How does social media affect our lives?

When you hear the word “social media”, what comes to mind? Some people may think of media that allows them to meet and communicate with people around the world. Others think of social media as a channel that gives them the opportunity to send and receive a lot of information. Others see social media as a way for us to get many updates from those we follow, and perhaps some see social media as part of a new marketing strategy. Like the video we watched in class on the growth of social media usage, social media has become so much a part of our lives that at this point we can’t even imagine a world without different social media channels. We all know how important social media is to small, medium, and large businesses, so I’m going to focus here on the individual and how social media affects our lives. As with everything, there are good and bad aspects to social media, so it can have both positive and negative effects on us. Let’s start with the positives.

Social media has provided us with many great opportunities. WeChat, Shake, Weibo, Instagram, Facebook, and other platforms have given us the opportunity to showcase ourselves, our skills, and our areas of competence. In short, it is now easier to brand ourselves and promote what we do. If this opportunity is used well, we have more opportunities to be seen by future employers and promote what we create (e.g. art, writing, photography, music, etc.). This opportunity has given us many influencers who are not big-name celebrities and many artists who have become famous in their field after creating accounts for their work. Everyone in the class talked about how they use social media. Me, in addition to browsing and interacting with people, I also upload some photos of myself and my artwork from time to time. Social media has made communication easier to reach. This may sound confusing, as social media is often blamed for disrupting honest, natural communication. However, with the help of social media, communication has become much easier. People can reach people, brands, and businesses directly in ways that were not possible in the past. The messenger or DM brings us closer to every kind of person and we can express our ideas very quickly and in a very simple way. It can be a political figure, a celebrity, a company, or anything you can think of. If he/she has an account on social media, you can contact them directly or leave a comment. A few years ago this would have been unthinkable.

It’s also true that social media has a negative impact that cannot be ignored. It’s easy to voice your opinion on social media – everyone does it. It’s even easier to do it if you’re behind a nickname and there are a lot of those people. With or without it, social media has become a site of social justice. A person can be judged by other social media users for their inappropriate behavior. Sometimes this social media activity can be good and have positive results, and sometimes people who have done nothing wrong can become victims. It is also often accompanied by bullying. It is also easy to use these things against someone, considering how much easier it is to access someone’s personal items (such as photos or private information). In short, social media is sometimes a powerful opportunity, but sometimes a powerful weapon, and it always depends on how we use it. Social media can be damaging to someone’s personal or professional life, reputation, or even health. This is one of the most negative and serious problems associated with social media. It is more common among young girls who often compare themselves to others. They often judge themselves based on the number of followers and the number of likes on their photos. Some surveys say that most young people who don’t get “enough” likes on their photos find their day ruined and even delete them. They measure their low self-esteem based on these metrics, which has a negative impact on their mental health.

Do you think social media has had more of a positive or negative impact on youth?

Bringing People Together (?)

Building on the themes of last week’s discussion (the internet) we found ourselves talking about social media. Social media, much like the net, is a very complicated thing. Similarily, I believe it’s where we posit ourselves in relationship to social media that will ultimately describe if it ends up being more “good or bad”. There has been a consistent debate since it’s popular inception around whether the idea of “bringing people together” (as Mark Zuckerberg likes to put it) is truth, or just another way to pedal a new product to an unsuspecting population. More likely than not, grains of truth lies in both sentiments. I talked about this at length in my last blog, but social media , like the internet, is a tool. Tools have different effects and contexts in the hands of different people, and so personifying social media as a good or bad force feels inmatture rather than owning up to our uses of it. But what are these good and bad effects?

watching figures like zuckerberg and musk self implode over the last fourish years has been such an honor

I think the best thing that social media/the internet can offer us is the wealth of knowledge that comes with it. We have a database of the largest archives of collected human information at our fingertips at almost all times. That is a powerful statement, and it’s honestly hard to wrap my brain around what this really means, especially when compared to how data was stored and shared even two decades ago. In the context of social media however, I am talking more specifically about social information. The internet can answer *most questions within seconds, but you can’t just google how cousin Peggy is doing. Social media aswers that question by creating a network of people and info through online spaces. It is quite incredible on a surface level. Growing up I always remember being told how my parents faded away from their highschool friends over the years, simply because of moving for college. But now, as I study at college, I am still able to keep up with my old friends. Pictures serve as reminders to old relationships, and social media can bridge that gap. Yeah, it’s different than person to person connection (which is a long conversation in itself), but better than losing those relationships to time entirely. So in that sense, I guess I agree that social media truly does have some power to bring people together, especially when the main thing keeping people apart is distance, or circumstance like in the pandemic. I don’t think any of us can imagine what the spring of 2020 would have looked like had our technology been unable to keep us connected. Perhaps better but my guess is on worse.

