In the article written by
The Washington Post about a young girl named Katherine Pommerening and the influence and interdependences the technologies she posses has on her everyday life. Within the article, Katherine spends countless hours looking down at her screen and in particular at memes on her mobile phone. She is just 14 years old and has become dependent on social media and other interactive outlets to stay connected.
In the text
Personal Connections in the Digital Age, written by Nancy Baym, she relays this idea about a certain anxiety that is created the this new screen age. Children and younger adults are being more and more influenced by digital media and its interactivity. Things such as relationships, authenticity of content and people moral in general become subordinate to these virtual realities and create a social anxiety when theses channels are removed.
In Chapter 2, Nancy Baym talks about the social shaping of technology and how certain technologies shape new histories and outcomes. With many popular technologies there are certain expectations of how these technologies will be used based on their initial design/makeup. With this being said, this doesn't necessarily define the way the user will use that specific product, how they will experience it or if it was used for its original purpose. Baym writes "Machines do not make history by themselves. But some kinds of machines help make different kinds of histories and different kinds of people than others" (51).
In reference to the article written by Katherine we can see that things like memes and other social media outlets (i.e. Instagram, Snapchat) have become mostly recently popular in last couple of years. It can become a social standard to carry your phone everywhere you go and to be constantly updating, receiving and sending some form of communication to the online world. Baym describes this point in the text by stating, "social media platforms engineer particular kinds of sociality even as their users develop norms around their use" (51). Katherine allows herself to be consumed by these ideologies and what its like to be constantly consumed by digital media. Technology becomes the regulator as to what is being shaped within this new "screen age".
Hi Mackenzie,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your blog post! I strongly agree with everything you touched on, specifically how new technology shapes history and culture. I wrote about this briefly in my post, but people are so transformed by technology. New social media platforms are constantly encouraging the younger generation to become obsessed with such irrelevant things such as likes and follower counts. Before the invention or creation of these apps, people's self esteem was better overall, and their sense of self worth and belonging was stronger because they weren't constantly comparing themselves to others.
Mackenzie,
ReplyDeleteThis was a great post! I focused on the perspective of the social shaping of technology as well as I definitely think that we are the most dependent on our smartphones than ever before. The article written about Katherine showed the perspective view of social media from a teenager's eyes but really this is happening across all age groups. Anyone with a cell phone with easy access to social media finds that checking their accounts have become so easy that it is now a ritual. You wake up, check Instagram and Facebook, then start your day. We do it without even thinking. We look to social media for self-satisfaction as we depend on how many likes and comments a post receives. Not only is it apart of our physical daily routine but it is a part of our emotional routine as well. If this is the way in which we are dependent on technology now than it is scary in a way to think of how dependent society will be in the future with the immersion of new technologies.
I really liked your idea on how Katherine is falling into the new ideologies surrounding social media and how she is participating in the consuming world of digital media, Mackenzie. I fully agree in that this story is an example of Baym's social shaping of technology perspective. We are influenced by social media technology, however, we have the power to determine how popular each site becomes. By placing further importance in these networking sites we are giving them a greater influential power in our society. It seems crazy how much of a part checking social media has become in the lives of our generation.
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