In the reading the social shaping of technology is defined as " mix of "affordances" - the capabilities configurations of technological qualities enable- and the unexpected and emergent ways that people make use these of those affordances" (51). It looks at how people have given their own meaning to certain technologies and how people can influence their meaning. For Katherine, social media is seen as a place to feel validated and wanted. She claims that she only has a few posts because she deletes a lot of here pictures. This is because the don't make her feel good because they don't get a lot of likes. She has created this aniexty around instragram and feels like she must meet a certain amount of likes on a pictures in order to keep the photo on her instagram. In the reading it also talks about parents inability to control their children and their social media. Even when Katherine's dad could try to control her phone, he is unable to. He tried to track who she was calling and texting, but she barely calls and does a lot of her communicating on snapchat, a platform her dad does not understand.
I chose this framework because this is something that occurs in my everyday life. As much as I try not to, I still care about how many likes my instragram post gets. Sometimes my friends all ask each other out of a certain number of photos which one should I post or which one looks better. We all want that validation that the photo we are posting looks good.
I agree with you on your statement about validation. It has become very increasingly present on many social platforms in many younger generations to feel satisfaction from compliments posted online. It has become very prevalent in teenagers that are in high school and I have personally noticed how Instagram is being used much differently then myself. Now a days, younger kids have many many many followers, likes as well as comments. More so from people they barely converse with or even know in person. It is strange how it has become normal for this type of self satisfaction in that they are nothing but little comments here and there that create this validation.
ReplyDeleteKelly great post! I'm glad you commented on the "mix of affordances" and how she sees social media as a place for validation. I think that's true for many people who use different social media platforms now a days. Social media is the base for many anxieties people now face, because the platforms have become so much larger than what they were originally intended for. Instagram for example is a application to post pictures, but we see how people get anxiety about how many likes they get, as that is a source of validation for them.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Kelly, I believe that this concept of being accepted in society through social media has become very evident over the past couple of years. I often find myself caring a little too much about how many likes I get on my Instagram posts, how many followers I have, or even if I'm keeping up to date with the posts on my timeline. I believe that this validation to stay connected on social media has created a large source of anxiety throughout many of our lives, myself included.
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