After reading the article 13 right now and learning about Katherine Pommerening’s story surrounding her daily interactions with social media, I saw just how much has changed in the way we, and in this case young teenagers, interact with each other. Even from when I was 13 years old, there was not an as strong presence of social media between myself and my classmates. Everyone was just starting to get Facebook which was the start of my social media exposure. Now, young people are exposed to many more media forums and being on them is seen as the norm. When one is not participating on these sites, they can start to feel anxiety surrounding fitting in with those around them as well as feeling the need to constantly be up to date. In the second chapter of Personal Connections in the Digital Age, Baym discusses this sense of anxiety and feels the root of it are how interactive these media are. One of the four theoretical perspectives Baym states, social shaping of technology, looks at how along with the machines themselves, people and the social institutions they belong in, all influence how and to what extent technology is used. Social shaping of technology is not solely just the machines shaping the ways children of younger and younger ages are using social media, but it is also at the fault of how people create consequences and social norms from technology themselves.
In Katherine’s case, she feels that as social media became present in their lives, her and her friends stopped participating in the childhood games they used to play once they started interacting with their phones. Throughout the article, Katherine constantly feels the need to check her networking sites and discusses how her presence on social media can impact how she thinks others see her. This need to be constantly connected is growing more and more among the younger generation. People feel the need to have our phones always in their hands and anxiety arises when it is not immediately available to them. Just like how Katherine felt when she left her smartphone in her dad’s car. These feelings of anxiety are just like the ones Baym beings up and by using a social shaping of technology perspective, we can see how the ways the networks are used are impacting her as well as how those around her are also a factor.
I definitely agree Jorden! Both technology and society play a huge part in how we have learned to learn on our smart phones for interaction. One thing that really surprised me was how active Katherine was despite her constant need for her phone. She still loves playing basketball and being outdoors, but this may be due to her connection to her FitBit. If being healthy and active is something that Katherine and her friends value, then she may be able to leverage her number of steps to gain more popularity. Here, her social life has aided in how she uses technology in a new and exciting way.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with your blog post. I never thought about how "it is also at the fault of how people create consequences and social norms from technology themselves." Based on the technology we used, we create consequences of not being up to date or experience fear of missing out depending on what platform we our using. However, I do not think that this applies just to youth - I think it is very much real in adults as well.
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