BLOG POST #2

The article from the New York Magazine on Lilli Hymowitz is very interesting and provides an insightful situation that many of us can be a part of and see in today’s world. Instagram is one of the newer upcoming social medias that allows connections and networks to be built through mutual interests, friend circles, or many other ways. The story about Lilli shows how an individual has used Instagram to shape her life and the way it is viewed by many in order to gain a social following and influence the way that following perceives her.

The theory of technological determinism and the understanding put forth by Baym can be easily applied to the situation of Lilli. The idea of technological determinism is present because of the way Lilli uses Instagram to create this social following and shape the perspective that people have of her. Lilli acknowledges that life can be edited, manipulated and filtered on social media and this allows people to think ‘she is cooler than she is because they cannot differentiate from the real or fake. Lilli also acknowledges that she changes, and that she deletes pictures that don't represent her or don't fall under the same persona she is trying to be or represent. 

The ability that technology has to help the progression of creating trends and magnify cultural weaknesses, while fortifying others is a point Baym makes that helps understand this situation in a different perspective. The way society worries about what people think, or the image they have among certain crowds, has left no room for certain people to allow the legitimate real them to shine through. The idea that social media has made likes, and followers the most important, has left people in situation where they are forced to manipulate and edit themselves in order to gain more likes or followers. I feel these are the anxieties attached and associate to these new medias, and this is why technological determinism is the theory I chose to apply to this article. Overall the article shows how the technologies of a society have became the driving factors behind the social values of that society.