Public Social Media

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I will start this off by saying that I personally do not use public social media services like Facebook or Twitter (and the companies they own including Vine, Instagram, Voxer, etc.). I am one of the youngest students at this school; and have only barely made the age to have a Facebook account. I choose not to use them because I see no use in them currently. There are no people I know well enough to connect to through such a primitive method as a social media service.
I do, however, own a cell phone and use it semi-frequently to communicate with my family members to discuss schedules and arrangements. I’m not very independent when it comes to transportation. I do not use my phone to text people other than my family frequently enough to consider it a “social activity.”
Social validation is important; a Facebook like is a social signal. It affirms our existence the same way that someone nodding at you on the sidewalk does. But we’re also just learning to use social tools, experimenting to find out what it all means.
We have a tremendous double standard about what’s ok. Sharing inconsequential events is superficial; liking 'likes' is dangerous; if you post a selfie you’re a narcissist. All these worries reflect a level of moral panic or technophobia about new technologies. What drives us to use social media in the way we use it has less to do with social media platforms and more to do with psychology. People have the ‘fear of missing out’, others have an ego they like to craft, others like to feel like they have control and others get self-esteem from the comments and social generosity of others.
“The thing is, you need to build the ability to just be yourself and not be doing something. That’s what the phones and social media are ta...

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... of IM do not seem to me like a form of social media. They are more of a form a communication, like phones and telegrams. Social media has more to do with interaction with several other people, not just one friend. Someone texting you ‘Happy Birthday’ will, in most cases, not be as great as a hundred semi-strangers liking your ‘It’s my Birthday!’ post.
As far as lifestyles go, I think that some people can become addicted to social media in the fashion that Louis C.K. put. Some people get bullied by those ‘random strangers on the internet’ and go into serious depression. Some people like to connect to their friends and know what is going on around the world. Some people are introverted and don’t like to use social networks. But in my opinion, there isn’t a majority to take sides with. So I am agnostic towards whether or not social media is a good thing to our society.

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