Blog Post #2

The emergence of social media has greatly changed the way people interact with one another. Society has gone through a drastic conversion from face-to-face communication to more virtual based reality forms of communication – AKA social media. This can be proven by a simple field study research, if you were to go on campus and take a look around I guarantee that you would see multiple people on their phones/IPads/Computers partaking in at least one form of social media. In my opinion I think that people are so attached to their social media accounts because these forms of communication have given us the ability to become ‘present’ and involved with our friends without physically having to be there. The point that I am trying to make here is to support the theory that Baym mentions in chapter two of technological determinism. According to Baym technological determinism is based upon the idea that machines have changed society creating utopian and dystopian views. 

Unfortunately, the case of “Prom Queen of Instagram” does not come as a surprise to me. In my opinion, the affect of the new digital media presented in this article displays how problematic our society has become. People are obsessing over strangers on the Internet without even knowing anything about them. Hymowitz even admits herself that she has no extraordinary assets but she is only an anonymous teen living a regular life. From a utopian point of view of technological determinism society has become a natural part of our life and it isn’t even questionable to follow people you don’t know and become fixated on every detail of their life. This article proves the most blunt point that people aren’t truly who they appear to be online – which can be emphasized throughout the “In Real Life” section of the article. Furthermore, I find it strange how people obsess over a young teenagers life and want to know every single detail about her. Personally, I think that this is a huge problem and quite honestly a safety concern. The reason why youth, such as Hymowitz, are not concerned about the idea of strangers wanting to know every detail about their life is due to the attention. Teens admire the attention because it boosts their ego and makes them feel like a mini celebrity, just because they have the ability to post the perfect picture by choosing the right photo, filter and caption. People are becoming too invested and fixated on technology because we are becoming nosy in the lives of people who we don’t even know. I think that we are losing control and that boundaries are blurred when it comes to what is okay and not okay on the Internet. I decided to talk about this theoretical framework because I personally see the Digital Age as problematic and technological determinism emphasizes the fact that the dystopian view there there is a fear that people are losing control over technology.