Literate consumers make safer spaces

Social Media (JRM327) was a class that I had always wanted to take. I think the expeditious nature of social media in our society means that it is a skill needed for any job. I think what has helped me most in this class has been the connection to marketing and advertising. Most of my classes are “think-tank-esque” in the sense that they require me to think critically about how I can help to save the news industry.

This class, while teaching me about audience, investment, revenue and content creation. The Stukent social media simulation was one of the biggest factors in this journey. Not only did it become more fun to complete as I learned how to better execute the tasks, I was gaining mock real world experience. I loved this class too because I was able to complete the simulation and then practice it in a real world setting at Jesuit Academy.

Academic service learning classes truly teach you what it means to be a Jesuit for and with others in your community. Jesuit Academy was a place where I could help real people, if in an unconventional and different way. I commmed the creativity in working with a community partner for such a unique project as social media creation.

As a news major, I would have loved to speak a little bit more on how social media plays into news literacy, or the lack thereof. People, increasingly, receive their news from Twitter or TikTok and while I love that the news is accessible to so many people, it creates issues of credibility when an unrecognized source can say whatever they want. While I took Social Media, I also took Social Media Ethics and Law. We discussed the topic of editing free speech on social media extensively and my “hot take” is that there has to be consequences for hate speech, misinformation and inappropriate content on restricted platforms. This can only be regulated, however, when the algorithms are able to be better controlled and have different motives in mind.

Overall, social media as a class taught me that the viral nature of post is uncontrollable, audience is crucial and that we have to be conscious consumers of it. It is in our lives to stay so if we can learn to be social media literate, the platforms will be safer places for everyone.

Honorable mentions of this class include the announcement of Queen Elizabeth II’s death via Twitter in the middle of class, my sister’s semi-viral TikTok after Thanksgiving break and Twitter almost dying three quarters of the way through class.