Blog post #2


Social Media and its Domestication Into Society

From the Washington Post article, it is clear that Katherine is living a life where she is heavily immersed in the social media universe and in some ways it seems as if her personal profile pages and social media use has become almost more important to her than what happens in person. However, Katherine is not alone, she is just one of millions of generation Z that going through this phase of life right now, one that previous generations never had to deal with to the same extent. Interestingly, if you talk to this younger generation they don’t even understand how this is problematic as it’s all they have ever known. That’s why I think this article as well as the in class movie we began to watch exemplify this phenomenon as domestication of technology. The reason I chose this theoretical perspective is because that to this generation it seems completely normal for likes, followers and friends as their social currency. They think of social media in the same way they think of electricity, it’s just something that exists and we use. In the Washington Post article Katherine talks about how online comments validate things in real life and furthermore it goes to show how big of an impact the social media universe has on our lives. The fact that everyone seems to be using social media and seems to be doing it so well puts obvious pressure on the rest of society to catch up or get left behind. From reading this article, personal experiences as well as the video we watched in class, there our obvious issues that come with social media use including social anxiety, FOMO, etc. This domestication of social media may seem normal to a new generation but it’s up to us to try and minimize the consequences that come with its domestication in society.

Comments

  1. UnknownOctober 2, 2018 at 4:26 PM

    I agree with you that generation Z specifically has been so accustomed to the use of social media that it seems as if they can't live without it. It's interesting as you mentioned, how likes, comments, and so on create validation for teens in real life. How one builds their online profile is so significant that one minor mistake, and your social life could be over. I didn't at first think of 'domestication in society' as the perspective this article relates to, but you explained it really well and your point of view is interesting! Great post.

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