reinforced due to the ways in which information is transmitted in the era of the Internet.

According to M Knobel and C Lankshear, some of the characteristics that make an internet meme successful are: humor, intertextuality and an anomalous juxtaposition of information or incongruous couplings of ideas. A meme is, by these means, something deliberately provocative. Some other authors have separated such pieces of media into different components, they are: the manifestation- external phenomena described in the meme; – behavior – the action taken to create the manifestation; – and the ideal or concept, which dictates the behavior that creates the manifestation.

To conclude, we can argue that, Internet memes are a product of human condition itself, as they are a natural process of communication between us, and they also respond to a contemporary reality, in which new forms of communication, based on simpler and immediate channels of transmitting and receiving information, and the usage of shocking discourses are hegemonic realities regarding media development nowadays.

Written by Ariel Herrero

Monotoring Public Health Using Media

The current influence of social networks in our lives is such that measures are being exposed to monitor the state of public health through social networks. The reduction of costs, and a better-quality in-patient care are the main arguments in favor of such intervention measures.

Secondly, social media based public health surveillance provides an avenue for collaboration between various public health stakeholders and the dissemination of information between them. Although an important reason against these actions refers to the aspect of personal privacy.

Another defining fact of this possible future, in which social networks and the public health system are integrated is the limited infrastructural capacity for big data, a basic tool for achieving these projects. The academic research that has been made on this shows that, based on the literature, social media can be an accurate, timely, granular and cost-effective means for tracking population health sentiments, behaviors, outcomes and emergencies. But, again, it is important to underline that, the use of public information when such information is not given expressly raises an important debate about ethics.

In conclusion, we can affirm that, although public health monitoring is presented as a useful tool when it comes to improving health, both formal and ethical aspects when carrying out such a method of social control are still immensely unavoidable.

Written by Ariel Herrero