"There Once Was Life Without Snapchat and Instagram?" ~Teens' Take on Social Media
I read the article, "A Teenager's View on Social Media" because I was curious to see what teens would say on the topic. I am 26 years old myself, still not too far out of my teenage years, so I felt like I would possibly be able to relate to some of the points made in this article. Some things that I have "heard through the grapevine" before reading this article are that teens don't really like or use Facebook and Instagram is the social media application that they seem to flock to more now. This point was addressed in the article, so I now know that the rumors are true. I never understood the reasons why, though.
When I was a teenager, Facebook was created and was really one of the first forms of social media to take flight in popularity, well other than MySpace, which I never had an account with. In my high school years, Facebook was "all the rage" and everyone had an account, and you had to be friends with everyone. In fact, just recently, I went through my friend list and deleted several "friendships" of people that I had "friended" in high school just because we had one class together but never talked to each other. The ultimate goal was to get as many friends as you possibly could and then post every picture you ever take whether it was good, bad, or ugly. Don't worry, I deleted all of those pictures from my account a while ago as well. According to Andrew Watts, the teenager who wrote the article, "A Teenager's View on Social Media," teenagers all still have Facebook because "everyone has it," but they rarely go on it to post things. Teenagers compare Facebook to "an awkward family dinner party [they] can't really leave." I thought it was interesting that teens feel this way about Facebook, but still have accounts and use Facebook as the primary way to find someone they have just met on social media. This is apparently due to the powerful search functionality that gives you results of people who you actually have a chance of knowing that other social media platforms don't really have.
Andrew Watts did write a "follow up" article titled, "Where Weird Facebook is King: How a College Kid Does Social," which was written two years after the previous article updating everyone on teen's use of social media. In this article, Andrew mentions that Facebook usage by teens has increased due to some of the new features that have recently been implemented within the social media platform, such as Facebook Live, "Weird Facebook", increased emphasis on sharing videos over text, and Messenger. I have never heard of "Weird Facebook," so I was starting to feel old after reading this update article. Overall, I feel that I can connect with teens in relation to Facebook in the sense that not very often do I go on Facebook and post things that are happening in my life. I know people who will upload everything that they are doing every minute of the day, and that is not me. I do enjoy going on Facebook and seeing what people are up to throughout the day/week unlike teenagers. Also, unlike teenagers, Facebook is still very prevalent in my daily life because I comfortable in how to use it since it has been a part of my life since 8th grade. The other social media platforms came out much later and I am still figuring out how to best use them, especially Twitter and Instagram.
According to Andrew Watts, Instagram and Snapchat are the most "used" social media amongst teens. An interesting concept that Watts brings up in relation to Snapchat is that teens utilize this so frequently because of the fact that there is a lot less social pressure attached to the "posts" that you share with others. For example, when you send a Snapchat to someone individually or on your "story", you don't have to worry about comments or likes because there is no functional capability to "like" or show approval to snaps other than through responses to the snaps. This is something that I could definitely connect with. Out of all of the newer social media platforms created, Snapchat is by far the one that I use most and feel most comfortable with. The comment that Andrew Watts made activated my subconscious and I completely agree that I have more confidence with Snapchat because of that pressure that is taken away. Whenever I post something on Facebook or Instagram and don't receive as many "likes" as I was hoping for, I immediately feel bad about myself and/or take the image down. It is silly, I know, but it is hard not to fall into those traps especially when you compare yourself to other people on social media that do get tons of "likes" on their posts.
Social media is everywhere around us and people from all age groups are utilizing it. This image shows that the majority of people that use social media are teens and young adults, which I would definitely agree with. These are the individuals who either grew up with social media and internet always existing as a major factor of societal norms, or growing up with social media and internet coming into existence at a time in which they were gaining more freedoms. However, you still see high usage of social media in the 30-49 year old and 50-64 year old age groups. I am curious to see what other social media platforms will come into existence and gain popularity and which ones will fizzle out of existence in the years to come.
Source: http://wpwww.bolehvpn.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/age-of-social-media-users.png
When I was a teenager, Facebook was created and was really one of the first forms of social media to take flight in popularity, well other than MySpace, which I never had an account with. In my high school years, Facebook was "all the rage" and everyone had an account, and you had to be friends with everyone. In fact, just recently, I went through my friend list and deleted several "friendships" of people that I had "friended" in high school just because we had one class together but never talked to each other. The ultimate goal was to get as many friends as you possibly could and then post every picture you ever take whether it was good, bad, or ugly. Don't worry, I deleted all of those pictures from my account a while ago as well. According to Andrew Watts, the teenager who wrote the article, "A Teenager's View on Social Media," teenagers all still have Facebook because "everyone has it," but they rarely go on it to post things. Teenagers compare Facebook to "an awkward family dinner party [they] can't really leave." I thought it was interesting that teens feel this way about Facebook, but still have accounts and use Facebook as the primary way to find someone they have just met on social media. This is apparently due to the powerful search functionality that gives you results of people who you actually have a chance of knowing that other social media platforms don't really have.
