Response to Group Three's questions

Language is a form of communication from one human being to another. Language is connected to social media through slang and emojis. Of course people talk to each other with English, Spanish, and French over the internet but slang and emojis is the virtual world’s universal language. Certain words, facial expressions and feelings can be expressed through slang such as “lol” which is laugh out loud and an emoji such as “J” expresses my happiness. Unfortunately slang and emojis can be used by social media to influence people. Some news social media pages will use slang to make something seem cool to internet users and influence people to do or say weird things. For example when the ALS ice bucket challenge was introduced, social media hyped it up so much that people who did not even know what ALS was were taking part in the challenge. 

             The five guide lines to language and communication are to be clear, accessible, proactive, respectful and interesting. My generation follows these guidelines very well on the internet. People are able to be clear with what they want to share because of grammar check. Grammar check allows people to check their spelling and grammar before posting a blog, tweet, and comment. Due to smart phones equipped with social media applications, people are always accessible to anything social. Most people in my generation check their social media, emails and texts frequently which makes them proactive. Even though people act tougher when they are behind a computer screen, most people are respectful over the internet. My generation has been continuously interesting because of Instagram. Instagram allows people to post pictures on the internet. Usually the pictures people post are vacation photos or a very interesting photograph. Due to social media websites being a part of my generation’s daily life, these guidelines are followed non-intentional. 

              Big Brother from the book 1984 by George Orwell told his people through the thought police, "War is peace; Freedom is slavery; ignorance is strength" to influence them to believe what he wanted them to believe. Big Brother wanted his people to believe the opposite of war, slavery and ignorance so that he could influence them to do whatever he wanted them to do. Social media today will use certain words to influence people to believe in whatever they want people to believe in. Big news companies usually use this tactic when telling a biased story. Big news companies will try and influence people to think what they want people to think just like Big Brother. During the elections in the United States it is very easy to tell who each news company is voting for. Each news company is always biased when it comes to their candidate. They will only capture the good side to the candidate they are voting for. Whenever news companies cover the candidate they are not voting for they only tell the bad side of that candidate. The biased news coverage is propaganda that influences people’s votes.