Technological
determinism is one of the main relationships illustrated through The Prom Queen of Instagram, but another
key relationship displayed is the social construction of technology. Baym
explains that the perspective of social construction of technology argues the
main source of change in technology and society are people (26). Technology is
made by people for the people, and the factors that influence development go
beyond the inventors themselves. The users of technology are what gives shape
to the product. The New York Times article focuses on the growing popularity of
a teen, Hymowitz, through an app that has been developed and modified for the
user’s experience.
The
article speaks about Hymowitz and her life and growth of popularity documented
through Instagram. Her follower numbers are growing gradually and as they do,
whatever she says or posts reaches a broader audience. Baym relates this
causation to the social influence model proposed by Janet Faulk. This model
explains how through modes of technology, “attractive” people are a strong
influence towards the technology (47). In the case of the Prom Queen, as she continuously
posts more and more pictures, she becomes a stronger influence towards the use
of Instagram and creates more users of the application. People who don’t have
Instagram but know of her may create an account to follow her. Similarly,
Hymowitz explained how she would receive comments of her pictures of clubs
asking for her to visit. Club promoters identified her popularity and realized
that if she were at their club, her presence would influence more people to
visit. This becomes a social construction of society, deriving back from the
social construction of technology.
The
kind of anxiety that relates Hymowitz is the fear adults have towards their
children and their exposure to technology and media. In the article, Hymowitz
states that she has a fake I.D. yet still attends nightclubs and orders drinks,
all the while being underage. Kids her age that follow her develop the notion
that it must be ‘cool’ to have a fake I.D. and to drink underage. New media,
such as Instagram, creates the ability to display negative images and provoke
individuals to do said things to ‘become cool’. If I were a parent of a 16 year
old, I would probably have terrible anxiety of why my child is exposed to.
To be
straight forward, the reason why I chose this theoretical framework is because
majority of other frameworks selected were all technological determinism.
Everyone had great answers and everything that I could think of was said. I
felt like approaching the article from a different perspective and try to have
some fun with it. I believe that technology can control us, but at the same
time we can control the direction of technological development.
Ryan
Hi Ryan, what a thought provoking point. I like your refreshing take on this weeks assignment, and it makes a lot of sense. I believe that, like in the past, our ideologies are shaped by what we are exposed to. The idea of hegemony comes to mind, but instead of our self morals coming from a mass media conglomerate, it seems that young folks are now relating to content posted by their most popular peers.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure how I feel about this situation, as it leaves me with mixed emotions. On the one hand, it take away a huge amount of power that media companies used to have on society, however they still are able to produce a reasonable sense of hegemony based on their own interested with social media. On the other hand, this leaves the elite of the social media world with a lot of power, and as Uncle Ben once said, "with great power comes great responsibility." I find it troublesome that the hegemonic values of the forthcoming generation are to be decided by a handful of teenagers who are barely able to vote. This does however open the door for level headed celebrities to make a difference too. Although teenagers relate to their peers, they relate even more so to their favourite celebrities. For example, celebrities such as Ben Affleck and Angelina Jolie, are renowned for their humanitarian work. Their high standard morals will hopefully be reflected by their followers who want to be like them.
Please find a list of other humanitarian celebrities here: http://listosaur.com/politics/10-celebrities-famous-for-their-humanitarian-work/
What do you guys think?
Hi Ryan, what a thought provoking point. I like your refreshing take on this weeks assignment, and it makes a lot of sense. I believe that, like in the past, our ideologies are shaped by what we are exposed to. The idea of hegemony comes to mind, but instead of our self morals coming from a mass media conglomerate, it seems that young folks are now relating to content posted by their most popular peers.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure how I feel about this situation, as it leaves me with mixed emotions. On the one hand, it take away a huge amount of power that media companies used to have on society, however they still are able to produce a reasonable sense of hegemony based on their own interested with social media. On the other hand, this leaves the elite of the social media world with a lot of power, and as Uncle Ben once said, "with great power comes great responsibility." I find it troublesome that the hegemonic values of the forthcoming generation are to be decided by a handful of teenagers who are barely able to vote. This does however open the door for level headed celebrities to make a difference too. Although teenagers relate to their peers, they relate even more so to their favourite celebrities. For example, celebrities such as Ben Affleck and Angelina Jolie, are renowned for their humanitarian work. Their high standard morals will hopefully be reflected by their followers who want to be like them.
Please find a list of other humanitarian celebrities here: http://listosaur.com/politics/10-celebrities-famous-for-their-humanitarian-work/
What do you guys think?
Hey Jaime, love the comment and quote of Uncle Ben. I couldn't agree with you more, great power does lead to great responsibility and it is troublesome to see a future generation so influenced by the social lives of a select few. There's been a trend through social media where people will do whatever it takes in order to be noticed, right or wrong (mostly wrong as people love controversy). It is unfortunate but like you said, because something like this is attainable, there is a positive outcome that can be produced. Ben Affleck and Angelina Jolie are great examples of individuals who take advantage of positive promotion by using their status as a 'push' method for what is right. It would be great if more of the future generation could implement this method. Of course, there are some who try to encourage the right message but those who have control of the elite social media tend to be the ones that exhibit what everyone else wants to see.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment Jaime, it was a great one.
Hey Ryan, I know this is a little late.
ReplyDeleteI just read through your post, and you make some very great points. I really enjoyed how you altered your approach to try to change it up a bit it made for an insightful post and very different in comparisons to what others may have written. I really like the point you make about people creating an Instagram just to follow certain people when they may have not initially had an account. I really like this because I have friends who have done this because of people they have head through the news. Dan Blizerian is a big name in the Instagram field and he is one of many who have created a brand out of his name and have created such people that may have not had Instagram but will join jus tot see what he is doing. Overall great post, very insightful view!