Notice, I lost the “Social” that usually goes before media. After watching and reading everything this week, I feel a little confused. I’ve seen in past weeks how social media can possibly bring people together or make people feel like they aren’t alone. This week we dove into the other side. Of course social media brings people together right? We’re all on the same network; we can post, comment, like, message, etc. Where do you draw the line between reality and the internet? I think this is something that, according to the story we saw in The Social Network, even the founders of these very sites have or continue to struggle with.
Although it may not be completely historically accurate, I think that the social network encompasses everything we need to understand the meaning behind these new technologies. We see Zuckerberg and lose himself in the world of success. Surprisingly, it’s not for money, so what is it that Zuckerberg and everyone else who joined in are looking for? I think that the answer is an image. We see Mark and other characters struggle with this throughout the movie with the hot or not game, Mark accepting a deal to fix his image, talk of groupies, adding the relationship status, the appeal of Sean Parker… to be honest Facebook itself seems to be built on and used for and boosting your image among your peers.
We also see this concept when we look at the Essena O’Neil story. I thought that this was very interesting because she really gave up everything because of the way the pressure to uphold her image made her feel. She actually answers some unanswered questions in a video with another influencer, so I’ll leave it here in case you’re interested in watching some of it.
Essena has to constantly brand herself as a product and I think that this is what messed with both her self image and her ability to continue using the media. I can relate to her on a smaller level because about a year ago I quit using social media. I have recently gotten it back for my personal project, so I’m starting to evaluate the reasons why I felt I had to do it. The constant comparison to others that social media offers wasn’t good for me at the young age that I started using, and this was something that Essena brings up as well.
This branding also can have its positives, however. It can be a person’s gateway to their career just as it was for Zuckerberg. A big part of this idea came in when Eduardo runs into this problem with animal cruelty. It ends up in the school newspaper and, even though the situation wasn’t as it seemed it came back to haunt him during his legal battle with Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg even says something before they have issues about the story not looking like a good look for the company, especially with his name on the site as a co-founder.
I think the big lesson this week is to worry about the image you see of yourself before worrying about the image other people have of you. We also see the importance of branding and marketing when there is room for it. Here’s my question to you: In today’s social media noise full of influencers/bloggers/advertisers, what makes someone stand out? There are thousands of people to follow and sites to join, so what makes you gravitate towards one page, account, person, or site over another?
The Weekly News
How Social Media is Preparing for US Election Chaos
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-54738873
This story is a behind the scenes on how social media has to prepare for this controversial election. I chose it because not only does it go with our class, but I think it’s important to understand that civil unrest won’t just be in the streets.
SOCIAL MEDIA & SOCIETY 
Hello, I really liked your blog and I especially liked how you left out “social” from the media and later crossed it out. I thought that was very clever. But yes I agree about what you said about how the media started and it took a turn. It was about image and improving your own image with your fellow peers. That leads to today and how people are putting up an image of themselves on their profiles but there are things beneath the surface that are obviously not shown. People are now “branding” themselves on social media and upholding that image and that takes a toll on someone and how they use social media from there on out.
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I feel like what makes a person stand out when it comes to being an social media influencer is their content whether it’s authentic or copied, if a person is deemed as a “cool” person to society’s expectations, they will usually get more views, interaction and even more “followers” on the platforms. I gravitate more towards the music artists I love and positive and authentic posts/people. I try not to open the apps most times because it can be hard to get off of it once sucked into my algorithm feed. Social media has a lot of different distractions so I try to use it for learning as much as possible.
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This was a great post and I really enjoyed reading it! I totally agree with you that the social media as well as the other media can really divide us and can be confusing to navigate sometimes. Sometimes I don’t even know what to believe and what to not believe which is why I think it is really important for all of us to do our own research on the topics that we would like to know more about.
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I really like your post. I personally feel like the only way to stand out is to be true to yourself. Society wants to shape us and shows us what’s popular, to stand out we must be honest with who we are and not let others change what we know. I personally follow people who are honest about who they are, sometimes they can have a bit of dark humor as well.
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