Sukhdaved Sandhu

Sukhdaved Sandhu

Words:561

 

Re-thinking the decline in trust: A comparison of black and white Americans

 

This article explains the decline in trust between black and white Americans. It seems as if Americans today are less trusting than they have bee in the past according to many recent surveys. Rima Wilkes explains that trust was higher before the mid 1960s because of the demographic dominance of the long civic generation. This along with the rise of trust levels around World War II. Rima Wilkes uses data collected from 1972 to 2008 to help explain why trust has declined over the recent decades. These changes have come from a combination of generational and period effects. Individuals born between the 1920s and 1940s are more trusting. This may be because war brings a sense of solidarity among people like World War II did. A generation like the baby boomers is less trusting because of the things that happened domestically. The civil rights movement, the Kennedy and Martin Luther King assassinations led to divide amongst people. These are known as generational effects. Period effects on the other had are people responding to external events and conditions. For example economic depression and rising crimes, even the September 11 terrorist attacks lead people to trust less. Rima Wilkes used data from the 1972-2008 GSS files. The questions in the GSS regarded topics in trust, helpful, and fair. The results showed that white Americans trust levels have declined over time. The black Americans trust study wasn't as clear as they trust levels varied. Black Americans deemed people helpful, but not trusting or fair. The only correlation to why people are this way in today's society is the lack of education. More educated individuals are more likely to say that people are generally trustworthy, helpful, and fair.

 

Teens' social media use and collective action

Social media use among teens has increased from 55% in 2006 to 83% in 2012. Most teens have a need for group identification and collective self-esteem. Teens mostly use online social behavior because they have a need to belong and a level of loneliness. Social media offers features and people are drawn to them for personal connections and a sense of having "friends." This study goes in depth with social media use and flash mobs. The research-involved questions like how is social media used by teens to obtain information about a flash mob? The method used was a questionnaire on a sample of 18 youths. They were asked to complete the survey and give feedback on the questionnaire. The final survey was 30 questions. The final survey asked for teen under 18 to complete this questionnaire. The results from a total of 280 teens from Kansas City showed that more than 80% of teens spent time on social media every day. For the 65% of teens who know what a flash mob was, mostly stated that social self-efficacy was a big reason why they would intend to participate in a flash mob. The higher level of social self-efficacy the teen had the more likely they had intention to participate in a flash mob. Teens generally viewed flash mobs as fun and an outlet of self-expression. There was also a positive correlation between teens that watched YouTube videos of flash mobs and teens participating in flash mobs. Teens were more likely to participate in flash mobs if they see it on YouTube. Flash mobs are just an example of how collective action can be spread by social media.