Girl Online

It will! Look how far we’ve come from asynchronous emails to whatsapp group chats and the media richness of Skype! We get so used to being the generation of technology but just imagine when we don’t understand how use the media our grandchildren are on. 

This is something that is very likely to happen, and is an on-going process. Things which are new today, will be old tomorrow, and that’s how things such as books are starting to die-out and become less of a requirement in our day to day lives. It’s a scary thought!

i think there is a difference in pictures that boys and girls may post. do girls post more selfies than boys, for example?

I think it is definitely true to say girls post more pictures or “selfies” online than boys do. However, I don’t believe that the posts they make or the social media platforms they use are different. Most females and males post pictures to fit a certain identity and to create a certain online persona for themselves. But also, I think that boys are more likely to use apps such as tinder and Snapchat, whilst girls choose Instagram and Facebook in order to post pictures of themselves more easily.

I don’t think gender has much to do with it, and I’m not sure that we can make generalisations based on gender and social media presence/ activity, when in fact it is purely based on the individual and their approach to the internet. I think it is mainly to do with the social media platform, such as snapchat seems to be used for selfies more, as the non-permanence of the photos somehow seems to make it more socially acceptable to take selfies on there, as opposed to perhaps uploading some to Facebook/ Instagram. 

Yeah I think that people are naïve to think that they have any privacy online.  You should know that as soon as you put anything online it is no longer private.  I think that people have a right to keep some things private if they can, like phone numbers or something, because Facebook keeps asking me for that but that’s not something I want out there.  So I choose not to put it anywhere online.  But if I found anything online that I wanted to keep private then I would not be happy.  I think that Privacy is key to keep you safe from hackers and fraud and things, but I also see your point.  For things like advertising then it’s fine!  Sometimes really useful!   Basically, if you want to put anything about yourself online then don’t expect it to be private and don’t complain when you find out that it isn’t. 

In my opinion, people have the ability to share and post what they like online, and in the process have the ability to make the conscious decision as to whether what they are doing is a good idea or not. If you are not happy with having a lack of privacy online, then maybe you need to re-evaluate what you're posting, and whether it is appropriate or not for worldwide viewing/ access.

I think going viral is something that people would dream of now, and it’s sad that people feel the need to do crazy things like this to get ‘famous’. It’s good for the short-term, but in reality the people praising you for this on the internet aren’t your real friends, they’re complete strangers who you won’t ever know in the future. So what happens in the long term? You’re restricted to the memory of going viral, and it’s bitter sweet because people won’t remember you forever. One thing goes viral, and then a few days later it’s over taken by something else!

I agree with mirandawaynebarwell, so many young people nowadays dream of becoming a ‘celebrity’ but often don’t understand the implications that come with this. Vitality is a scaring thing which can occur so easily, and before you know it, complete strangers can start approaching you in the street for something that you thought would only get a few like on Facebook. Therefore, I feel that people need to really think about the types of things that they are posting on the internet and whether it would be okay or not, if what they posted were to catch up with them in the future or not... something to think about. 

My parents use the most random emojis, it’s hilarious. For some reason my dad uses these two together all the time: 🐕👅 ! And I have no idea what it means!

Emojis are becoming the new language of the world, something that everyone in the world with an Apple or similar device can share, and a tool which allows people people to communicate together. The famous saying “a picture can speak a thousand words” can be applied here, and although context does play a big part in the understanding of an emoji - TO AN EXTENT, there is however a general concensus and knowledge of what each emoji means, and the general scenarios in which they are suitable to use. What would be interesting is to see whether common emojis in our technological world are used differently in other countries and places... 🗻🌆🏜🏝

What really interests me is how people felt the need to come up with these fake quotes, and what spurred them on to do it in the first place? Was it perhaps to show how advanced our technological world has come, or to suggest that it is amusing how much of a juxtaposition there could potentially be between nowadays and the times in which the quotes were supposedly said? Although the quotes are funny, the motive is even more interesting. 

Yeah I agree! It’s like its still hazardous to our perceptions on certain things, even if we don’t click on it!

I like that people do this and fill in what the post is about.  The interaction between people who don’t even know each other is great sometimes because everyone knows that it’s clickbait and so it’s quite a nice little community.  But sometimes the comments people put on just entice me even more to want to know what the article is about.  For example if people comment “whoa!” or “wow, did not know that!" they just enhance the clickbait! 

I am such a sucker for clickbait. So many times I have read something that is so clearly a clickbait link, but the thought of not finding out what they are concealing from me is worth the risk of getting a virus or being taken on to some random website - I need to know what I’m missing out on!

I thought this at the time of the Paris bombings, when everyone started changing their profiles pics to the French flag, that word conflict was occurring in many other places but all the attention was focused on France. It then seemed to be that people were changing their profile pictures to the flag in order to follow the trend, and anyone who didn’t do it looked as though they were a bad person who didn't care. This is a controversial issue, but it seemed that people were doing it for the wrong reasons.

And here you are sharing it on yet another platform!I think it’s a good concept - I would never have seen this if it had not been shared across social media channels, as I never read The Independent. Therefore I guess it’s a great way for getting stories and advertisements out across to a broader range of viewers and thus increasing audiences. 

I rarely use Twitter at all, and find that it is a platform which is more beneficial for people who are selling a service or who are famous and are trying to maintain their followers. It doesn’t do much for the average Joe, and it seems to be used by these people to rant - I’m not sure that it will have as many users in ten years...

I think social media is starting to take over from print, in as much as we believe what we read and ideas become naturalised. We are so immersed by political views and opinions that it’s hard to read them all without beginning to take the same political stance ourselves. That’s not to include extremist views - I think it’s up to each individual to approach what they read with a clear mind, so as not to get indoctrinated - the responsibility lies completely in the eyes and ears of the reader. 

I think these captions aren’t just about affecting how we see the apps, but also about the people that are running the apps, and ultimately the people that are holding our personal information. It seems to me that where an app has taken the time to include a caption, it makes the people behind it seem much more personable and the type of people that we would trust to keep all personal details safe. In my opinion I think that the Twitter app seems more like an app that I would trust - Instagram and Netflix seem to be too cold and distant for my liking. 

Character limits are quite clever as they make us more defined language users and help us to get a better understanding for language and ways that it can be manipulated to say the same thing but in fewer words. There are certain situations where I think Facebook statuses need to have the flexibility to be over 140 characters, such as when someone is sharing a story or a memory, but it all depends on the type of person and the ways that they choose to use Facebook - maybe it’s as a social platform or a place to express your opinions and political views. Or perhaps both?  

FIFA has always been one of those games that has baffled me anyway- why not just go outside and play real football?  But no I wouldn’t say that smashing holes through things due to getting frustrated on a game is normal behaviour at all.  But maybe it is in the terms of the game?  People let go of anger in varying ways, and maybe they’re all just caught up in the heat of the moment and it’s just an impulse reaction that simply comes across as having all this anger towards a certain game. 

Games like FIFA allow people to play football when they can’t play outside! They allow you to be immersed in the sport 24/7

I would say that this is an extreme case, and that this does not apply to every person that plays games. In fact, I think that it is a great concept which allows you to build your hand to eye coordination and socialise with people that are on the other side of the world. Not everyone is so extreme, and the majority of people are able to control their emotions before someone or something gets hurt.