Andrew Watts did write a "follow up" article titled, "Where Weird Facebook is King: How a College Kid Does Social," which was written two years after the previous article updating everyone on teen's use of social media. In this article, Andrew mentions that Facebook usage by teens has increased due to some of the new features that have recently been implemented within the social media platform, such as Facebook Live, "Weird Facebook", increased emphasis on sharing videos over text, and Messenger. I have never heard of "Weird Facebook," so I was starting to feel old after reading this update article. Overall, I feel that I can connect with teens in relation to Facebook in the sense that not very often do I go on Facebook and post things that are happening in my life. I know people who will upload everything that they are doing every minute of the day, and that is not me. I do enjoy going on Facebook and seeing what people are up to throughout the day/week unlike teenagers. Also, unlike teenagers, Facebook is still very prevalent in my daily life because I comfortable in how to use it since it has been a part of my life since 8th grade. The other social media platforms came out much later and I am still figuring out how to best use them, especially Twitter and Instagram.
According to Andrew Watts, Instagram and Snapchat are the most "used" social media amongst teens. An interesting concept that Watts brings up in relation to Snapchat is that teens utilize this so frequently because of the fact that there is a lot less social pressure attached to the "posts" that you share with others. For example, when you send a Snapchat to someone individually or on your "story", you don't have to worry about comments or likes because there is no functional capability to "like" or show approval to snaps other than through responses to the snaps. This is something that I could definitely connect with. Out of all of the newer social media platforms created, Snapchat is by far the one that I use most and feel most comfortable with. The comment that Andrew Watts made activated my subconscious and I completely agree that I have more confidence with Snapchat because of that pressure that is taken away. Whenever I post something on Facebook or Instagram and don't receive as many "likes" as I was hoping for, I immediately feel bad about myself and/or take the image down. It is silly, I know, but it is hard not to fall into those traps especially when you compare yourself to other people on social media that do get tons of "likes" on their posts.
Social media is everywhere around us and people from all age groups are utilizing it. This image shows that the majority of people that use social media are teens and young adults, which I would definitely agree with. These are the individuals who either grew up with social media and internet always existing as a major factor of societal norms, or growing up with social media and internet coming into existence at a time in which they were gaining more freedoms. However, you still see high usage of social media in the 30-49 year old and 50-64 year old age groups. I am curious to see what other social media platforms will come into existence and gain popularity and which ones will fizzle out of existence in the years to come.
I really enjoyed your blog. This was definitely a different way to think about social media...in the eyes/minds of our student rather than what we think or appear to know/see about it. I agreed with pretty much everything as I am 25 so were are kind of in the same boat with our social media upbringing. The comparison of Facebook being like a dinner party you can't leave is hysterical and I can see the truth behind it. I do not post much on Facebook anymore unless it's a big life event or I am with a lot of people for something and I use it much more to stalk others to see what's going on in their lives or watch popular posted videos. I am also curious on to what social media will be used in future and also to see if these percentages will increase because the generations are growing up with it or decrease because some new future technology makes it unnecessary in the future. Great post...had me thinking!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed Watts' articles but I wish there was one from an actual teenager that was current. If anything this tells me as educators we simply need to be aware of what platforms students are using so they can potentially be hijacked by educators (and adults, thus causing them to flee these networks just like they did Facebook!). Thanks for including the infographic (and its source). Now you know how to create your own!
ReplyDeleteThree questions came to mind when I read, "Whenever I post something on Facebook or Instagram and don't receive as many 'likes' as I was hoping for, I immediately feel bad about myself and/or take the image down. It is silly, I know, but it is hard not to fall into those traps especially when you compare yourself to other people on social media that do get tons of 'likes' on their posts." So now I'm asking: Why do we post? What do we think posts indicate about us -- our thoughtfulness, our cleverness, our creativity? To what extent do we link our "worth" (i.e: howthoughtful, clever, creative we are) to the number of likes we get/don't get? I ask because I also know that pang of disappointment when an Instagram post gets only 3 or 4 likes. Then I tell myself that I didn't necessarily post it for feedback, but for creativity's sake or as an update or some such. Or I note that even when I wanted a lot of likes, not every at-bat is a grand slam or even a home run. Sometimes it's just a single and that's good too. And of course, strikouts happen as well! I'm fascinated by how social media grab us and keep us coming back. I don't know if you saw my post last term, but Nir Eyal's description of how social media tap into behavioral processing is empowering once we know what's going on. It let's us disrupt the cycle when we're aware we're in it.
ReplyDeleteI liked being able to see the point of view of the student and your input at the same time. I can see how the use of facebook has declined over the years for the teenager range. It was all the rage when I started college, and even now I am not on it very often to post things. I find that I use it just to "stalk" friends and family. The new rage with snapchat is about the streaks you can get the longer you keep a conversation between each other. The snaps clearing after 24 hours I think makes a difference as well. Though, the users can now screenshot a lot of the things that have been posted. It is a constant reminder that even if you think it disappears after 24 hours, others can still have it somehow. I also wonder what the next big social media app will be next.
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