New technology has completely transformed the modern experience. We have revolutionized medicine, manufacturing, energy, and other industries that play a role in our daily lives. However, the most interesting aspect of modern life is the development of social media. Although it may seem like a positive development, social media has been detrimental to our society.
As technology has advanced, so have our online personas. Platforms such as Facebook (f. 2004) and Twitter (f. 2006) were intended to facilitate genuine human interactions over long distances. College students could now connect without having to scour the quads looking for “some dude” in their Architecture 101 course. Or you can tweet about the new self-titled Taylor Swift album. Each of these social media platforms have improved the speed and ease of communication for many people. With time, technology has continued to become more accessible. The price of desktop computers decreased gradually as the manufacturing process was refined. Laptops became more readily available, and Apple released the iPhone.
The Apple iPhone was the first real smartphone to hit the market, and since its inception we have made significant advancements in mobile development. Although some may regard this statement as an overgeneralization, I believe it would be fair to infer that about 95% of students and faculty at Brunswick have an iPhone. A survey conducted in 2014 by the Pew Research Center American Trends Panel determined that 64% of Americans own a smartphone.
The smartphone gives us the ability to share snippets of our lives at any given moment from any given location on the planet through social media. Unfortunately, this newfound power hurts us more than it helps us. What has resulted is the creation of a duality. Profiles created on social media are often not a true reflection of the individual. The same techniques used by high school students are similar if not identical to those employed by top-tier marketing agencies. The solution to designing a “successful” social media profile is content curation.
People treat themselves like a product to be bought or sold. Their number of “followers” and “followings” have value. The ultimate goal is to craft a profile that will garner the most long-term engagement. The first step marketing agencies take is to identify their target audience and then to design content for optimum engagement and audience retention. Whether they realize or not, many normal people also go through a similar process. It starts out by polling a small audience of friends to see if the picture is worth posting. Critiques may range from the people in the photo, to location, to filter. This is a prime example of content curation.
It is apparent however that people do recognize the impact curation and filtering have on their lives. Many times photos that people may find interesting do not make it to their profiles because they don’t believe others will share their opinions. To combat this a new type of profile emerged. It is most commonly know as the “finsta” (fake instagram). On this account people post freely about their day-to-day lives and whatever might interest them at a given time. However I would like to point out that they are lying to themselves. The “finsta” is not fake. The finsta is the most genuine form of a person available online. It is not curated and manicured to appeal to the largest group of people possible. Their main profile however would be more aptly named the “finsta” because it is an inaccurate distorted representation of the person. This trend has exposed a major flaw in our culture. It has shown us that in our society some people place so much value in what others think of them that they go out of their way to keep up appearances.
Although unintentionally, social media places a theoretical value upon all our lives. If a unit of measurement was established, it would be possible to place each and every social media profile on an open market and trade them like stocks. Posts with lots of likes add value. If you follow fewer people it makes each one of them worth more. The goal for most users of social media is to maintain and steadily increase their market value. Everybody wants to be a blue-chip stock. People are willing to increase their numbers by any means necessary because high numbers are synonymous with success. Although, contrary to popular belief, better numbers do not mean better people.
New technology has completely transformed the modern experience. We have revolutionized medicine, manufacturing, energy, and other industries that play a role in our daily lives. However, the most interesting aspect of modern life is the development of social media. Although it may seem like a positive development, social media has been detrimental to our society.
As technology has advanced, so have our online personas. Platforms such as Facebook (f. 2004) and Twitter (f. 2006) were intended to facilitate genuine human interactions over long distances. College students could now connect without having to scour the quads looking for “some dude” in their Architecture 101 course. Or you can tweet about the new self-titled Taylor Swift album. Each of these social media platforms have improved the speed and ease of communication for many people. With time, technology has continued to become more accessible. The price of desktop computers decreased gradually as the manufacturing process was refined. Laptops became more readily available, and Apple released the iPhone.
The Apple iPhone was the first real smartphone to hit the market, and since its inception we have made significant advancements in mobile development. Although some may regard this statement as an overgeneralization, I believe it would be fair to infer that about 95% of students and faculty at Brunswick have an iPhone. A survey conducted in 2014 by the Pew Research Center American Trends Panel determined that 64% of Americans own a smartphone.
The smartphone gives us the ability to share snippets of our lives at any given moment from any given location on the planet through social media. Unfortunately, this newfound power hurts us more than it helps us. What has resulted is the creation of a duality. Profiles created on social media are often not a true reflection of the individual. The same techniques used by high school students are similar if not identical to those employed by top-tier marketing agencies. The solution to designing a “successful” social media profile is content curation.
People treat themselves like a product to be bought or sold. Their number of “followers” and “followings” have value. The ultimate goal is to craft a profile that will garner the most long-term engagement. The first step marketing agencies take is to identify their target audience and then to design content for optimum engagement and audience retention. Whether they realize or not, many normal people also go through a similar process. It starts out by polling a small audience of friends to see if the picture is worth posting. Critiques may range from the people in the photo, to location, to filter. This is a prime example of content curation.
It is apparent however that people do recognize the impact curation and filtering have on their lives. Many times photos that people may find interesting do not make it to their profiles because they don’t believe others will share their opinions. To combat this a new type of profile emerged. It is most commonly know as the “finsta” (fake instagram). On this account people post freely about their day-to-day lives and whatever might interest them at a given time. However I would like to point out that they are lying to themselves. The “finsta” is not fake. The finsta is the most genuine form of a person available online. It is not curated and manicured to appeal to the largest group of people possible. Their main profile however would be more aptly named the “finsta” because it is an inaccurate distorted representation of the person. This trend has exposed a major flaw in our culture. It has shown us that in our society some people place so much value in what others think of them that they go out of their way to keep up appearances.
Although unintentionally, social media places a theoretical value upon all our lives. If a unit of measurement was established, it would be possible to place each and every social media profile on an open market and trade them like stocks. Posts with lots of likes add value. If you follow fewer people it makes each one of them worth more. The goal for most users of social media is to maintain and steadily increase their market value. Everybody wants to be a blue-chip stock. People are willing to increase their numbers by any means necessary because high numbers are synonymous with success. Although, contrary to popular belief, better numbers do not mean better people.
