Blog post #2

In her article for the Washington Post, Jessica Contrera focuses on 13 year old Katherine Pommerening and her cell phone. Throughout the article we can see many examples of the anxiety of interactivity. The anxiety of interactivity as outlined by Baym describes the anxiety that comes along with the fear of missing out when things are happening within the digital world and you are not there to be a part of them. In the article, Contrera writes, “She sets it down to play basketball, to skateboard, to watch PG-13 comedies and sometimes to eat dinner, but when she picks it back up, she might have 64 unread messages.” Katherine is so consumed by the fear that she might miss messages from her friends that she feels as though she must be interacting with her phone at all times. In considering this anxiety further, we can apply the theoretical perspective of technological determinism. This framework describes the belief that technology shapes every other aspect of life (i.e. social and cultural norms). Keeping this theory in mind, we might come to understand Katherine’s anxiety of interactivity as her believing that her absence on social media might actually affect how she is perceived by her friends and peers. Technological determinism places all of the power and causality on technology and equates everything else to be a side effect of technological advancement. It is not unlikely that Katherine believes that her entire social life exists solely through interactions held on her mobile phone. I believe that technological determinism is extremely applicable to youth on social media today which is why I chose to discuss it for this blog post. You need not look far to see how invested people are in how they are perceived online and I believe that this theoretical framework is useful in understanding how people think about their online identities.

Comments

  1. AnonymousOctober 3, 2018 at 1:47 PM

    Hi Claire,

    I agree that anxiety is very well linked with the fear of missing out (FOMO) as it is something that many people feel on a regular basis. As in not going to a party would really have you sitting at home wondering what you were missing and wondering if you were going to miss out on something exciting or a new opportunity. I also talked about Technological Determinism as it is a culture change and a way that something is working within society. Technological is the social norm in todays generations and it will just continue to get worse as it continues. Are people different on social media then they are in everyday life? Are peoples social skills completely shot because they are so used to the comfort of a screen?

    - Caitlyn Gordon

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  2. JoshuaMOctober 4, 2018 at 8:41 AM

    Great Post!

    I agree much with your article about that feeling of anxiety. While I talked about the domestication of tech I can see how this can relate to Technological Determinism through the belief of how much youth on social media today are invested in their perceived online persona! Technology is going to be with us for a long time and it will only get more and more co-dependant. I have a question though, do you feel like there are shifts in people over time when they use social media or do you think that kind of rift of personalities have always existed even without social media?

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