Tag Archives: Social Media

Voices

OPINION | Social Media and Mental Health: Seeing Through the Fog in the Midst of Conflict

by Danielle Marie Holland

I was overseas when the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict erupted into a brutal October wave. Each morning, away from my community in Seattle, I awoke hours before my family to scroll through an avalanche of social media. Post after post of opinions, rage, graphic images, and downright horror. Information was moving torrentially and shared with similar speed, third-party posters having no time to look into the validity, sources, or evidence of what they were sharing. Major news outlets were moving too fast and making huge errors in the process, and journalists covering disinformation, such as Shayan Sardarizadeh for the BBC, have since been doing the rounds on viral posts containing false claims, conspiracy theories, and hateful content about the war.

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News

NEWS GLEAMS | SPS Sue Social Media Companies for Detrimental Effects on Youth; Free West Seattle Water Taxi Rides

A round-up of news and announcements we don’t want to get lost in the fast-churning news cycle!

curated by Vee Hua 華婷婷

Content Warning: This article discusses youth suicide.

Continue reading NEWS GLEAMS | SPS Sue Social Media Companies for Detrimental Effects on Youth; Free West Seattle Water Taxi Rides →
Voices

OPINION: An Open-Source Twitter Is Possible, Just Not Likely

by Kevin Schofield

Without the Emerald, the true narrative of our community would rarely be told. For too long, and for too often, most media has painted our community in a negative light. When I say community, I include everyone who our mainstream media often ignores, diminishes, and casts aside. The Emerald has been here to remind our community of its worth, and that like all emeralds, karat for karat, the people of our community are worth more than gold. Join me in supporting the Emerald as a recurring donor during their 8th anniversary campaign, Ripples & Sparks at Home, April 20–28. Become a Rainmaker today by choosing the “recurring donor” option!

—Phillip “Papa” Green, The Publisher’s Dad (and Longtime Community Curmudgeon)

This week’s news that Elon Musk is purchasing Twitter, aiming to turn it back into a privately held company with even less public accountability, has some asking whether an “open-source” version of Twitter could be created as an alternative for those who don’t trust Musk — or the billionaires running the other major social media networks — to appropriately manage the balance between supporting free speech and facilitating the spread of corrosive misinformation.

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Features

Weekend Long Reads: The Link Between Social Media and Depression

by Kevin Schofield

This weekend’s “long read” is a study by Massachusetts General Hospital and 10 academic partners trying to determine if there is a link between social media use and depression. Spoiler: The researchers found some specific correlations, but they raise many more questions than they answer.

The researchers recruited 8,000 people on the internet to participate in the study. They surveyed the study participants on which of eight social media sites and apps they used and also asked participants to complete a commonly used assessment of whether someone is showing signs of depression, called the Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (or PHQ-9). The assessment asks nine questions about specific symptoms and assigns 0–3 points per question, depending on how often the patient exhibits each symptom. The higher the PHQ-9 score, the more severe the signs of depression.

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Voices

Social Media’s Existential Crisis

by Lola E. Peters

The Seattle Globalist was a daily online publication that covered the connections between local and global issues in Seattle. The Emerald is keeping alive its legacy of highlighting our city’s diverse voices by regularly publishing and re-publishing stories aligned with the Globalist’s mission. 

Imagine this: You’re working 12,000 miles from home. There was a recent election in your home country, and the corrupt leadership was replaced by someone new, hailed worldwide as the one who will lead your country back to its rightful place as a world power. The losing party refuses to concede their loss, but the new leader is determined to return stability and grace to your people. To that end, the new party pursues the completion of a large infrastructure project that will revolutionize access to sustainable energy for everyone, especially those in rural communities. Your cousin, who lives there, has been excited about this new project and the new leadership. There was hope in the country for the first time in many years. But after a long visit with you, your cousin returns home to find disorder in her country.

One day your cousin texts you that a rebel force loyal to the former ruling party has launched an attack on a government installation. People are traumatized. People die. The attackers block all roads leading into the region surrounding the government installation and take hundreds of people hostage. 

Sound familiar? The MAGA insurrection as seen through the eyes of Americans living abroad? No. Although the parallels are uncanny, this is the story of the last 18 months in Ethiopia, as a group of domestic terrorists have been trying to unseat a duly elected government. 

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News

King County Sheriff’s Office Fires “All Lives Splatter” Detective Michael Brown

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by Carolyn Bick

The King County Sheriff’s Office has fired Detective Michael Brown over social media posts he made both during the summer’s protests and in the hours following a specific hit-and-run that killed protestor Summer Taylor and seriously injured another protestor, Diaz Love, including a post that read, “All Lives Splatter.” It took eight months for the Office to fire Brown following his initial posts. The Office also took into account past sustained violations on his record.

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Community

An Elder’s Tiny Dog Is Stolen From His Car in a Public Parking Lot — South End Social Media Springs to Action

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by Jessie McKenna

Travis Jefferson lost his wife of 52 years and six months later — to the day — someone kidnapped his dog while he shopped at a Central District Walgreens. What happened next was unthinkable but ultimately fortuitous and rather beautiful.  

At approximately four in the afternoon on a warm Sunday, July 5, 73-year-old Travis Jefferson parked at a Walgreens. For the first time in over 40 years living in the CD, a mole was tearing up his yard, so he was on the hunt for castor oil to flush it out. 

Travis, a Marine veteran, lives with his disabled adult son Dennis who likes to ride around in the back seat of his car with their two Yorkies, Chuckie and Solomon. Solomon rides on Dennis’s lap so he can look out the window. They all enjoy their car rides together, especially on sunny days.  

The Walgreens at the bustling historic — and all kinds of gentrified — Central District intersection of South Jackson Street and 23rd Avenue shares a parking lot with East African Imports, an AutoZone, a Magic Dragon Chinese restaurant, a T-Mobile store, and a Starbucks. Travis left Dennis and the dogs in the car while he shopped. He intended to be in and out. He left the windows down a little more than usual for ventilation due to the heat and locked the doors. It took a few minutes for staff to direct Travis to the castor oil, but not long. 

When Travis returned about ten minutes later, he unlocked the doors and got back into his SUV to find Dennis and Chuckie, but Solomon had vanished.

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Voices

Ask a Therapist: Framing Limits for an Adolescent

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Counselors Roy Fisher and Liz Covey answer readers’ questions for South Seattle Emerald’s “Ask A Therapist.” Have a question about a relationship? Wondering about the struggles of being a parent? Others likely have the same questions and Covey and Fisher bring years of professional experience to provide their insights. Continue reading Ask a Therapist: Framing Limits for an Adolescent →