the sight of a populated zoomcall makes me nauseous to this day. (by the way zoom made out so well with the whole pandemic how convienet for them)

But what is the main problem with social media. We often have this conversation, but I feel as if we sometimes tiptoe around the problems (as we’re all somewhat complicit). I think very simply, the human brain isn’t meant to deal with this much information in our daily lives, and this problem manifests into many symptoms. Yes, last paragraph I said this acess to info is the best part of the internet, but we certainly haven’t found a good way to safley engage with this plethora of knowledge. Every day I go online and am reminded with precise detail the horrors of the world and of my fellow humans. War, crime, human rights violations, corruption, and hate are all constants in the human experience, but the brain is built to encounter these things at a personal level. Nowadays, we’re dealing with these things at a global scale, even just from the comforts of our own home. It’s like those soldiers operating drones in kill operations in the East remotely from The States, then go home to have dinner with their kids at night. The human brain just isn’t built to handle complex circumstances of threat and power like that. Obviously, this is an elevated example, but I beleive the principle still stands.

it isn’t a coincidence that there is a whole genre of memes like this

Looking back on the semester, it’s been really cool to build up to this point specifically. Pretty much every weeks blog feels like it culminates in this back and forth of the pros and cons of a mass medium. Like even all the way back at videogames ,in the beginning of the semeste,r there is debate over how it is effecting kids. I’ve mentioned this several times, but I just find these conversations borderline funny. With few exception, we almost all engage in multiple forms of mass media in our daily lives: tv, music, games, social media. And yet we all have these strong opinions, that often lean in the direction of condemnation. Humanity has been going back and forth on the effects of each mass media for decades, perhaps centuries. We have all of these concerns about a new technology, go on about how it’s runing the current young generation and whatnot. And each time, society continues to just move onto the next thing, the attention never settles in one place for long. Like right now we have a great boogeyman to all agree on in the form of Meta, Facebook, Instagram and ect. But how long till we simply don’t care about any of this and are picket fencing about how Glubgram or Amazechat or whatever is ruining Generation Beta? And what will the real life perks be of Glubgram or Amazechat versus the downfalls? See, as long as new technologies emerge, the issue whether or not they are helpimng or harming us will not end. So why don’t we take responsibility now while we still can?

Is Social Media Toxic? (Posted Late With Permission)

For better or worse, celebrities have a powerful impact on how teens view themselves and how they see the world. In fact, it’s easy to underestimate how much celebrities influence teenage attitudes and behavior.Celebrities can have a positive influence on youth. In fact, they can serve as role models. But famous people, whether they’re singers, actors, and other celebrities, can also provide unhealthy examples. In particular, celebrity influence on body image and substance use is often detrimental to teen mental health.Therefore, teenagers need guidance on how to interpret celebrities’ influence. Adults can engage with kids around media. In addition, they, therefore, support how children process what they’re seeing and hearing. Celebrities influence teens in other ways as well. When stars post images of themselves drinking or smoking on social media, they normalize substance use. Furthermore, they make it appear attractive and cool.

Teens often idolize celebrities and want to be like them. Therefore, if they see images on Instagram of a favorite singer or actor using drugs or drinking, they might be tempted to do so as well. Fans gain more power shown in two sides: firstly, they have become more active in producing and distributing derivative work on the internet by their selves; secondly, they have more ways to communicate with the cultural industry. The increase in social media use over the last decade has, of course, corresponded to the huge spike in the amount of time that people spend online.

Young people are at the heart of this trend.  This matters because it means young people are increasingly living their lives online. It means they are connecting with friends or family, or finding information online, but they are also subject to bullying or rumor spreading and get unrealistic views of others’ lives. Technically, you can switch off your mobile phone, or you can set up a time limit for your social media use. This will simply prevent you from using these platforms. Of course this is not so easy, as everyone is online, including our friends and families, with whom we would like to keep contact.

