Tuesday, 29 September 2015

Technological determinism in “The Prom Queen of Instagram”

           Technological determinism is a particular technology that drives/shapes the social structure of society and its values. That is, a primary agent that influences the way a culture behaves. The reason I chose technological determinism is because Hymowitzs is using Instagram to shape her life and influence societies views of her. 

           The notion of anxiety is evident in the article “The Prom Queen of Instagram” through the way Lilli Hymowitz portrays herself on her Instagram page. Hymowitz states “ ‘You can edit your life on Instagram,’.. ‘I think people think I’m cooler than I am.’ ” Right here one can see that you lose a sense of authenticity through the ability of editing your pictures. Not only through the perfect filter but also choosing what photos you want to display to everyone. Even Hymowitz notices that by editing and manipulating your pictures, you can seem ‘cooler’ than you really are. When you become a viewer of a particular Instagram page, such as Lilli Hymowitz, it becomes hard to differentiate between what is real and what is not. It takes us further apart from one another and one loses the social ques in which provide a rich meaning.

            

2 comments:

  1. I think with these social networking platforms it would be very hard to be someone who is in the spot light. They choose what they share, and obviously they will share the great aspects of their lives, and because of this they may be judged for it. However, these people are still normal human beings who have bad days, it is just something that we don't see. Social media like Instagram gives people the opportunity to filter out the bad aspects and shed light on the parts of their lives that they want to be associated with.

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