WRT205_NickWolfe

1.  How have digital platforms like social media and messaging apps changed the way people build and maintain relationships compared to past generations? I think social media makes it easier to stay in touch, but relationships can also feel more surface-level since a lot of interactions are just likes or quick messages instead of real conversations. It’s weird because we’re always connected, but sometimes it feels like we talk less in meaningful ways. It’s easier to ghost people too, which wasn’t as much of a thing before. I like this question for a paper because it applies to everyone our age—we all experience how friendships are shaped by social media, for better or worse. 2. How does the constant presence of technology affect the way we communicate, in terms of attention span and the type of conversations? I feel like technology has made my attention span shorter. I catch myself checking my phone during conversations, even when I don’t mean to. It’s harder to have deep conversat...

  First Source How Tech Creates a ‘Recipe for Loneliness’ Analysis My first source is a New York Times article titled "How Tech Creates a ‘Recipe for Loneliness’." The article explores how researchers have found a strong link between technology use and loneliness, exacerbated by our interactions on social media, texting, and binge-watching. It highlights a consensus among scholars studying social media, technology, and psychology: “While there was no definitive proof that tech directly makes people lonely, there was a strong correlation between the two.” The article delves into multiple studies that survey teenagers and other groups, many of which reached similar conclusions. What stood out to me was that this article does not blame teenagers or Generation Z for their loneliness—something that other authors might use as a scapegoat. Instead, it focuses on how technology influences user behavior, leading to negative social tendencies like anxiety and FOMO (fear of missing out...

  Reflection: After completing my curated source collection, I feel that the quality of my three chosen sources is fairly strong. The uniqueness of the genres I selected is what makes my collection stand out. While each individual source may have flaws or gaps in certain areas, collectively, they create a well-rounded balance that ties back to our class inquiry. By incorporating a TED Talk, a biopic film, and a study on technology, my sources present information in distinct ways, making them both unique and informative. For example, in The Social Network , a character states, “The Internet's not written in pencil, Mark, it's written in ink.” This quote perfectly encapsulates the permanence of online interactions and connects seamlessly to my fourth source, the pencil shop article. The internet is, in fact, "written in ink"—anything posted can almost always be tracked down, even if deleted. A person’s social media presence and digital footprint can have significant con...

Unit 1 Draft - Source Analysis First Source:  https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/10/technology/personaltech/technology-loneliness.html   Analysis: My first source analysis was a New York Times article titled, “How Tech Creates a ‘Recipe for Loneliness’ ”. The article goes into depth on how researchers have found that technology and loneliness are interlinked, which is exasperated by the way we interact on social media, texting, and binge-watching. The article details how the consensus among scholars who have researched topics such as social media, technology, and psychology, all agreed that, “While there was proof that tech directly made people lonely, there was a strong correlation between the two…”. While this article goes more into depth, detailing specific studies conducting similar surveys of teenagers and different groups, most if not all reached similar conclusions.  What stands out to me throughout this article is how it doesn’t necessarily blame teenagers, or genera...

1/29/25 How Y'all, Youse and You Guys Talk - New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/upshot/dialect-quiz-map.html?searchResultPosition=1 The survey I took was related to how different regions in the US have different dialects/use different words to communicate commonly understood terms. Terms such as rotary vs roundabout, lightning bug vs firefly, and many other typical phrases are formatted in a 25-question questionnaire.  Shown above are my results, which were fairly accurate in identifying me as someone native to the west coast. (although it did guess California, where I am actually from Oregon).  To compare my results to a larger body of work, I asked my 2 roommates, as well as my 3 family members to all take the survey. I felt this was a great source of data, as between the 5 people I surveyed, only 1 came from the same region (which was my sister, who grew up with me in Oregon). The most accurate of the survey results was my roommate from Boston, as his r...

 What I listened to throughout Wednesday:                                                            First Song - Minnesota, WI - Bon Iver                                                                                             Walking to my first class of the day, Sport Data Analysis II in Falk                                                     Song 2 - See You Again - Tyler, The Cre...