This means we should be more educated about the news and any information we read online. For example, we should always check the source or the profile of the person who shares a suspicious post. We should also read from a wide range of sources, and not limit ourselves. Sharing something without reading it is a no-go. 

Do You think social media is toxic or distraction ? Why or why not?

I enjoyed this class this semester , some of my favorite topics we touched on I would say was the music industry ,  television, & probably the history about Hollywood I would say is my top three. I feel like I’ve not only learned a lot about how the internet and social media affects other people but I also learned how it affects myself as well. This class was definitely a learning experience, interesting, and meaningful.

Social Media is Eating Us

In this week’s class we were able to continue a similar track to last week when we were discussing the Internet and its effects. This week we focus a little more heavily on social media in particular. including which apps were popular, or the most useful, as well as how these apps influence us in our personal lives. Social media is a part of our lives that is ever growing, we post a glimpse of our lives for all of our peers to see; hoping they approve.

Social media isn’t as new as it feels; For years dating back to the late 90s, social media was used. Though its infancy it was just chat rooms where you could share a blurry picture of a recipe or talk about the newest Mustang with a bunch of car fanatics. it was much different, privacy was much more apparent, searching for approval wasn’t the goal, and most importantly, it wasn’t making anyone want to jump off a building. The while social media had a heartwarming start, as it evolved it quickly became a place of hate and shaming. Where people could voice their opinions no matter how oblique or hurtful, they were. Or a place where girls feel the need to post pictures in bikinis to get attention, and guys compare themselves to people lying about wealth driving rented Ferrari’s.  

Though it’s easy to get wrapped up in this crazy online world. people living in the middle of Idaho go from no one to 5,000,000 followers $70,000 a month in a matter of a week. With so much upside potential, it’s easy to see how a sort of popularity rat race could be started. Though from this rat race comes a cluster of mental health issues, self-esteem issues, and overall, some really bad habits. People get so wrapped up in living for their online audience, they lose sight of what matters. Focusing only on showing their followers a perfectly crafted snapshot of their life. From that comes people that don’t realize that snapshot is created to make it look like their life is perfect. The food looks amazing, the drink looks expensive, the restaurant Is beautiful. While really, on the other side of the phone, that beautiful steak? it’s getting cold; and the French fries are soggy, and the waiter was rude. You get it?

So even though the Internet has been a world altering invention, one that has led to medical breakthroughs, scientific breakthroughs, and overall has changed the way we live our lives. It has also in very many ways ruined them. My friends come over and sit on their phone, people record videos while driving and hurt others, and most of all people hurt themselves because of things they read about themselves online. The influence it has on our lives is still not fully known to us. As these apps learn more about us, tracking our search history and listening to our conversations. The content becomes more and more targeted to what we really like, it becomes easier to consume and much more entertaining. Getting stuck in the virtual world, mentally, is not a very difficult task. We must learn how to control our usage, even myself. I really enjoyed the activity we did, when we were just going around the room saying if we were “posters” or “scollers” and why. It was interesting to see how many people use social media but do not consider themselves active on it. a correlation between wanting privacy and being scared to show oneself with how people use social media was easily visible.

Overall, this course has been a blast, not only did I get to learn a lot more about the different kinds of mass media that I am already felt familiar with. I got to learn about one’s that I would have never thought to, like the production of the earliest film. We spoke about so many great topics and through all of it Nick was really interested in what we had to say. rather than just telling us his opinions not caring if we agree or not, as many other professors do. I had so much fun in this class and it is most accredited to Nick. If the professor is good, and the information is interesting. It’s the recipe for a perfect class.

Thank you for Everything!

The mind of the target

So we all are aware of the apps that we use today to update. Our peers on our life, but many don’t think about the evolution to get to where we are. Even now we use these apps knowing they’ll be known as old technology in the coming decades and centuries today I am diving into the evolution of technology that shaped the world to be how it is today. We think Facebook is for old people and my space is just a meme to refer to the classic modern era (Early 2000’s).  However, what was it like when these apps were regular dominant forces in the teenage world.

