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How Social Media Affects Our Lives?

Professor Donald Gutstein
TA Anis Rahman

Xinyi Zhang
301187237

Introduction
With the rapid development of technology and fast pace of life, people are surrounded by all kinds of information everyday, it is an era of information explosion varietal forms of communication have appeared to people’s daily lives (21. Kadiri). Information Explosion could simply be defined as the rapid increase in the amount of published information. It is a situation in which information is abundantly available or over abundance of data (22, Kadiri). Social media is one of the important forms of communication, and it plays an important role in people’s lives. The rising of some new medias had changed the way of living for the past 10 years; the society has been surrounded by these social medias in everyday (“Facebook” F4). This essay is emphasizing on exploring these negative influences of modern forms of communication by using Weibo as a specific; in order to argue that Connerton’s idea that too much information leads to forgetfulness and people are becoming less attentive due to large number of new communication devices; while there are also some opposite to the negative influences brought by new social media platforms.
First, this essay will introduce Weibo, which a major modern communication tool that is analyzed in the paper. It then will examine the negative impacts of social media by discussing Connerton’s argument of the forgetfulness caused by too much information. After that, it will investigate the adverse effects of Weibo such as reduce the communication between people in the reality; cause the cyber crime; challenge the privacy of people’s lives, in a depth. Finally, it will conclude by the sheer numbers of new communication devices on the market lead people to become less attentive.

Negative Influence Brought by Social Media: The Case Of Weibo
Nowadays, Weibo, the Chinese version of



References: Castells, Manuel. "The Culture of Real Virtuality: The Integration of Electronic Communication ." The rise of the network society. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishers, 1996. pp.220-255. Print. Gutstein, Donald . "Computer-Mediated Communication and Interpersonal Relations." CMNS110. SFU. SFU Canvas, Vancouver. 8 July 2014. Reading. "Facebook 10 years on: how has the social networking site changed your life?." theguardian.com. Guardian News and Media, 4 Feb. 2014. Web. 29 July 2014. . Kadiri, Jasiliu A., and Niran A. Adetoro. " Information Explosion and the Challenges of Information and Communication Technology Utilization in Nigerian Libraries and Information Centres." Ozean Journal of Social Sciences 5.1 (2012): n. pag. http://ozelacademy.com/. Web. 28 July 2014. News, CBC. "What 's blocked on Weibo, China 's popular social media site." CBCnews. CBC/Radio Canada, 8 Sept. 2013. Web. 29 July 2014. . Tufekci, Zeynep. "Grooming, Gossip, Facebook and Myspace." Information, Communication & Society 11 5 (2008): pp.25-41. Print. Yuan, Elaine J., Miao Feng, and James A. Danowski. "“Privacy” in Semantic Networks on Chinese Social Media: The Case of Sina Weibo." Journal of Communication 63.6 (2013): 1011-1031. Print. Zhang, Pengyi. "Social Inclusion or Exclusion?: When Weibo (Microblogging) Meets the "New Generation" of Rural Migrant Workers." Library Trends 62.1 (2013): 63-80. Print.

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