Anxieties Around Digital Media

The article 13, Right Now was a very interesting one depicting the life of a 13 year old her, and how it is to grow up in the digital age revolving around smartphones and social media. In particular this article focuses on Katherine Pommerening and her experiences with everyday social media and the anxieties that come along with it. Throughout the article we see just how much of an influence social media plays in this girls life, from just experiencing one day of it. Katherine feels that she needs to be constantly connected through these different social media applications whether that be Instagram, Snapchat, or BuzzFeed, but not Facebook because it is seen as obsolete. Audiences reading the article can see the addiction starts before she even buckles her seat belt in the car. Katherine's iPhone as mentioned in the article "is the place where all of her friends are always hanging out. So it's the place where she is, too". The affect these social media sites are having on Kathrine life are not only real, but are created through the culture in which she lives in. The feelings she has towards using Instagram for example are not what the application was intended for, but have outside meanings that are a result of social interaction and experiences.

Social Shaping as we have learned is "the consequences of technologies that arise from a mix of affordances, the capabilities configurations of technological qualities enable - and the unexpected and emergent ways that people make use of those affordances" (51, Baym). An example of the social shaping that happens in this article is when Katherine uses Instagram. She explains that the notification box means much more to her then what it was originally intended for. The box stands for a much bigger idea, and is the steam for much of the anxiety Kathrine feels. The notification box shows when an individual has liked, tagged or followed her on Instagram. However, when she feels she does not receive enough likes on her photo, she deletes them. This is an anxiety that many Instagram users feel, because of the social shaping that has arose. I chose this framework because I feel the affects of the social shaping I have come to know. I to use Instagram and feel the pressure to post a photo at the right time, in order to get a solid amount of likes and if I feel like it isn't I will usually delete the photo. It amazes me that I feel this way, but the society I have grown up in and the social interactions I have online have greatly influenced this anxiety I feel. It use to be just about posting photos to share with my friends and family, but it is so much more than that now.

Kathrine feels the anxieties that many of us do.There are certain feelings that are created in us through the meanings surrounding applications such as Instagram. She gets pleasure from her followers liking her pictures, and on the contrary feels actual anxiety over not getting "enough likes". This idea of social shaping can be found not only in regard to Instagram, but in other social media applications as well. Teenagers growing up in the digital age now is definitely more complicated than it once was. Social Shaping when it comes to technology is just very interesting to me as it affects everyone who now uses social media applications. The meanings that are created that go well beyond the intentional use of the application is a great example of just how much social influence our culture has on us.