In class we watched a video highlighting the most popular apps throughout the 2000s all the way up to 2020. This video showed me that even apps I never even heard of dominated the social media aspect of the world when I was young. The constant change and rapid growth in these companies showed how competitive the market was and still is. It showed me that the social media industry had undergone much more failures and short-lived success than I’d thought. The main commonality of these times and now was that social medias that allowed peers to like and dislike other posts became more popular. This is because teenagers thrive off the feeling of being liked. Studies showed that the more like they get the more satisfaction they’re brain received which gave them almost an addictive reasoning behind why they post for others to see. The reasoning behind this is because it seems to warrant more popularity which gives them more validation in the teenage society. This allows them to be moved up in an invisible social status that they trap themselves in. I as a teenager myself fail to fall victim to this trend because I never understood the concept of placing your life out into the world only for peer-to-peer validation. However, I can say that I have fallen victim to the new social media’s apps for their entertainment and how it allows me to waste time. I spend hours on apps like snapchat, Instagram and especially TikTok watching funny and entertainments from strangers or people I know. This has shown me that to just rid yourself of these apps, for any reason is far more difficult than the older generation tries to portray.  It’s crazy to know that such a powerful app can come with such negative and addictive effects. 

I would’ve been a hypocrite if I didn’t include myself in the social media statistics. The extent of my social media consumption is different from others though and I realized from this week there are many different categories and reasons for why we love our social media so much. Some find the plain enjoyment of content creators make entertaining content. Others use it for validation and theirs plenty of other reasons in between. There are so many different reasons which is why my question is why do you use social media?

Final Blog

Social media is, I believe, both the most effective and the most dangerous form of mass media. In journalism, there is, in theory, integrity. The newscasters attempt to disseminate information that is true. There is also accountability – if a network disseminates misinformation, or otherwise fails to engage in ethical journalism, the public will demand the situation to be rectified. With social media, everyone is their own broadcasting network, there is no need to reveal personal identity or relevant affiliations, and no real way to determine the validity of any information. This model is extremely helpful in allowing individuals to organize movements against dangerous government powers, but it also allows individuals to be manipulated in ways they are not even aware of. This is exemplified in Russia, where anti-Ukrainian propaganda is produced, and thousands of fake profiles are created in order to support a government manufactured narrative. In most forms of social media, the algorithm is key to getting content seen by most viewers. By interacting or not interacting with social media posts, liking, disliking, viewing or commenting, people automatically influence what is shown to others. This leads to emotion-arousing, easily understood content being spread, but not necessarily content that is true or relevant. As we engage with social media, it’s important to be aware of the power, and sometimes danger, that interacting on these platforms can have.

This past semester we have been introduced to all the significant forms of mass media, their histories, their benefits, their drawbacks, and the effect they have on larger society. I believe you can largely sort most types of mass media into two distinct groups – forms that are declining, and therefore influencing our society less, and those forms that are increasing, and therefore influencing our society more. As books, newspapers and radio decline, they take with them a degree of stability and validity that our country leaned on for decades.

As social media and the internet become a continuously larger presence in our lives, they lead us to ask questions about who we can trust, how much privacy we’re entitled to, and how we will connect with others in a digital age. These two factors have also irreversibly changed the role that music, television, movies and advertising play in our lives. From my phone, Spotify gives me access to millions of songs, whenever I want and wherever I want for about $5 a month, a luxury absolutely unheard of twenty years ago. Streaming services like Netflix give us more access to television and movies than ever before, and targeted algorithms have brought advertising to a new, unnerving, intimate level. 

I never saw myself being particularly interested in a mass media course; I took it because it was recommended to me by my adviser and fit with my class schedule. However, I’ve loved this class and honestly, if I had taken it freshman year I may not have ended up being a psychology major. Dr. Schlegel, thank you. It’s been a wonderful semester. 

Final Thoughts

Started making money for the first time.

Social media is a driving force that has been around for a lot longer than we had originally thought! From morse code to internet dial ups to viral hits on apps and the like, social media is what makes people from unknown to famous, thanks to a little thing called likes. This little gimmick is the make or break sentence for many people on apps like TikTok or Twitter. If they don’t get any likes, they think they aren’t any good and their self esteem plummets. And yet, famous people just have to post the most random thing and they will instantly get thousands if not millions of likes and views. Truly, social media is quite a strange place indeed, but is it for the better? Or will it be the final nail in the coffin for us?

