Blog Post #3

When reflecting on the film Eighth Grade, I felt that it was a very accurate representation of the current younger population. This generation is so immersed with technology and tend to forget that there is a real world outside of social media and their phones. I thought that this film could be closely linked to the short video we watched about the young woman pretending to have a life by posting pictures and messages on her social media. It’s the sad reality that people feel the need to achieve a certain amount of ‘likes’ on their pictures/posts as if it determines their self-worth. In this week’s reading from Meikle, he notes “social media are networked database platforms that combine public with personal communication,” (p. 6). This can definitely be related to how both of these girls in each film are able to communicate with others through their social media usage. However, I feel that people can get too immersed in social media and lack the ability to remember to communicate in other ways; like in person for example. From one of our earlier readings we heard about Katherine’s obsession with her phone and the social media apps on it. Within these apps, she is able to socialize and communicate with her friends yet she neglects verbal forms of communication with her father. Furthermore, it’s stated that her friend group chat is the place where all of her friends are constantly hanging out, every minute of every day; this idea slightly unfortunate. Although it’s great to be able to communicate with friends without being right in front of them I think that people don't interact in person as often as they did in comparison to previous generations. Majority of our interactions are now online/over text all with the common medium being our cell phone/computer. 

Comments

  1. UnknownOctober 19, 2018 at 2:31 PM

    Hi Lizzy! I definitely agree that today's generation of teenagers are more interested in connecting with each other online rather than in person. It is sad that teenagers now consider the number of likes and comments on their pictures a measurement of their self worth. Social media can sometimes be overwhelming as it is like a competition to see who can post the best content. I do think sometimes I can get too caught up in the social media world. Once in a while, it is nice to take a break from it all.

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  2. caitlyn gordonDecember 12, 2018 at 10:03 PM

    Hi Lizzy!

    Looking back to the blogs I was interested and this one and had to comment. I really do agree that people are no longer as interested in face-to-face communication as they used to be because they are constantly using their phones to communicate and can cause a number of issues. Often we can find ourselves on our phones so often that we don't connect with those around us. Much like in the video when she is spent on her phone all the time and unable of how to interact without it.

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