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Paola A. Nazario Pagan

August 24, 2019

Southern New Hampshire University

IDS 403 Final Project Part One

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Topic
The use of social media platforms is one of the most popular uses of modern technology.

It allows one to interact with others around the world. With the increased usage of social media,

some issues may arise, one of the most concerning issues being cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is

when someone bullies over the internet using cell phones, computers, and other technologies

(StopBullying.gov. (n.d.). Cyberbullies can attack through text messages, social media among

other social platforms. We are focusing on cyberbullying through the social media site

Facebook.com. There are different ways this social issue can interact with the four discipline

lenses which are history, humanities, natural and applied sciences, and social sciences to give us

a deeper understanding of the issue. Using these four lenses, they will explain how cyberbullying

has influenced modern society.

Lens Analysis: History

Before social media existed, traditional bullying at school could be over with as soon as

the child got to their home. Unfortunately, with social media taking over such as the massive use

of the site Facebook, the bullying isn’t just limited to public places and can follow a person

around for months (Rao, Bansal., & Chandran, 2018). Facebook was created in 2004 with more

than 1.8 billion users today becoming one of the most popular networking sites (Warf, 2018).

Thanks to the evolution of the internet and social media in the past decade, cyberbullying on

Facebook has become more permanent than verbal statements from traditional bullying (Rao,

Bansal., & Chandran, 2018).

History has shown in the past decade that multiple social issues are impacted from

cyberbullying from social media on Facebook. Cyberbullying has impacted social issues such as

pressures to respond/update their lives online, gain social gratification, and trying to mimic a
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perfect life offline or online (The Children's Society, 2017). Cyberbullying has caused a social

impact on the individuals involved such as high rates of social anxiety, depression, and suicidal

thoughts within children and young adults (Rao, Bansal., & Chandran, 2018). It is clear to

society how the excessive use the social media can have an impact on social issues but also have

an impact on the individual.

The history lens help give a deeper understanding of cyberbullying on Facebook because

you look back at how cyberbullying has changed in general on this site and how Facebook has

implemented ways to avoid cyberbullying. 20 years from now historians can go back and look at

the history of Facebook and study the changes within each age. It comes with its challenges to

write the history of social media like Facebook because of having to use information handed

down from the past because information does become irrelevant after a while. There are many

answers that can remain unanswered from history because of the many gaps in it (Brügger,

2018).The only way that historians can continue to record these histories is to keep source

material at a realistic level to truly understand how social life online was like after the 1990’s to

today and beyond (Brügger, 2018). If we continue archiving important social media activities

from Facebook among others, history can stay relevant and give us a much deeper understanding

on the cyberbullying issues (Brügger, 2018).

Lens Analysis: Humanities

The issue that I chose is portrayed creatively in society in a few ways. In popular films about

cyberbullying for example, where cyberbullies find different ways to inflict harm on someone on social

media such as using photography or producing videos where they target cyber victims. Other ways that

cyberbullies in social media portrayed it in a more creative way in society is when they hack someone’s
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Facebook account, create fake accounts such as catfishing, photoshopping photos and videos, and other

harmful behaviors online which unfortunately cyberbullies do in this society (Harper, 2019). Using newer

technologies to cyberbully is a way that they can try to be more creative in society. Cyberbullies try to

find many types of ways to capture the attention of a victim.

The message behind this representation is that cyberbullies are always trying to psychologically,

emotionally, and socially their victim in creative ways. The bully’s goal is to try to find new ways to

cyberbully someone since the more typical ways sometimes doesn’t engage the victim enough. (Harper,

2019). These different motives show how cyberbullies on Facebook and other social media try to be

creative in their portrayal. Another important message about the creative portrayal of this is that a bully

would try to use the different advancements in technology to bully someone so they could find new ways

to get into contact with their victim (Harper, 2019). These social messages show us how far a cyberbully

will go to get the responses and reactions from the person they are targeting.

