Social media & growing up

Humans have always been social creatures, as seen in the last class. Has social media changed anything or has it been just a natural evolution for a new form of social communication? We've read and watched many examples of social interactions between people through the medium of social media, such as Noah and Eighth Grade but also readings like the events in the Washington Post article surrounding the 13-year-old growing up in the age of social media. Out of those 3 forms of media the one that hit me the hardest was the WaPo article.

I have a story to tell surrounding our youth and technology. My cousin is 16, she has had a laptop since grade 9, a cellphone since grade 7 and social media as soon as she got the chance. She has 3 Instagram accounts, 2 Twitter accounts, an active Youtube account and Snapchat but that's all I know of. It's crazy seeing how she acts when she gets home from school or at dinner. Always connected, always on the phone checking her accounts, posting daily, communicating consistently with all her friends. Even at dinner, she's sometimes glued to her phone. Sure it may seem disrespectful and you're right, in some ways it is. But she is also talking and communicating with people from all over our city. There are positive and negative aspects of her actions, both sides of the coin are correct. For me personally, I believe that while it's okay to be on your phone, I think its equally as important to interact face to face and build in-person relationships. With a scary contrast to the movie Eighth Grade and Kayla compared to my cousin, there is a good example on how her relationship with her father is similar to my cousin's relationship with her parents, with the snappy arguments when they take away her phone or when they tell her to put it down.

It's interesting to see how different she is when she's online compared to when she is in person, her youtube is filled with positivity, her travels, her dance stories and filled with positive vibes. Her 3 Instagram accounts are different aspects of her life, one for her perfect "aesthetic", one for her travels and then one as a "private" where she just posts whatever, each of her social media accounts has over 1k followers. We are quite close but it's strange to see how different she is in real life and how affected she is on her social life, if her posts don't do well she will be snappy, angry and frustrated, but if it does well she will be significantly more friendly, happy and relaxed.

I have a few questions,
1. Do you ever feel angry or disappointed if one of your posts don't do as well compared to your others?
2. Do you have a family member that acts or seems different than their social media? Or do you act differently in person than online?
3. Do you think that social media has a positive or negative effect on youth today?




Comments

  1. Cassandra ChettleOctober 17, 2018 at 8:00 PM

    Hi there, great post!
    In response to your third question, I definitely think that social media can have both postive and negative effects on today's youth. While social media have the ability to connect youth with one another, they can also be the cause of serious social anxiety. As seen in the article regarding Katherine Pommerening, it is evident that her social media use has completely consumed her daily life. By over obessing about her instagram aesthethic and her amount of likes and comments, one could argue that Katherine's mental health is negatively impacted through the use of social media.

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  2. AnonymousOctober 20, 2018 at 10:44 AM

    Hi Joshua,

    I think social media has the ability to both positively and negatively effect youth today. As we've seen with popular social media personalities, these platforms give them an opportunity to produce a following, establish a brand, build a career and pursue their passions. Meanwhile, the dark side of social media involves the obsessive nature around it where people constantly care about how many likes or views they get. For me personally, I enjoy using social media to follow sports and don't follow any of my friends to avoid the social implications that running a social media account requires such as profile maintenance. As a result, I enjoy the benefits of social media without experiencing the anxieties they can produce. To answer your question, it depends on the person and how they use it as social media is a tool and is not good or bad on its own.

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  3. UnknownOctober 21, 2018 at 1:44 PM

    Hey Josh,

    Interesting post! It is so interesting to see how even half a decade has made such a difference in this world of technology. I use social media on occasion but not to the extent of many other people our age and younger. Because of how little I use social media, I don't really care how many likes I get and don't really compare posts to others but I know a lot of people that do. I'd like to say I don't act differently than my social media accounts but I guess I only really put photos and posts I like so in that way I am sort of curating the best aspects of my life. I think social media's negatives outweigh the positives especially when overused but in moderation they can be good.

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