The Social Shaping of Technology

An article in the Washington Post highlighted the issues faced today with society’s dependence on technology but more specifically, our constant longing for connection and approval through social media platforms. The subject of the article is a 14-year-old girl, Katherine Pommerening, ideally representing every other teenager living in North America and their reliance on social media. She, like all the others, is attached to her phone and is essentially obsessed with the feeling of being connected. The article states, “There are only 25 photos on her page because she deletes most of what she posts. The ones that don’t get enough likes, don’t have good enough lighting or don’t show the coolest moments in her life must be deleted.” This is a clear indicator of her search for and constant need for approval through social media.

The anxieties faced through social media are feelings that most of society experiences everyday as our social media platforms become who we are. We start to find validity in these posts and photos even though they may not be accurate representations of our life or ourselves. Before a photo is usually posted, a lot of time goes into the editing and positioning of that perfect image others see. This connection is shaping how we live, as we spend more time living through social media than living in reality. People become absorbed in updating the world on their current activites that they don’t take the time to physically enjoy or appreciate their surroundings, ideally taking advantage of these social media forms and allowing them to replace our reality. Baym discusses this issue in how individuals, technologies, and institutions all have power to influence the development and intended use of technology (Baym, 45).  Last year, a famous Instagramer chose to no longer allow social media to be the driving force of her life. She went through her photos and changed their captions to show her followers the images for what they really were, not what they were meant to be. For example, she had a photo of her on the beach in which she changed the caption to how she probably hadn’t eaten that entire day so she could look thin for the photo and that instead of enjoying her time at the beach with her family, the entire day was spent yelling at her sister to keep taking her photo until she got the perfect one.

I chose this framework because it’s similar to the type of anxiety I’m exposed to daily through my social media. I find myself becoming envious of particular people at points while looking through their posts and photos and I have to remind myself that sometimes it’s not as accurate as it may seem.