This representation not only affects my personal life but also my professional life. It has effects

on my personal life because it has caused depression and social issues for years. Sometimes it has caused

suicidal thoughts in my personal life. My professional life has been affected my being able to trust people,

being social and being effective in my work. Whenever I felt depressed, it did affect my quality of work at

times. I have received counseling and therapy to help after a major case of cyberbullying happened. I no

longer have the issues with depression or have problems being social, but this makes me be very careful

with people I meet online on Facebook and other social media sites. Therapy has really helped me get my

thoughts and feelings out and has improved my personal and professional life (Duverge, 2015).

Lens Analysis: Natural and Applied Sciences

Black Mirror is a series in a satire, dystopian world. It shows how future technologies can impact

us if we let these devices take over our lives. It shows its viewers how technology could eventually
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dehumanize ourselves and others. The social commentary that is shown in Black Mirror is that it is trying

to "mirror" the realities of where technology can be headed in the future in a larger sense. I believe that

the show really wanted to show that there is a darker side to technology (Li, 2018). Another social

message that Black Mirror shows us is that when we turn off our devices such as the most common one,

smartphones, the screens become black mirrors in which we can see our true selves (Li, 2018) The creator

of the show mentions how he believes that technology isn't the problem, it is humans that are the problem.

Although science cannot resolve all the issues happening right now within technology, it can help

resolve issues within my popular culture artifact. One way that science can help resolve the issue of the

using technology for a darker purpose is to gain knowledge using different tools and methods that are

provided by science and use it (Baird, 2013). If we don’t act upon analyzing the issue through the natural

and applied sciences lens, it would not be possible to be able to resolve the issue with science (Baird,

2013). Using technology and science together is also a way we could resolve the issues surrounding my

popular culture artifact. Without the current scientific tools available right now, we wouldn’t be able to

increase our knowledge on an important issue (Brainard, 2019). If we use technology in the correct ways,

then we could resolve these issues and find out new solutions to the problems digging deeper with

scientific research and experiments.

Lens Analysis: Social Science

My popular culture artifact has been affected by the lens of social sciences. This is because in the

episodes, it shows the social uses of technology and not the tech itself. It isn't like a typical science-fiction

show. The series shows how shocking the end-use of the technology is. The show portrays a way in which

the reason why things go wrong in the episodes isn't because of technology but because of the way the

characters use it (DGIT, 2018).

Each episode of Black Mirror shows a different angle of social interactions and our relationship

to technological advancements made in a somewhat near future. It really shows not only the social uses of
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technology but how technology is engraved into our culture. Social science and humanities correlate in

this series in the way that they both deal with human aspects and a scientific approach to both humanities

and social sciences (Prabhat, 2011). There were some negative impacts on certain social issues in the

series such as our lives being broadcasted to the world and used as a form of entertainment for example

(Rodrigues, 2017). Another example of a social issue is the way we communicate and try to connect to

not only each other, but also the world. It causes declining relationships with people, online privacy

concerns, and concerns with how our online activities are reflected into reality (Rodrigues, 2017). It

showed a darker side to the impacts of social issues in the series. The impacts in this show are extreme

and really want to illustrate mediatization in our culture (Rodrigues, 2017).

The social science lens can help provide a much deeper understanding of the social issues shown

within the Black Mirror series. One way that it does is that it can help you see how relationships or human

society are affected by different events within the series. We would then gain that understanding on how

society will try to progress and stop the negative effects from happening globally (DGIT, 2018). I have

learned a lot about the social sciences when watching this series and I really got a partial glimpse into

how human relationships and societies can be negatively impacted. Studying the social science lens can

help understand how we can resolve these societal issues that are already happening in our reality.

Impact

Integrating the four lenses can help you understand how problems in technology can

impact personal contexts. In the personal context, it can help me with my university assignments

such as when I need to analyze an issue like we are in this final project. I can research it in the

different lenses and gain knowledge about it in the different perspectives. I can also use it when

analyzing technological issues such as social media or online hackers for example. If I really

want to understand an issue within technology, I can just look at it through history, humanities,
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natural and applied sciences, and social sciences to see the impact of this problem in the

disciplines.

