Social media has created a world of connectivity. Through
Facebook, Twitter, and many other social media sites, we are able to share
information with the rest of the world almost instantly. Although this sounds like a great way to
interact with the world, it has a few fallbacks. One of the fallbacks I have
noticed with social media is the fact that even though you can spread positive
information with the rest of the world, the same can be done with false
information and rumors. With social media, rumors can be spread faster than
ever with very few repercussions to those who spread them.
In my documentary I would like to
study the effects social media has on rumors.
I feel like rumors and false information can be spread much easier and
to many more people through social media than it can be done through word of
mouth. Social media makes it easier to spread rumors because it can all be done
by simply “sharing” a status or clicking “retweet.” As soon as you share or
tweet this information it becomes accessible to the rest of the world, whereas
spreading it by word of mouth is only received by the person who hears the
information.
People can
be very hurt by rumors and I believe social media has only made it easier for
cyber bullies to hurt others. Cyber bullying is a rapidly increasing problem
and spreading rumors is one of the biggest types of cyber bullying. I think by
studying the effects of spreading rumors through social media can help us
understand how it works and how it affects those involved.
I wish to
interview several people about their thoughts on the issue. I plan on finding
people who have been negatively affected by the spreading of rumors and also
those that have helped spread rumors by either “sharing” on Facebook or
“tweeting” on Twitter. I plan on finding posts that exemplify my theory and
using videos of my interviews to understand how my fellow students feel about
this issue.
Sounds good, but I'd like to find a bully's perspective if you can. I know that will be hard/difficult/impossible, but you should still try.
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