Techno panics, moral panic, and privacy panic cycles are all examples of patterned ways that society often responds to new technology and the social problems that arise with it. Using appropriate lectures and readings, define and explain what techno panic/moral panic consists of. Then, using at least two different examples as proof from readings and/or cases from this class, answer the following question: Is technopanic/moral panic more helpful or more harmful in dealing with the negative effects of technology on society?
The response to the fear of modernity driven by new technologies often results in moral panics. The process of contextualizing these panics is termed as techno-panic. The legislation of internet content is mostly fueled by the media through moral panics.
Moral panic can simply be defined as the people of a particular society, fearing the consequences of a particular thing, which can bring harm to society. Likewise, in techno-panic, this fear is associated with contemporary technology and the potential it possesses to bring certain changes to society. Certain types of social responses are observed when new advances are made in certain technologies such as text messaging, violent video games, nuclear power, and genetically modified food and so on. The media play a key role in spreading a sense of fear and anxiety among the people as it is the major source that provides people with information regarding social problems and deviance. Concern arises when people even just read the facts about a certain product or technology. They put such headlines and publish such articles that portray the image of certain technologies as harmful to children.
Techno panics have certain characteristics that distinguish them from other panics. They are associated with media technologies rather than other technologies such as nuclear power or cloning. They are concentrated on media forms and their side-effects on mostly young people. The capability of technology to control the behavior of the youth or the creators of media products is also one of the characteristics (Marwick 2008).
Privacy panics are generated when concerns related to the privacy of people are raised by certain media technology. Hacking can result in privacy panics as it possesses a threat to people’s data. Updating phone numbers and addresses of different sites has made it easier to stalk and even track people. The trends of dating sites among young people have also raised parents’ concerns about children revealing their private information online as anything available on the internet can be hacked and misused. Pictures and personal data posted on dating sites can be misused by sex predators (Marwick 2008).
Certain features make moral panics unique. The first factor is a concern, i.e. the activity or the particular group of people that is causing the fear must possess negative effects on the society. The second factor is hostility which means there must be a significant difference between the group in question and others. The third factor is the consensus that most people must believe in the threat. The fourth and the fifth factors are disproportionality and volatility that means the concern should not be based on empirical evidence and they tend to vanish as quickly as they emerged (Marwick 2008).
The rise of a digital form of intimacy and dating applications are the most recent form of media technology that has been causing moral panics among society. People believe that these apps have changed relationships into some kind of a game. The dating applications are considered their users as intermediaries or beginners who are looking for love, sex or companionship. A study shows that although people do not take these apps seriously or consider them as a mere source of meaningful or long-term relationships, they believe that this new trend has increased the love and sex opportunities for them. Such applications provide them with much better chances to meet their soul mates or companions who can be anywhere out there in the world. But what is obvious is that people do not use these applications with the intent to pursue serious relationships, rather they are just looking for some fun to fulfill their sexual desires.
Another thing that is found is only physically attractive people can find intimate relationships on such apps. Thus, it promotes a kind of racism. The person with the most attractive profile picture gets all the attention. These apps are all about flirting and do not promote the concept of pure relationship (Hobbs, Owen, and Gerber 2017). One more concern that arises here is that people have complete control over how they present themselves on a dating or hookup application. They can very easily fake themselves. People are even capable of putting fake profile pictures on their accounts. It makes the network very unreliable. The authenticity of the users is the major problem here. You never know that the person you believe is your soul mate is real or not. Thus, parents of conservative societies are very much concerned about this new trend (Whitty 2008).
Another form of media technology that gave birth to techno-panics is video games. The new trend of playing violent video games gives birth to feelings of aggression and hostility among young people. They have been significantly contributing to providing a forum for the youth to react aggressively in conflict situations. Basically what they do is that they give rise to aggressive and anxious thoughts in one’s mind. These are the short-term effects. The long-term effects last much longer as the player is on the path of developing an overall aggressive personality. These video games possess a more active nature. Hence, the risk of learning violent things from such videos is much greater than TV programs and Films. With the recent advances in graphics, media and the inventions of augmented and virtual reality, the violence in video games looks much more real and thus has much greater impact. It is yet another type of media forms that are raising concerns. A lot of studies and research are being conducted to cope with these negative impacts (Anderson and Dill 2000).
Although it would have been obvious till now from the examples mentioned above that the concerns rising over contemporary technologies are valid to a certain extent and need our attention, yet the techno-panics are only making the situation worse. Media should play a role in spreading awareness regarding the issues and their solutions rather than creating a sense of fear among the people. They should focus on preventing the harm and not on causing certain kinds of panic.
Although virtual communities and social media primarily exist in the virtual world, a case can be made that they impact the physical world just as much as the virtual one. How have physical spaces and face-to-face interactions changed as a result from virtual communities and social media? Use at least three examples from readings and/or cases from class to prove your argument.
A lot of analysts have been debating for decades about what exactly virtual communities are doing to society. Is it weakening society by discouraging people from engaging in face to face or direct communication? Or does it provide more opportunities to connect with people? Many experts suggest counterarguments regarding the topic, and thus, this subject has been an area of study for years.
Despite all the ease and advantages, the changes and advancement in technology are bringing an end to private and public levels’ interactions.
