In chapter 2 of “Personal Connections in the Digital Age”, Nancy Baym takes the approach of describing technology as domesticated. This theory indicates that innovations like new technology are ‘tamed’ or appropriated by the user. She states that life without these technologies would be unimaginable. They are now so ordinary in everyday life, that they have almost become invisible. (Baym 52). Technologies have integrated and adapted into each individual's life practices and daily routines.
This becomes evident in the article; “The Screen Age” which depicts the life of a 13-year-old girl named Katherine Pommerening, who has immersed herself in the digital age/culture of technology. The majority of her life is spent keeping up to date with the social media outlets. Almost every waking minute of her life is spent on her phone, computer or any other digital media outlet she is exploited too.
The young girl strives to maintain her well put together social media identity, thus, causing a tremendous amount of anxiety in her life. Determined to maintain the perfect image of one's self on and off screen. One can control an image through social media; however, the anxiety arises trying to keep up with that image in real life. Baym describes technology as integrated into our everyday life, adapting our daily practices. Pommerening adapts the way she looks and acts, all to keep up the perfect image that is displayed on social media. It has become such a daily routine for her, thus, becoming a nature reaction. This action for her has now been domesticated into her everyday life and how she portrays herself to her peers and society. The anxiety is created by simply wanting to be “one of the girls who knows what to post, how to caption it when to like, what to comment". This feeling has become nature to Katherine and she now bases her life around it. 
I chose the theoretical framework, “Domestication of Technology” because this perceptive seemed the most logical to me. I was able to connect to the way of thinking and how social media and new technologies affect my day-to-day life.
An example of the anxiety that is caused by social media is the story about Amanda Todd and how cyberbullying caused her to take her own life. The link below will give you more information.
Shianne I really enjoyed your post! I liked that your post was on the domestication of technology as technology has impacted our lives so greatly over over the years. Especially in this day in age I can't imagine someone without a smartphone or being connected to social media in one way or another. It is sad how much we rely on digital technology. I also really liked how you touched on the subject of the "perfect self" it is hard to say that people are authentic nowadays online because many people alter the way they look and act online. It is hard to know what someones true self is by what is portrayed online. Being online I think people might under or over-exaggerate certain parts of their life, and it is easy too with all the different tools available to us online now. Overall great post!
ReplyDeleteAmy Santos
Great post! Your "social media makes me..." picture really shows how the anxiety around social media is universal. We all feel a sense of "FOMO" when going through our social media accounts. We see people's lives through photos but the thing is that we only see the good things in people lives. People post about nights out and trips but no one posts about negative things. What we see is a very small glimpse in someone's world but we think we see the whole picture and that is where the anxiety kicks in. We see other people having fun and think their lives are so much better than ours when really they could be having issues as well, they just don't post about them.
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