Katherine Pommerening represents
one of many teenagers who have anxiety because of the interactivity of social
media and the social cues that arise as a result. In this generation there now
seems to be an expectation that you have to have access to a certain social
media site to stay connected. With the rise of new media technologies there has
also been less of a need to interact threw face to face communication, which is
why people have become reliant on social media to interact, resulting in constant
use of these technologies. In addition, throughout each social media site there
is an expectation that you should continually post or stay interactive on that
site. I’ve had people ask me, “Why haven’t you posted an Instagram in awhile”,
or “Have you not worked out this week, your fit bit shows you haven’t got many
steps”. The fact that other people monitor your social media increases your
anxiety and motivates you more to keep up, and want to stay connected. Lastly,
there is an expectation of how your site is maintained which is what I believe
causes teenagers the most anxiety. Like Katherine, many teenagers, especially
girls get anxiety about posting a picture, especially if they don’t get as many
likes as they had hoped for. They also get anxiety about how the picture is
edited, how many followers they have, who comments, if someone unfollows them,
etc. Katherine exhibits having anxiety in today’s generation by the fact she
continually needs to check every social media website on her phone so she
doesn’t feel as if she is missing out (FOMO), and the fact that she has deleted
pictures based on the fact that she hasn’t gotten enough likes or not good
enough lighting. Thus, I chose to follow the framework of what Nancy Baym calls
social shaping of technology, which is “the consequences of technologies that
arise from a mix of affordances, the capabilities configurations of
technological qualities enable-the unexpected and emergent ways that people
make use of those affordances” (Baym, 51). This is evident through the article
on Katherine Pommerening, particularly instagram and the ideal that she feels
the need to delete pictures based on not having enough likes or she takes the
notification section of instagram way to seriously, getting anxiety if no one
posts a picture with her. Katherine’s anxiety, as well as many other teenagers
is all due to desire to stay connected, but also the change of new media and
society holding certain expectations of how media should be represented. Furthermore,
it is the social shaping of technology or media, which is what people in our
generation have become subject too, and have gotten anxiety from as a result
Great post, Laura! In addition to how the actual users can develop anxiety from social pressures of upholding some sort of virtual self, where do you think these pressures came from? Did they simply arise along with the technology?
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with the points you've made here! With the use of snapchat especially, FOMO has become the cause of a lot of anxiety. Snapchat allows you to send constant video and photo updates to all your contacts, where as with Instagram or Facebook it's a little more difficult to create this type of anxiety. We can all admit to looking through the snapchat stories of our friends wishing we had been there too because of how much fun it seemed to have been. We forget that even with Snapchat you are only really exposed to the parts of the night the one posting it wants you to see.
ReplyDeleteI fully agree with your points Laura! I think that Baym's social shaping of technology perspective applies directly to Katherine's case as well. It is how we use these technologies and the importance we give them that allows them so much power. Our generation, and even those younger, are dealing with this new method of social interaction. It is how we use these technologies and to the extent that we do so that gives them popularity.
ReplyDeleteGreat post Laura,
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with the points that you have made. Your references to the way that anxiety is developed especially in context with the article are great! The way that Katherine is influenced by social media is extremely interesting and can definitely be attributed to the social shaping of technology.
Great post Laura,
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with the points that you have made. Your references to the way that anxiety is developed especially in context with the article are great! The way that Katherine is influenced by social media is extremely interesting and can definitely be attributed to the social shaping of technology.
Very interesting post Laura!
ReplyDeleteYou picked up on important factors on why social shaping and Katherine go hand-in-hand in today's society. I also like how you were able to put a little bit of your own experience and how our peers are paying more attention to our lives than ourselves because that's how the social media platform is causing us to do. Do you think that social media has become too involved in our daily lives? Do you think that we could go back to the "old" ways of connecting with people?