Instamacy
In class today we attempted to tackle the complexities of social media and personal experiences— such as battling cancer. Our generation seems to have rooted and grown individual identity through the platform of social media. Instagram and snapchat are our go to communities to share a moment or tell our story.
Continuing our dialogue, What do we think of this community? Do you know anyone who benefitted or was hurt by intimacy made public? Is there a difference between participating in “in-person” advocacy / popularized “raising awareness” events and interacting or broadcasting through the medium of social media?
In today's technological driven society, I believe that the social media community is very beneficial to people in a multitude of different ways. One way that I have witnessed social media doing good, is in raising awareness for certain lesser talked about diseases such as ALS and Leukemia. Because the platform for different social media applications are so large, the amount of awareness and people you can reach with valuable information seems endless. Another great fact about social media is that it can be used tremendously for finding support groups. As I stated earlier, because the platform is so large if you were going through a problem and you posted it on social media, the odds of you finding somebody who has either gone through that experience or who is currently going through, it are very large. I think that social media is also very fake as well in terms of trying to flex on people and only showing the good that has happened in your life, but in terms trying to find support and trying to raise awareness, I believe social media is a gift!
ReplyDeleteI am torn in my relationship with social media and how I see it in regards to intimate topics or situations. Like you said in class today, I also have feelings of confusion and I question when someone broadcasts negative feelings to their followers. I'm not sure why someone would do this, especially if it is something that seems more personal. Yet, I've done this- with my finsta- expressing frustration, anger, or sadness towards a certain situation in my life. I'm not even sure why I do it honestly, but I think this may be similar to those who might share a story like a family member having cancer. This feeling compelled to express your feelings on social media is something I don't even fully understand, but I think especially with our generation, it has just become something to do. I also understand that a lot of what is put online is just a filtered version of someone's life, only showing the positive aspects of someone's experiences. I'm guilty of this too, yet I get frustrated that people aren't sharing the realities of life, allowing all of us to continue to move through life by way of a filtered version that social media creates. So, either way, I have an opinion. This is partially why I'm torn with how I feel about intimacy in relation to social media, I don't know if there's a right answer either way. "In person" advocacy and raising awareness online have the same end goal- to make others aware of something important, whether it is raising money for someone with cancer or just simply bringing a certain disease into others' awareness. I think participating in either is beneficial, and maybe even doing both is better, but I'm still not sure. This is a difficult topic to dissect, but I want to keep talking about this! It's interesting!
ReplyDeleteI believe that todays social media has the potential to both help and hurt anyone. Honestly, I have been hurt and helped by social media and I'm sure that most people posting on the blog have felt the same. My problem with social media is what I shared in class: " you're comparing your whole life-- the good and the bad-- to someone else's highlight reel". When looking at one's social media, their life may seem perfect, but you never know what someone is going through. That leads to people being either jealous or even insensitive to one another. Another huge problem about social media is how much it actually ruins real-life relationships with other people due to people just looking at their phone the whole time when hanging out with the friends/family/SO. People have turned to focusing on building relationships with people over social media instead of building real life relationships. I honestly don't really have a problem with people using social media to share their protests as long as it's for the good of the protests and not for their own popularity.
ReplyDeleteI think that people's obsession with taking things to social media is their desire for validation and recognition. The desire to share and communicate with other people is part of human nature; however, some people lack the comfort or bravery to confront their feelings in person, so they take their story or rant to social media where they know they'll be heard but won't have to deal with any face to face interaction. Everyone desires communication with other people and to share parts of their lives but not everyone is capable of doing so face to face. I am a bit split on this issue. On one hand I can completely understand how this can be an empowering and community building experience. On the other hand, I can also understand how people use social media maliciously and as a way to get attention.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if I agree with the sentiment that social media is more superficial because it isn't face to face. I think that any interaction with another person is good regardless of whether or not it is online or in person.
My fear of social media is that the sheer number of causes to "raise awareness" makes information collapse under its own weight. Social media floods our feeds with various reasons to act or care, yet there's only so much time in a day. There is no doubt that social media has served as a positive medium for activism, but I would be lying if I said I don't roll my eyes when I see making social media overly political. That doesn't mean I don't take calls for political action or empathy seriously, but rather that there are literally so many injunctions to act that no person could meaningfully commit to any cause. Of course, what it means to "act" is different for whoever is posting, but I think, as a community of social media users, we are being pulled in so many directions we stay in place.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree and am honestly saddened by the fact that our generation is so deeply rooted in the world of social media that we rely on it for all forms of contact, validation, and amusement. Nowadays, we don’t even need to remember the details of any story or experience anymore because we can just snap a photo, post it with a cute ten-word caption, and have it live for all eternity on our social media pages. As long as others know what we did, it was worth it to do it. As much as I am a part of this community and have watched myself become more and more reliant on my phone and all my social media profiles, I wish that it were not so ingrained in our society. I wish that my first thought were still to physically run next door and tell my neighbor in person about the event in downtown LA I attended or the country I visited during summer vacation, but it has become so easy to simply “assume” that they’ll see it on my instagram or snapchat story, which removes all reason for me to go and have a direct interaction with my neighbor. I think there is a HUGE difference in participating in advocacy events for the sake of participating in them and in participating for the sake of having a cute photo to post and broadcast my personal “beliefs” and “strong-minded” personality. I would personally much rather come home from a concert with a fading image in my mind and a lasting memory that an hour-long video of the performance I watched through my camera all night. In terms of intimacy, I know many people who were hurt by others when intimate conversations or photos were shared publicly. Most often, people post photos without intending to hurt others, but simply do not realize the implications or consequences of their actions. I have seen many personal text conversations posted online for the purpose of having others comment on another person’s writing or to share a humorous moment with the public, but these photos were often not cleared with the other person first. When things get posted online, everything feels much less personal and people feel exposed when the private conversations they had are put up for public scrutiny. I also think that there is a fine line between using social media for validation/personal gain and using it to raise awareness. I have seen posts that were effective in getting my attention about a certain disease I did not know about or revealing the severity of an illness that someone suffers from. And I think the reason people post such pictures/comments on social media (especially about young children), is that they can easily play into the emotions of the viewers: people are much more likely to comment, save the photo, or talk to their friends about a photo if the person in the post is a cute, young child with big bright eyes laying in a hospital bed. But as we discussed in class today, when social media becomes an outlet for parents to share every moment of their child’s life, it becomes an obsessive act that defeats the initial purpose of sharing a video/post.
ReplyDeleteBehind the cloak of perceived anonymity teens get mean and forget that they may be hurting a peer’s feelings. I have always said that when there is no eye-to-eye contact, empathy goes out the window. So what that a dear friend may have not been invited to the sleepover? Teens may and often due post photos of the gathering anyway. And, this is not lost on the friend who was not invited. That hapless friend may sink into a state of sadness and be at a loss for how to handle these feelings.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with what Tom said in his post! I think that often times outsiders are critical of the ways others find support or grieve. In these cases, we do not know WHY these people are going to social media as a means to find support, we do not know their support system at home/in their families. I have also found that the social media accounts that get the most support are often those with "a cute , young child with big bright eyes laying in a hospital bed" to quote Alina. I think the ways in which people choose who to follow/support is what can be problematic.
ReplyDeleteI facillitated on this day
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