Blog Post #4.5

 Media Law & Literacy Presentation Reflection

     For this project, we were assigned to research a technology piece of our choice, and present our findings to the class. I found all of my classmates' presentations very intriguing, especially Kayla’s about the rise of social media, and Antonio’s, about 3D printing. I found it very helpful that both Kayla and Antonio added the positive and negative effects of each of their technologies. I have some background with 3D printing from high school, but have not heard much about it since. I did not know it had advanced significantly to the point where a 3D printed organ can be used in the healthcare system. I also was not aware that it has a positive effect on the environment, economy, and society - I had actually thought the opposite. But, with his presentation, and some extra research after class, I was informed that it lowers energy consumption in products and enables more use of recycled materials; And also, that it can create and promote innovation and provides opportunities for specific and personalized medical devices and prosthetics. 

I also found Kayla’s presentation on social media very interesting, specifically the positive and negative effects. Kayla had mentioned some of the extremely prevalent negative symptoms of the overuse of social media which included depression and anxiety. With these impacts becoming more and more prominent in our society, I have never thought much deeper than just the understanding that social media and phone overuse causes symptoms of mental health disorders. But, Kayla had mentioned that the overuse of social media also can cause memory loss in teenagers. Because I had never thought or really cared to dive deeper, this caught me by surprise. After class, I researched this concept more and found a study that was conducted by the Penn Foundation, which concluded that social media use, which was measured over the course of eight days, is associated with greater negative affect in cognitive performance and memory failures within individuals, as social media requires significantly less working memory functions, leading to issues with short term memory and long term memory. I found this very interesting and I am happy I got to learn about the differences in technological advancements, from carrier pigeons to 3D printing to social media.