Social Media By John Paul Titlow Analysis

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John Paul Titlow discusses the possible positive effects of the increase in social media in one’s everyday life. In his essay, “#Me: Narcissism and the Scourge of the Selfie,” he explains that while social media platforms such as Instagram may seem to just encourage narcissism, in fact they may be helping to improve the self-image of it’s user. This is an effect from the increased exposure to less professionally constructed images compared to those we normally run into in popular media and advertising. From my own personal experience with social media I can agree with this claim. While some images on social media can still be edited or distorted, it is rarely to the same degree as professional advertisements. In addition, the types of people …show more content…

Instead he tries to understand the positive effects if this dramatic increase in the influences of social media over our lives. Titlow describes it as a break from the highly edited and crafted world of popular media and advertisement photography, stating, “It used to be that most of the photographs of other people we encountered were carefully crafted images of flawless-looking individuals portrayed in popular media and advertising.” In contrast, while some images are still edited on social media, the degree in which this done is severally decrease. Society is growing use to seeing images of everyday people instead of celebrities or models. In addition with the increase in popularity of the social media platform Snapchat, even the photographs of celebrities or models we see are not as professionally crafted, despite a silly puppy or flower crown filter. Titlow then goes on to reference psychologist’s fear of the effects of those carefully construction images from popular media on one’s self image. He connects the idea of these less processed and more diverse images from Instagram or other platforms as a solution to these fears. It’s a simple concept, when people are surrounded by pictures of real people instead of one’s with unattainable beauty standards, they are less likely to hold themselves to such unrealistic

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