On Wednesday we had a guest speaker by the name of Julio Appling come in and talk about the history of blogs and why we should do it. After hearing his presentation and seeing his Twitter feed and made me realize the true purpose of social media and how it has lost its way a little bit.
The true purpose social media is to connect with people with the same interests, learn new things, and find entertainment. Nowadays I feel more and more people, specifically the younger generations, are building profiles simply to get attention or become popular. Now I am not complaining about the funny memes and the addicting viral videos but I do admit to spending a long time on a clever Instagram caption that would get me the most likes. When did likes become the focus of social media and not the people? It seems that at times we become less and less connected to our followers and more connected to the likes they give us, but it makes a feel good about ourselves seeing the amount of likes shoot through the roof on one of our posts. The focus of social media needs to shift back to its roots.
We should all openly be the weirdos we know we are. That's how we make stronger genuine connections through social medias. We should visit the Twitter page of something educational once in a while. Technology makes everything easier to access so lets use it to expand our minds.
3 comments:
Zeke, this was a really powerful post. I agree that the purpose of social media is to connect people, make connections, and to build communities. I constantly think about how I spend my time on Facebook, Instagram, or Snapchat. I look at how many likes or views I've gotten and the more I have the better I feel. However, there have been times where I haven't gotten those likes that I've desired but I know that I like that picture/post. This class, the readings, and all these blog posts have really made me reevaluate my relationship with EMC and what I want to change. Again, I really liked what you had to say!
Both you and Chloe bring up something that I think about very often when interacting with social media. The "like" feature on facebook and instagram changes the way that I feel about a post and how I interact with what I choose to post. I wish that this was not a feature because then I would know that my feelings towards a post were based on my opinions alone.
Zeke - you bring up some very valid points throughout your post. People often tailor their social media to present their "better" or more ideal self. It's crazy how much effort people can put into their photos, posts, etc. The control we have over what we can post...it's neverending. But still, I wonder how much this matters. For some people, how they choose to present themselves online is a part of their identity that they care about. They want likes so let them have them. I think everyone needs to have their own personal usage of social media. You have done a great job at evaluating the "liking" aspect and how we need to get back to the roots of social media. What does that look like? How can you individually do that, while letting others use their social media how they please?
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