Fake Social Media and How will you vote in the General Election?

Fake social media

In this blog, we have covered the topic of being aware of fake news and fake social media several times and this week this has never been more relevant. As the events of Monday night in Manchester unfolded, the internet was flooded with false reports of missing children and photos of the scene. This only added confusion to the whole situation and was not helpful to anyone.

This should prove a warning to us all not to trust everything we read and to think twice about sharing something we cannot be sure is true.

For more information read http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2017/05/23/manchester-attack-social-media-trolls-spread-fake-posts-missing/

General Election and how will you vote?

Polling Station at Glinton Village Hall by Paul Bryan reproduced under Creative Commons licence CC BY-SA 2.0
http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5377045

Whilst the political parties have taken a break over the last few days out of respect for the victims of the Manchester attack, canvassing is slowly starting again ready for the election on the 8th June 2017. If you are 18 you can vote - but only if you have registered to do so. The deadline for doing so is now past but for future reference you can register on the Peterborough City Council website.

So, how will you vote? The Times Educational Supplement (we subscribe to this in Library+) ran an article last week about how important it is for young people to vote. They write that at the Brexit decision, if 16 and 17 year olds had been able to vote, there would have been a different result. Many of those young people are now old enough to vote and can make a difference.

So, how do you decide what to vote? The Complete University Guide has information aimed at students. 

Also you may like to try an online quiz which takes you through the main issues asking you to choose your viewpoint and then at the end it tells you which party you match with most. Take the quiz here.

Revision tips and memory techniques

Revision tips

Exams are fast approaching and lots of students are finishing off their coursework and starting to revise everything they’ve learned during their course.

We’ve been searching for some tips for you on the internet. Take a look at this short BBC Newsbeat video.

The BBC also have lots more resources at http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/zw8qpbk with links to advice on the National Citizen Service website too.

If you are prone to worrying about your exams, the BBC published an article earlier this week : Exam Stress: a revision guide for the anxious which might be helpful.

Memory Techniques

More generally, a lot of us would like to know how to remember things better whether it's remembering someone's name, reminding ourselves to do something or memorising information for an exam. 

In 2105 The Daily Telegraph published an article Nine tips to improve your memory which also has a quiz to test how good your memory is. You may want to have a go.

BBC Radio 4 has an old archived page on improving your memory which includes tips such as 

• Break things down in to chunks
• Space out your learning (don't try to cram it all in at the last minute)
• Write it down
• Use imagery to associate something you are learning with a visual image
• Assign meaning to something (great for numbers eg remember the numbers 1945 by thinking about the last year of the 2nd World War).
• Learn it right the first time (so focus when you are learning).

For those of you interested in more information on how the memory works and further techniques to improve it, we have books in the library by Tony Buzan, for example, who is an expert in memory techniques. The books are found around 153.1.

You may also want to listen to this Tedtalk by Joshua Foer: Feats of memory anyone can do.

Mental Health Awareness Week

Mental Health Awareness Week

According to a survey published this week by the Mental Health Foundation, 2 in 3 of us will face mental health problems in our lifetime. Mental Health Awareness week is a time to promote awareness about mental health and remove any stigma and stereotypes to encourage people to talk about it.

One thing this week highlights is that whether you have good or bad mental health, you need to look after yourself.

10 ways to look after your mental health

1. Talk about your feelings
2. Keep active
3. Eat well
4. Take a break
5. Drink sensibly
6. Keep in touch
7. Do something you’re good at
8. Accept who you are
9. Ask for help
10. Care for others

Mindfulness

What is mindfulness?

According to the Mental Health Foundation website Mindfulness is “a way of paying attention to the present moment, using techniques like meditation, breathing and yoga. It helps us become more aware of our thoughts and feelings so that, instead of being overwhelmed by them, we’re better able to manage them.”

Mindfulness can be a really helpful tool to make us sit back and realise what it is we are feeling, whether it is exam stress, worry, sadness etc  and when doing so not to judge what we are feeling but to just be aware.

Meditation can be a great way of doing this and there are apps that you can download to help-

•           Headspace- this is a subscription app but it offers a 10 day free trial called take 10
•           Smiling Mind- Smiling Mind is a free mindfulness meditation app for young people to help combat stress, improve focus and increase resilience.

You might also find this website useful : http://mindfulnessforstudents.co.uk/

     

                             

Image CC BY-SA 2.0 https://www.flickr.com/photos/repairgenius/7258035052

Other helpful websites-

https://www.mind.org.uk/

http://www.cpslmind.org.uk/

https://www.rethink.org/

Information for this blog was taken from https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/ For more information please visit this website.

                             

      

Be safe online! - the rise of fake celebrity social media accounts

Fake Social Media Accounts

Police are becoming increasingly concerned that people are setting up fake social media accounts and using them to talk to children and young people inappropriately (i.e. for grooming, extortion, etc). This is particularly happening through increasingly popular social media apps such as Musical.ly

For more information see this report from the BBC:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-39670673

The following podcast (particularly the first section) also goes into more details and is useful for anyone studying or involved with safeguarding children or young people.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04zvqsq

The companies which own these social media platforms are under increasing pressure to do more to stop this sort of activity (along with other content linked to criminal activity), but the best thing to do is to be on your guard and always do what you can to check who is contacting you.

Public domain image of social media apps from www.pixabay.com

How can I know whether a social media account is genuine?

Facebook and Twitter use a blue badge to verify accounts belonging to celebrities. Facebook also use a gray badge for organisations. However, these accounts are often targets for hacking too so be very suspicious if one of them messages you directly (most will not).

To find a genuine account, you could go to the official website for that artist, for example, and from there you should be able to see links to their twitter feed or Instagram account.

New guidelines by the Crown Prosecution Service. 

New guidelines (as reported in the Daily Telegraph) are being prepared which could make creating fake social media accounts a criminal offence where these are used for revenge or to cause harassment, for example. Therefore, everyone needs to be aware of their behaviour online.

Is what you are planning to publish online harmful to someone else (whether you think they deserve it or not)?

Would you like the same done to you? - and how would it make you feel?

The College does not tolerate  bullying of any kind and students experiencing anything like this can speak to a Safeguarding Officer, their tutor or indeed any member of staff about this if it is happening to them.