There is no doubt that the internet has played a significant role in bringing the world closer. One can now connect with a person sitting on totally another part of the globe in a minute. But the irony is that the essence of pure relationships has been lost with the increased use of social media and the internet. It has given rise to the “community question.” Pundits have feared since the late 1880s that this urbanization, industrialization and technological change have the capability of destroying community and will affect relationships with family, friends, neighbors, and colleagues as it has done now. Individuals have become isolated, and they look for support, information and even companionship online on the internet. The areas of concern have been the reduced connections with the personal community, i.e. friends and family, less engagement with the neighborhood and the end of public gatherings (Hampton and Wellman 2003).
It has been a few decades since the concept of the virtual community came into existence. A virtual community is a group of people who might interact online through computers on a daily basis but have no physical connection. They exchange information, show emotional support, play games, find friends, fall in love, flirt, talk, gossip, chat, argue and do everything that people do when they get together but only with words while leaving their physical bodies behind. The people who think they are just working from home will soon become a part of the whole new society. Cyberspace settlers have become the new trend while bringing an end to online pioneers. The thing that will most affect society is how people are utilizing this new technology. In what way are they making use of supercomputers and the advancements in this field? Students, scientists, artists, educators, and political activists; all have begun to realize the power of computer technology and how it is capable of evolving the world. But this virtual community can affect the physical world as well. It has the capability of affecting relationships, communications infrastructure and even the political world (Rheingold 1994).
Several studies have been conducted to analyze the effects of the internet and social media on the well-being of society. It has been found that the self-esteem of the people is another factor that gets affected by the role of social media in their lives. Close relationships provide one with emotional and moral support that helps him in building stronger self-esteem. The internet has long promoted week ties rather than close intimate relationships. The use of social media sites and the internet are directly linked with the personality development of its young users. People who already have lower self-esteem get insecure by getting insights into the life of other people who are better looking or financially more stable than them. It results in an increased rate of depression and anxiety in people. However, these apps also help to maintain distant relationships and get connected with friends and family one is far away from home (Steinfield, Ellison, and Lampe 2008).
Another study examined the effects of social media sides, particularly Facebook, on the subjective well-being of people. Subjective well-being is the most important element of behavioral sciences and includes the health and longevity of humans. Different studies suggest different results. Thus, it was concluded that the relationship between the well-being of people and the usage of Facebook does not depend on only one factor. It depends on the number of friends one has on his Facebook account; the support one gets from the network, loneliness, self-esteem and depressive symptomatology. The study found that the increased usage of Facebook affects two important elements of one’s life; how satisfied one is with his life and how his feelings evolve from moment to moment. It does not mean that Facebook is entirely responsible for the negative affecting subjective well-being of people because people mostly tend to turn to Facebook and other social media applications when they are already feeling lonely or sad (Kross et al. 2013).
Multiplayer Online games (MMOs) are another form of media technology that is getting a lot of attention. MMOs have become virtual places that play a further role in engaging people online on a social platform. Some gamers also get involved in MMOs for a long-time and become hard-core players. They are more likely to develop bonding relationships rather than bridging one. But this is a rare case. For most of the players, it is just another place to connect with the people around the world socially, but the ties between them are not very strong ones. MMOs become a part of the life of the hardcore players, but it gets intense and work-like for them. It does not remain a game for them but rather some kind of competition. Thus, it might result in stress for some players if they are not able to achieve the targets or simply lose. These games are also very time-consuming. Hence, they are capable of destroying the academic or sports life of young people. They get stuck in a room in front of a screen, doing no physical activity at all which is not healthy by any means (Steinkuehler and Williams 2006).
The Internet, no doubt, adds more platforms to communicate with people all over the world. It provides a means of interaction at a very low cost and a very high speed. But it has overshadowed the means of direct communications. People might get more opportunities to make friends and develop relationships, but these bonds are not meaningful and are more of an illusion.
Reference List
Anderson, Craig A. and Karen E. Dill. 2000. “Video Games and Aggressive Thoughts, Feelings, and Behavior inthe Laboratory and in Life.” Journal of personality and social psychology 78(4):772-790.
Hampton, Keith and Barry Wellman. 2003. “Neighboring in Netville: How the Internet Supports Community and Social Capital in a Wired Suburb.” City & Community 2(4):277-311.
Hobbs, Mitchell, Stephen Owen, and Livia Gerber. 2017. “Liquid love? Dating apps, sex, relationships and the digital transformation of intimacy.” Journal of Sociology 53(2):271-284.
Kross, Ethan, Philippe Verduyn, Emre Demiralp, Jiyoung Park, David S. Lee, Natalie Lin, Holly Shablack, John Jonides, and Oscar Ybarra. 2013. “Facebook Use Predicts Declines in Subjective Well-Beingin Young Adults.” PloS One 8(8):1-6.
Marwick, Alice E. 2008. “To catch a predator? The MySpace moral panic.” First Monday 13(6):1-19.
Rheingold, Howard. 1994. “A slice of life in my virtual community.” The Whole Earth Review 413-436.
Steinfield, Charles, Nicole B. Ellison, and Cliff Lampe. 2008. “Social capital, self-esteem, and use of online social network sites:A longitudinal analysis.” Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology 29(6):434-445.
Steinkuehler, Constance A. and Dmitri Williams. 2006. “Where Everybody Knows Your (Screen) Name: Online Games as ‘‘Third Places’’.” Journal of computer-mediated communication 11(4):885-909.
Whitty, Monica T. 2008. “Revealing the ‘real’ me, searching for the‘actual’ you: Presentations of self onan internet dating site.” Computers in Human Behavior 24(4):1707-1723.
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