The previous picture perfectly illustrates our relationship
with technology. In the modern days, technology is no longer seen as a complete
strange or dangerous thing. In fact, we take technology for granted and we
normalize its use. Therefore, I will be using the domestication of technology
perspective since it seems to be the best in describing our current
relationship with technology.
In the “prom queen of instagram” we can clearly
see how instagram is integrated into teenagers' lives. Their breakups, daily
activities, and parties are all shared online. With time, Hymowitz and her
friends learned how to use instagram to fit their needs of achieving popularity
and status.
Instagram
as a platform relies heavily on visual representations with minimum social cues, and these visuals can be filtered and altered; As Hymowitz says: “You can edit your life on
Instagram”. Therefore, these representations do not reflect their true
personality or reality but rather online personas that they created
themselves and perfected them as they grow up. Hymowitz and her friends
admitted that: “their online profiles were, if not the best version of
themselves, then certainly a particular one”. Therefore, instagram created an
increasing pressure to portray the best representation of one's life. The
social anxiety of not being liked pressures those teenagers to create cool and
likable online personas that does not necessary represent who they really are.
In return, these perfect personas create social pressure on teenagers who feel
intimidated and pressured to be cool like them.
Hey Sara, first of all I really enjoy the comic strip you shared with your blog post. I agree that people were very hesitant when all of these new technology innovations were initially introduced to society, but now we embrace them and definitely take them for granted. In my opinion I think that it is strange how people have transformed so quickly from being timid of joining a social media platform to the complete opposite side of the spectrum of sharing way too much information on the Internet.
ReplyDeleteThe Prom Queen of Instagram for example posts about her life daily and people enjoy seeing what she is doing with. Is it just me, or is that terribly creepy that so many people (strangers from anywhere around the world) have such a fascination over a teenage girl they know nothing about other then what she posts on the Internet.
On my Newsfeed today I happened to pass by this video of a bunch of teenage girls (just like Hymowitz) taking Selfies during a baseball game. The reporters note how they missed an important play because they were too busy taking pictures of themselves. Our society is foolishly becoming so invested in our technology that we are missing out in actual reality. (The link is posted below and you might need to be logged into Facebook in order to access it).
https://www.facebook.com/120Sports/videos/973713932666799/
ReplyDeleteI would have to agree with Naomi, the picture you included in your post! As Naomi mentioned, individuals at first were extremely hesitant to conform to the uses of social media. I know for a fact I put of getting facebook for years, largely due to the fact that I never saw the point to it. After entering university I have realized the benefits that come alongside having a facebook account … However I am still very distrustful with what I choose to share online.
I think the point where you mentioned the fact that we all feel this social anxiety of not being liked for our online profiles, goes to show how deep we have fallen into this social media controlled world. People today create their online profiles to other people, they want all these followers to like there stuff. Unfortunately at the end of the day we see many more teens living in this “fear bubble” that people won’t like them. They are putting unnecessary social pressure on themselves to act and look a certain way for there friends, and at the end of the day that is what is alarming to me.
In one of my classes my professor used a word (I can’t remember it) to describe the phenomena of being anxious and depressed when looking through Facebook, because everyone’s life looks so much cooler than your own. I liked your point about how through instagram people are able to create the best version of themselves, and I agree that it puts more pressure on others to meet those standards. Interestingly enough, I followed my friend’s friend on instagram who I had never met, and her pictures were amazing, she traveled a lot and ate at the coolest places, so obviously I was envious. Then my friend got back from going to a music festival with her and said it was the worst trip of her life because this girl would make her friends take pictures of her the whole time then help her edit it and pick the best one to instagram. Basically she was an instagram addict. Suddenly I was not jealous of her because I realized that she only ate at cool places and traveled to hip locations just to instagram it. Conclusively, its odd how we assume social media profiles are a accurate representation of the person in real life, when in fact they really aren’t.
ReplyDelete