Apps like TikTok formulate a set amount of videos for you based on your interests. Much like YouTube, depending on what you watch, you will get more of it. But because of the algorithm, which is a seemingly mysterious force that decides whether people should get views or not, your feed can contain thousands of strange and sometimes disturbing videos. Even on apps like Instagram and Twitter, people can end up watching videos that they had originally not signed up for, sometimes leaving an unwanted mark on them. For a lot of children who have social media, watching a scary edited video, because those are very popular right now, makes it hard for them to distinguish between fantasy and reality. I know I was very much like that as a kid. But that’s just the video content. Another major issue is the people that engage in social media. For the most part, people are relatively sane. But, there’s always people out there who enjoy making others feel unhappy. Take Twitter for example. People love pitting people against each other leading to fights, death threats, and misinformation. A lot of people jump immediately to one person’s side, being unable to accept that everyone has a side to their story. Be that as it may, social media has brought many people together, earned people money, and gotten people the dream jobs they’ve always wanted. While social media can be quite the scary place, it certainly has helped many.

In regards to the end of class, I can safely say that I have learned a lot more than I thought I would. The professor was very engaging and I genuinely enjoyed myself. While some topics were a little less interesting to me, for the most part, I did look forward to class every single day. I would like to thank the professor and the class for making this such an enjoyable experience!

Social Media And A Reflection On Mass Media

Looking at social media, I see the possibility of a more open and connected world, the one that Mark Zuckerberg continually talks about. And yet, with each day we see a new headline discussing how the world is being more connected in the wrong ways through these social media platforms. Data being sold left and right, the data that individuals believe they are giving to these sites with confidence that it will stay private. It is a new battle being fought, but one that seems to be a losing one when each day promises to protect users’ data go broken. It paints a bleak view of a digital world that is surrounded in controversy, though this is nothing new.

Photo by Sara Kurfeß on Unsplash

The entire story of social media is followed by story after story about how it harms the individuals utilizing it, predatory practices that resemble the methods used in casinos to keep people coming back day in and day out. These sites have become a source of constant dopamine, enough to the point that individuals can no longer comfortably be bored. Alongside this, it is a means of connecting through false realities. It paints a false image of the individuals around you, showing mostly only the good that happens in their lives that individuals would want to share. It is normally not a place to share the bad, and when it does it carries a harsher stigma than discussing your problems to others, as it also gives an air of attention seeking. It has created a culture of thoughts and prayers, sympathy without any meaningful interactions. It allows people to be disconnected from others without showing that you are outright. It becomes a matter of apathy without stating it. Like many discussions surrounding the culture that we find ourselves engaging with in this digital world, it is pessimistic more often than not. People grow further from each other and lose out on vital skills to engage with each other directly, often allowing individuals to sit in groups that echo the same sentiments to each other. For some things it is less of an issue, but when looking to dangerous ideologies present openly in right-wing politics, these echo chambers warp the perspective people have on the world, allowing them the belief that they are the majority and to constantly reaffirm these hate fueled ideas. It is the danger of any media, but by allowing people around the world to find each other that share these views, it is hard to see social media as a tool that will better the world at this point.

Photo by Sam Moghadam Khamseh on Unsplash

Pessimism aside, I think that the main solution to these problems is the same as many others, education. By understanding these concepts, individuals can make better choices and direct themselves and others to better results. I think that classes like ours are exactly what is necessary to start being able to find meaningful solutions for these issues, and with a common stepping stone, I think that we will find branching methods to create a properly open and more connected world, one that is not plagued by the kinds of vitriol and hate that we see today. These ideas are my main take away from this course, and I genuinely hope that others see this as well.

Untitled (The Final Blog)

Yep, I’m going to pull a little more nostalgia out of this week again, and play the “old man” card too.  I remember when Facebook was new, and you had to have a .edu email address to join.  I remember MySpace in it’s infancy, and how it rivaled Facebook for a time.  In one of the short documentaries we watched this week, a woman briefly referenced a time when many viewed the internet as the “Wild West”, and I think that rings true.  In many ways it can still be like that, but in the early 2000s it was certainly a very palpable feeling. 

The early days of social media was maybe a bit like the Wild West, but it was also like the early phase of a large experiment.  It was new and exciting, but we didn’t even really know how to use it.  And, yes, there was some collateral damage, and yes, we’re still dealing with some of the same issues today.  But what an exciting time to be alive. 

