Social Media is up to you

Social Media is so many things to so many people. Is it good or bad or just a little bit of both? You will get different responses depending on the person you ask. For our first reading in class, we learned about George Herbert Mead and his theory about “I” and “Me”. Mead believed that a person's “me” are the outside forces that affect a person and how they think. He believed that people’s reactions, thoughts, and sayings can affect how a person will define themselves. The “me” is also what you believe others are reacting, thinking, and saying about you. The person’s “I” is there true self and everything that is original about that person. This is a concept that can easily affect what people are posting and how we think about it. When we think about social media, you think of it as this pretend thing. We are so used to seeing perfect lighting, poses and memories. This is sometimes hard to see because we our comparing these “perfect” memories to our current situations which may or may not be ideal. A lot of social media is people portraying what they think others want them to portray.  This feeds into the concept of Mead’s theory of “me” because one is controlling what they post on these platforms because they are thinking of what others may say. I was also using Mead's theory earlier today when thinking about how our class was reacting to social media. In class discussions, most of us talk about how social media is “bad” and “all fake”. We even went as far as saying that it was a waste of time to be on it. Yet I really think none of us have stopped using social media because of these thoughts. Why do we think so poorly of social media yet we never stop using it? I do not really believe that we all think so badly of these platforms, we just have heard the narrative that social media was bad and so we use it because we think that it is what each other wants to hear. When in reality, we all really enjoy looking at social media and want to continue posting memories and our life’s snapshots. This coincides with Mead’s theory because the social thought of social media is portrayed to us in a bad way but we continue to use it as our own because we want to fit into this narrative.
Social media in the past was used for quick snapshots of your life. I would say these were the highlights on social media pages but in the past couple of years, people are now posting everything they are going through and their posts are no longer the highlights but more of a diary. People are becoming more honest and forthcoming in what they are posting. You see people posting about their break ups, deaths, insecurities, and struggles they are going through. They want something to look back on and see what they were going through. In Humphreys’ chapter that we read this past week, she talked about journals. People use to write everything in their journals from the amazing food they were having to the fights that happened in their households. After the journal was full, they would send it off for their families to read. This way the family knew what was going on with each other. The diaries were used as a form of communication and I think that social media is bringing back a form of a diary for people. I think this is happening for a couple of reasons. The first one I think is just convenience. We can post something on one social media page and it will reach so many people at an instant rate. The second reason why I think people are using social media as a diary is because people feel that social media is forever; when you post something it is essentially on the internet forever and people want those memories in a safe spot and the internet is a little easier to carry around than a diary is.  Facebook has made it super easy for people because they will give you memories of what you have posted at the top of your timeline. When you stop looking at the internet as a place that is a fake place where people post just to post but rather as a place where people are keeping you updated with their life. That they are posting because they care about you, it makes the internet just a little more of a happy place. There are still some people who do not believe that social media should not be used as a diary.
Palomar college independent newspaper “The Telescope”, posted an article stating that they do not believe that social media should be used as a diary because it contains private information and so many employers do ask for your social media handles because they want to see what you are posting. I do think this a true and valid statement but I also think that this can keep people updated with your life; including the good and the bad. Also maybe it will help people be more compassionate to each other since we know when someone is having a hard period in their lives. However, no matter who you are, you will go through tough times in your life and having people to help you and support you, will just make this time a little bit easier. At the end of the day, I think how you want to use your social media is up to you. You control your own happiness and who am I, Mead, Humphreys, and Palomar College to tell you otherwise.

Sources:
“'I' And the 'Me'.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 28 Dec. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/'I'_and_the_'me'.

“Social Media Isn't Your Diary #Sorrynotsorry.” Evolution of Modern Humans:  Early Modern Human Culture, 13 Mar. 2017, www2.palomar.edu/telescope/2016/02/13/social-media-isnt-your-diary-sorrynotsorry/.

Humphreys, Lee. The Qualified Self: Social Media and the Accounting of Everyday Life. The MIT Press, 2018.