I can integrate the four lenses to help me understand how problems in technology impact

professional contexts. One way is to use it in my field of study which is an Information Systems

field. I can use it to research why different problems within technology occur and how it could

impact the workplace. I can critically analyze and research on the issue with technology and I

can implement that to better do my work and share it with my coworkers. In my field of study,

we will constantly be looking for solutions to problems so this can help me analyze it in a critical

way through the four lenses.

Social Practices

Social practices have been shaped by issues and events in technology and modern culture.

One way that it has been shaped is in the educational aspect. Schools have become much more

diverse in our modern culture, and there seems to be a type of conformity within many school’s

practices. Students can learn without discrimination and they all learn and study equally.

Diversity isn’t given great importance, but I think that diversity should be something that we

honor more in this culture. Diversity in education is something that should be talked about more

because everyone deserves to have a chance to learn and be part of a community of learners in

any learning environment (University of Iowa, n.d.).

Another social practice that has been shaped by issues and events in technology and

modern culture is literature. We learned all kinds of multicultural literature thanks to there being

so much diversity within the learning institutions. Thanks to multicultural literature, students and

teachers can get a better understanding of literature from around the world. This kind of literature
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makes discussing the issues revolving diversity more open to the students. It can help students

find out more about their own cultures and can introduce them to new cultures (Lawson, 2013).

Benefits and Challenges

Addressing issues of technology, in the workplace for example, can both help with the

productivity and communications. It can help with profitability because when you identify the

issue with technology in the workplace, you can achieve your profit goals and have much growth

in your company (Black, 2017). Another benefit of addressing the issues in technology is that

you can help your business communications when you report and analyze the issue with other

departments. For example, you can improve in your communication skills with your peers,

higher ups, and customers (Smith, 2018). Overall, there are more benefits than challenges in

addressing the issue.

Addressing issues of technology has many benefits, but it has it also has some challenges.

One challenge to addressing the issue is that politicians and tech companies alike are trying to

address and resolve the issue of privacy protection online (Smith, 2019). There have been some

attempts at addressing this problem such as in California and in Europe, but more tech

companies need to invest in helping our information stay private online. Another challenge with

addressing technology problems is that though some third world countries and rural areas in the

United States have some access to technologies, they need to be addressed more. (Smith, 2019).

These places rarely have access to the technologies of today and there is still very little action to

help to give them access that many people already have (Smith, 2019). The overall challenge is

that people may address issues in technology, but it seems that is not acted upon or treated as a

topic of importance.
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Interactions

Analyzing technology can help with interactions with people with people of different

viewpoints, cultures, and perspectives. In the workplace, we can use technology such as

television or the internet to see different cultural practices daily (Kurt, 2015). Interactions with

people of different viewpoints and cultures can be helped by using technology to communicate

with them (Kurt, 2015). For example, using social media to communicate with a friend with a

completely different culture or viewpoint or perhaps joining a Facebook group where you can

express your different viewpoints and see other viewpoints. In the workplace, we can see

technology such as emailing, talking over the phone, or texting your coworkers or employees can

be helpful to build relationships with people of diversity, different religions, and viewpoints.
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References

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https://wtamu.edu/~cbaird/sq/2013/09/25/how-can-science-solve-all-of-our-problems/

Black, P. (2017). Three ways technology could be killing your aftermarket business: Technology

can help businesses achieve their growth objectives, but it can also create problems. Is

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handbook of social media (pp. 196-212). 55 City Road, London: SAGE Publications Ltd

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Retrieved from https://dgit.com/black-mirror-social-implications-54270/

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Lawson, M. (2013, May). Multicultural Literature: The Impact it has on Today's Students [PDF].

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nt.htm
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