Knowledge through social media posts

1. How does the global interconnectedness facilitated by technology influence the

cross-cultural exchange and construction of knowledge?

This video is from an Italian old man that has a food account on Instagram where he has
a food blog, as he posts what he eats. In this video, it can be seen that he is very
enthusiastic about what he is eating. He is speaking Italian, and this could be since his
audience is also a group of Italian speakers, therefore he could be recording this in Italy.
He makes a sandwich out of potato, and describes the potato as something serious, and
that the bread is gourmet, implying that it is very tasty. This dish could be commonly
made within his culture, and he could also be sharing this to an audience which is
unfamiliar to this dish, for them to learn about Italian culture and their taste. This was
posted on Instagram, and it has already received a lot of recognition, which because of
the comments, it was evident that they were mostly, Spanish and English speakers. The
English speakers in his audience could be from any country, and the Spanish speakers are
likely to be from Spanish speaking countries like Spain and various other Spanish-
speaking countries in south America. This global interconnectedness facilitated by the
media allows the spread of knowledge about different cultures, specifically different
cuisines. This knowledge could impact the audience all around the world as they have not
known about this cultural dish, and they could be influenced to visit Italy or learn more
about the culture.
2. How does the increasing reliance on social media posts challenge our
understanding of knowledge creation and decision-making?

Tiktok tends to be a common app where people share a lot of important and utile information
about health, skincare, and other necessities. This social media is not always reliable since there
is so much information from unknown sources, and it is hard to tell right away without
researching in depth, in more trusted sources outside the social media. People are used to
believing the majority of what they see in social media and especially if it seems like its true and
makes sense. This ignorance can lead to problems, since people can get significantly
misinformed about a topic that may be very important like, politics, or health. In this video, a
certified doctor is spreading misinformation which is then refuted by an individual who
provides facts to their counterargument against the doctor. A doctor should not be spreading
misinformation since they are expected to have reliable experience and knowledge in their
field, but in this case, he doctor was unreliable and spread misinformation about skincare
which could be very harmful for the audience who believes this information. This excessive
reliance on social media affects the knowledge that individuals have and it influences their
decisions making, since the doctors audience are people who care about skincare and she
misinformed them about this topic, they could purchase something harmful or harm their skin
in another way.

3. Investigate the ethical implications of knowledge production and dissemination

through social media, considering issues such as privacy, surveillance, and the
digital divide.

In this instagram post, Rihanna, a famous singer is being taken a picture by the paparazzi in
public, this happens very often with many other famous people who are singer actors or business
owners. Paparazzi is no always respectful and takes pictures with consent, therefore many
pictures could be taken by force and without consent. In this specific example, there is zoom in
the picfture and we can’t be certain about whether or not this picture was taken consentually, but
since this picture doesn’t expose anything new to fans, they don’t suspect that paparazzi was
being disrespectful. Contrary to this, some pictures of celebrities are taken non-consentually and
this is evident since, the photograph tends to reveal information that wasn’t known before about
the individual. This is a violation of privacy by the paparazzi, and their intention is often to get
clout and recognition in the internet by posting these photographs that spread knowledge about
the individual which is private and was not necessarily menat to be shared. This has a negative
ethical implication of knowledge production since it comes from a violation of privacy and
disrespect.