So my girlfriend was telling me about the TV show "Gossip Girl". In this show, one mean, jealous college girl uses an alias, Gossip Girl, and posts news and the scoop about a group of others in the show. Gossip Girl uses a website I think and sends texts whenever she finds out something new or just wants to start gossip. At one point in the show, Gossip Girl gets personally involved with these students and tries to sabotage the life of one of them. She says Serena (the sabotaged) has an STD and everyone talks about it and believes it. GG also says that Serena slept with one of the other girls' boyfriend. That girl believe GG over her boyfriend as well.
The point I want to make is how does this one girl who makes up lies to hurt others influence what people think of them. Why do all of these people believe what a website says? GG uses technology to spread the word about these kids and people follow her. It seems that everyone in the show is subscribed to GG and she plays a large part of their lives. It's like a newspaper for teens and about teens. So does this describe how we use technology today? Do we get most of our information through technology rather than traditional newspapers and mail? I think so. Many people get information and news online from websites such as Facebook, Yahoo, MSN, YouTube, email, etc. We even register for classes online. Everything is online these days, which can be good and bad. It is good in a sense that everyone can access it from the comfort of their home and they can view any website they like and connect to billions of people around the world. It is bad in a sense that everyone can access it from the comfort of their home and they can view any website they like and connect to billions of people around the world. It causes laziness, lack of real interactions, etc. People don't exercise as much anymore. Also, if one day, every computer somehow shut down and the Internet was destroyed, we would be left with nothing. How would we check our grades? Where would our money be? This is the extent to which we now rely on technology and quite frankly, I don't think it's a good thing.
I have seen the show Gossip Girls a couple times, but I am not a religious watcher so I have not thought about the show in terms of our class before. I find it interesting that you posted a blog about the show and I would like to focus on the first half of your post. You discuss how GG spreads gossip and rumors through technology and everyone believes her. I find it sad to think that our society uses technology so much, that people actually believe everything they read and see. We should not have so much faith in it, because like GG things can be posted that ruin peoples' lives. Its also sad to think about all of the people who use the internet specifically to hurt others by posting embarrassing videos, lies, rumors, and rude comments. Should we be using technology in these ways if we are using it at all? I personally don't think so.
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Thanks for the comment Tatiana. Yeah people really do believe a lot of what they see through technology and the Internet even if it is not true. Who knows why. Maybe its because they are too lazy to do the work themselves to dig for the truth and maybe its because they want conflict. Is it our nature to want to cause conflict? Is it in our nature to want to see bad things happen to people? I don't know but we see trends everyday.
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