This assignment started out by completing the unit 14 review sheet. After this, we had to look back on the first page of the course syllabus in the section titled “What will I learn in this course?” and remind ourselves of the 14 course objectives. After turning in the review sheet, I had to read a list of 17 skills that employers value, as all of these skills have been developed and worked on throughout the course. After doing this, I have officially completed the course!
As usual, the review sheet is cumulative, so I had to fill out the pages for units one through thirteen before tacking the page for unit fourteen. But, once I got to page 14, the first thing it asked me was to identify at least one way that secondary data can be mined from the Internet to answer a research question.
I explained that for an assignment this unit, I chose to explore the question “Can Tweets Provide Data about Heart Disease?”. In the study included, They mined secondary data, tweets, from Twitter, analyzing the tweet contents from each county, and measuring the heart disease mortality rates in each county as well. They found that expressions of negative emotion like anger or stress were associated with higher heart disease risk within each county. They also found that positive emotions such as excitement and optimism are related to lower risk levels for heart disease. If a social media platform is able to detect signs that help predict future disease, maybe social media and the internet in general can be used to help detect signs of other negative future outcomes and answer other research questions.
Next, it asked me to identify three previous predictions about the Internet, made decades ago, that have come true. The first prediction I am mentioning about technology that came true is from Nikola Tesla in 1926, in which he said that “We shall be able to communicate with one another instantly, irrespective of distance”. This did come true, as now we can message and call people around the globe. Second, in 1976, Arthur C. Clarke predicted that “we’re going to get devices which will enable us to send much more information to our friends. They’re going to see us, and we’re going to see them. We’ll be able to extend, exchange pictorial information, graphical information, data, books”. This did come true, as we can see others and they can see us through apps such as FaceTime and Skype, and we can share graphs and books and pictures through messaging apps. Finally, in 1993, AT&T predicted that we could receive “driving directions from a computer in the car’s dashboard” and take a meeting from a beach while your coworkers were stuck in the office. This came true, as through our mobile phones and car dashboards, there are GPS systems that can give us every direction we need to get to a certain destination. Also, with video chatting apps that I mentioned before, you can participate in a meeting from other locations if you cannot make it to the office.
After this, it asked me to identify three predictions that I have about the future of the Internet. First, I think that phones will be able to connect to more and more things around the house. For example, the internet will find a way to connect to things such as ovens, fans, blenders, and washing machines, so you can control these appliances without directly making contact with them. Second, I predict that the internet will continue to get faster and more efficient. There will be less buffering, you will be able to search for information more quickly, and things like this, because the internet is continuing to adapt and grow and improve. Thirdly, I predict that internet use will grow the most in developing nations. The internet is already so prominent in first-world nations, and with the passing of time, I think it will become more utilized by countries that are not so wealthy.
That section we had to reread on the syllabus explained that by the end of the course, I should be able to …
(1) Identify nine previous technologies or past-times that were previously feared — and appraise how those fears parallel fears about the Internet.
(2) Assess five principles of learning on which Internet-based higher education capitalizes.
(3) Evaluate five challenges that college students face today and how Internet-based education can tackle each challenge.
(4) Critique the claim that the Internet is making interpersonal communication briefer and less formal.
(5) Illustrate four intentional and four unintentional incidents in which the Internet has amplified mass communication.
(6) Connect the social psychological principle of similarity attraction to the popularity of online dating apps; connect interpersonal aggression to the phenomena of online bullying and trolling.
(7) Interpret how and why emotional contagion spreads through the Internet; hypothesize why there are so many photos, gifs, and videos of cats on the Internet.
(8) Identify how each of six sources of motivation can affect Internet use; describe five reasons why people binge watch (TV shows or movies).
(9) Adjudicate four reasons why the Internet is not changing our attention spans.
(10) Discriminate three primary decision-making heuristics and generate an example of how each applies to Internet use.
(11) Relate two positive effects of Internet use on aging and two on child development.
(12) Explain how much variance in Internet activities is accounted for by personality factors; describe four famous selfies made prior to the Internet.
(13) Evaluate whether Internet-based psychological therapy works as well as in-person therapy.
(14) Formulate two ways that secondary Internet-data (Facebook likes, Tweets, Wikipedia clicks, etc) can answer psychological research questions.
Finally, the list of skills that employers value included a variety of cognitive, technological, communication, social, and personal skills that psychology can offer. More specifically, it told us that all these skills have been developed through the assignments in this course.
Reflecting on this course, the review sheet was pretty standard. Since it was the last unit of the course, it allowed me to take one last look at the main points from every unit. Seeing and filling out all of the information one last time undoubtedly solidified a lot of the information into my mind. Now, if anyone is talking about things related to the internet, I can recall what I learned and what I talked about in these review sheets, and can confirm or deny the points they may be making.
Additionally, it was cool back to look at that early section of the syllabus, and see that the objectives coincided directly with the questions on each unit of the review sheet. I somehow had not put this together before, even though I had read the whole syllabus multiple times and interacted with the review sheet often! It was cool to see the connection here as the end of the course is here.
It was also cool to read the list of skills that are developed in psychology and this class more specifically. When completing each individual assignment, I do not often think I am developing skills. However, when piecing the whole semester together, there are so many different types of assignments I completed, and ways of completing them. So, when reading through each skill, I was able to confirm that I worked that skill in some way throughout the course.
This is my final assignment blog post…. It is crazy how fast the semester flew by, and that I am basically done with junior year. Looking back at this project, I truly believe that making extensive blog posts for every assignment really helped me take in the course material. Although it was often frustrating to make a post every single day, it forced me to interact with the course, to learn and review, and I think it was very valuable looking back.
I want to take this time to thank Professor Gernsbacher, my fellow classmates, and anyone else who may have stumbled into this blog. You all have helped me complete this course to the best of my ability, and I could not have done it without you. This is a great course and I am confident that it will continue to make a positive impact on many students in the upcoming years!
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