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Week 1B: Social Media Use Today

From the airport to Sunday mass, the supermarket or a blind date, it is impossible to step out into the world without the constant reinforcement that to participate in modern society you must be on social media. Countless retailers offer exclusive deals to their followers. Employers leave a section on job applications to list your socials. With each passing year since the invention of social media, participation becomes less of a choice and more of an obligation. Those who choose to withdrawal from virtual interaction are less seen as independent decision makers and more as fringe outcasts. While social media has opened our world in ways never imagined, it has also cleverly integrated to consumerism, false narratives, and lack of authenticity into each of our lives.

My initial reaction when asked “what do you think about social media” is less of a word and more of a feeling. My head speeds up a bit as I am insistently reminded that beyond this face to face interaction, there is a whole other world I am currently missing out on by diverting my eyes up. There is an entire world of likes and comments from distant friends, flash sales on my favorite leggings, a new donut shop I have to try before it gets too popular. Social media has broken down our nuanced balance emotions and turned them into a commodity. TikTok is intentionally addictive in its design, giving users and instant hit of oxytocin with every swipe. The dopamine boost from an instagram post like and comment is similar to that of taking a drag from a cigarette. Linkden is meant to encourage professional connection, but in its function becomes a breakdown of who’s worked where for how long taking away personal insight into the person who’s profile your connecting with- potentially causing professional connections to NOT be made based based on work history stats. 

At this point we all know how easy it is to fake it online, which leads me to wonder what is social media even achieving? We know that ads are so cleverly integrative that no product is mentioned without an endorsement. We know that if you meet an influencer on the street they probably doesn’t look the way they do online or live the lifestyle they portray. I feel that the future of successfully utilizing social media will come from authenticity. Social media created a new highly informed consumer. In response to that online sales tactics have become more and more deceitful, subliminal and often promoting a feeling of missing out. I think that in the future, social media users will grow exhausted by the smoke and mirrors the social media world has become. We will increasingly see people crave REAL connection. 

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