The Pros And Cons Of Social Media

Social Media comes with many advantages and disadvantages. Although some people believe social media brings more negatives than positives, I believe the opposite.

Teen Social Media Survey

On the Pro Con website, a question was raised. "Are Social Networking Sites Good For Society?" One of the reasons given for Social Media being positive is that "Social Media spreads information faster than any other media." This fact is definitely true, as there have been many cases where this fact has been proved, like the Boston Marathon bombings and the Aurora Colorado theater shooting.

In the current day, even our President uses twitter as much as we do, just because of the speed at which information can be shared through social media. Social Media is everywhere in our world, as 78.5% of traditional media reporters polled admitted to using social media to check for breaking news.

Donald Trump Twitter

Social media also comes with many other positives, like how Law Enforcement can use social media to catch and prosecute criminals. In another poll done, "73% of federal, state and local law enforcement professionals surveyed think 'Social media helps solve crimes more quickly.'"

I believe that the police taking advantage of social media is a good thing, as it allows them to do their jobs more efficiently, and keep our society safe as best they can.

Although Social Media has many positives, it also has negatives. Some of these negatives are shown on the Pro Con website, like the fact that Social Media "Enables The Spread of Unreliable and False Information." In another poll, "64% of people who use Twitter for news say that they have encountered something they 'later discovered wasn't true.'" This shows how the reach and spread of information on Social Media can be a bad thing

Luckily, Americans are now much more informed on fake news than we ever were before, and I've found that fake news is often easily spotted, if your willing to take a few steps to check the background of the news articles you read.

After researching this topic more thoroughly, I now fully believe that Social Media brings more positives than negatives, and I believe we should all continue to use Social Media as usual.

Sources:

"Are Social Networking Sites Good For Our Society?" Pro Con, 17 Aug. 2018, 

          socialnetworking.procon.org/. Accessed 25 Nov. 2019. 

Cillizza, Chris. What Donald Trump's Unsettlingly Erratic 24 Hours on Twitter 

          tells us. CNN Politics, 23 Apr. 2019, 

          www.cnn.com/2019/04/23/politics/donald-trump-twitter/index.html. Accessed 25 Nov. 2019.

Knight, Shawn. "Teen Social Media Survey." Techspot, 29 Nov. 2018,
          www.techspot.com/news/77624-teens-feel-social-media-positives-outweigh-negatives.html.      

          Accessed 25 Nov. 2019. 

Social Media's Role In Law Enforcement Growing. Pinterest, May 2019,
          www.pinterest.com/pin/411727590906643776/. Accessed 25 Nov. 2019. 

Wendling, Mike. "Fake News." BBC, 22 Jan. 2018, 

          www.bbc.com/news/ blogs-trending-42724320. Accessed 25 Nov. 2019.

Is Human Gene Editing A Good Thing?

Altering human genes has been a very controversial topic for a long time. Although scientists have found many great benefits to gene editing, humans generally believe that messing with our DNA is a bad idea. 

Humans In 10 Years

In an article posted by Pew Research, a survey was conducted in the hopes to discover how U.S. adults feel about future biomedical technologies. In this survey, the results show that most people are against new possible human enhancements. For example, one possible future invention is a brain chip implant to give humans greatly improved cognitive abilities, like a greater attention span, memory and faster information processing.

The results for this section of the survey found that 34% of adults are excited for this technology, while 69% are worried about this new technology. Another interesting point brought up in this article, is how religious people seem to be more against altering their natural genes.

Gene Editing

The most interesting part of this article, in my opinion, is the altering of human embryo's genes. The article states that we could see "Gene editing to give babies a lifetime with much reduced risk of serious disease" in our future.

Fetus Gene Editing

Although the other two examples shown in this article were criticized by Americans greatly, the idea of altering babies genes was more positively received. With 49% of Americans believing embryo gene editing to be a good idea, this shows that gene editing could realistically happen soon in our countries future.

Perfect Baby

Finally, human gene editing, a technology you'd only expect to see in Sci-fi movies is finally becoming a reality. Although this new science may come with many Pros and Cons, our country will first have to decide whether we want to push the limits of the human body, to become something we've never thought to be possible.

Sources:

"Gene Editing." GEN, Mary Ann Liebert, 1 November 2019,         

          www.genengnews.com/sponsored/improve-your-gene-editing-success-with-crispr-sniper- 

          technology/  Accessed 15 Nov. 2019. 

Harry Pettit. "Humans In 10 Years." Daily Mail, 23 Dec. 2016,         

          www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4061132/What-humans-look-like-100-years-Expert-

          reveals-genetically-modified-bodies-ll-need-survive.html  Accessed 15 Nov. 2019.


Perfect Baby. Economist,
          www.economist.com/leaders/2015/08/22/editing-humanity.  Accessed 15 Nov. 2019.


Pew Research. 2 Nov. 2016,
          www.pewresearch.org/science/2016/07/26/u-s-public-wary-of-biomedical-technologies-to-
          enhance-human-abilities/. Accessed 15 Nov. 2019.


Rathi, Akshat. "A highly successful attempt at genetic editing of human embryos has opened the door to eradicating inherited diseases ." Quartz, 2 Aug. 2017,
          qz.com/1041609/a-highly-successful-attempt-at-genetic-editing-of-human-embryos-has-opened-
          the-door-to-eradicating-inherited-diseases/.  Accessed 15 Nov. 2019.