From Facebook Addiction, by Pawel Kuczynski

          I think that realistically, we all share some of the same feelings about social media.  We may use it in different ways – as we discussed in class, some of us merely exist within the sphere, and some of us do more of the posting and content creation, but most people understand that there is both good and bad that can come of it. 

          As an artist, it’s practically necessary to use social media.  If you’re extremely well-established, you can get away without it.  For many young artists, it’s a (mostly) free platform for outreach and marketing.  I’m not very good at utilizing social media to the fullest extent of it’s capabilities, but I understand it’s a powerful tool, and for sharing within creative communities, I think it’s a good thing. 

          One of its downfalls, and one I see often, is its effect on body image.  I really enjoy lifting weights, and as such I follow a few “fitness” accounts.  Even when they’re meant to be positive and motivational in nature, they promote unrealistic goals for most people.  I’m pretty happy with my physique, but by Instagram standards I’m a sack.  There’s another side to this too, for which I’ll tell an anecdote. 

17 Times Fitspiration Was Wrong, So We Fixed it.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/carolynkylstra/fixed-that-fitspo-for-ya

          In the early(ish) days of Tumblr, I was still relatively new to lifting weights and the “fitness” phenomenon.  There was a whole corner of Tumblr, focused on fitness motivation.  Often it was pictures of ridiculously in-shape people accompanied by motivational quotes, and soon was shortened from “fitness inspiration” to “fitspo”.  As more and more of this rolled through my feed, I realized that it was less and less about inspiration.  The quotes got shorter or omitted entirely.  The photos showed less and less clothing, and the context of exercise was nearly gone.  This wasn’t really inspiration anymore, this was simply softcore porn.    

          Far be it from me to judge anyone for their tastes in internet content.  But for me, it was disheartening.  I’ve found my way back, and my Instagram feed is a healthy balance of art, exercise, and dog videos. 

Me RN

          This is another blog post I could go *way* over on.  But I’ll have to restrain myself and stop here.  The realm of social media is massive, and no surprise to me that Dr. Schlegel teaches a whole class on it.  This class though, has been a joy.  I really appreciate the conversations and the deep dives into not just the history of media, but how it’s affected us in our personal lives.  What we love or what we hate, what makes us tick, or more complex feelings.  I could quite honestly take a part II course of the same subject!  It’s been a great semester and I’ll look back on this class fondly. 

Socially awkward or Socially pleased

Social media is something that I have always been active on. Being eighteen I basically grew up around it in every corner. I got my first Facebook account in sixth grade and I remember how addicting it was. The constant validation made me feel better about myself at that point in time. Little by little as I grew up I realized how much of my confidence relied on other people and at the beginning of my tenth grade year in high school I took a break and started working on myself. Fast forward now being a freshman in college I rarely post on social media. It is actually very self pleasing that I do not need that sort of validation in my life anymore.

Social media tends to affect people’s mental health in many ways whether it is good or bad. Some people see social media as a way to just keep up with the rest of the world like friends, family, and current events. Others see it as a wormhole that nobody should be a part of due to how exposing it can be. I personally see both sides of the situation but I am biased towards social media being good for us. I use social media for entertainment, communication, and as an immediate news resource.There is a documentary on Netflix called “The Social Dilemma” which is about how our phones use our recent searches and cookies on our devices to show us things that would attract us. Have you ever looked something up on Google and then minutes or days later while scrolling on Instagram or Facebook you see an ad about exactly what you looked up? That is the social media algorithm just doing its work collecting our information and selling it to try and keep us in a constant loop. My question is how do you feel about your personal information being used and being used and sold just for a few clicks?

Although social media violates your privacy you know what you are signing up for when you install the application and create an account. Whatever you decide to post, share, or comment is all on you so how much complaining can people do before realizing they are not forced to share so much information. What you post on social media is your decision to stop blaming the algorithm for using your information and just read the terms and services before signing up if that is what you would like to do.

When it comes to this class it was kind of a love hate relationship. The class all in all was interesting and certain topics we covered had me wanting to learn more. I loved that we covered the history and nostalgia of certain topics but I wish that we just had a bit more time in the semester to cover some of the present aspects of all these media. This course was the latest class on my schedule. It was hard for me to get out of my bed to come to class but every time I did it was definitely worth the while.