Social Media Diversity

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Almost anything can become a symbol and can be given significant value. For a lot of countries, flags are a symbol and considered very valuable due to the meaning behind them. While symbolism can be very powerful and positive, it can also be very dangerous and cause disputes and separation. Danah Boyd in her article “Implications of User Choice: The Cultural Logic of ‘Myspace or Facebook?’” recognizes that social media has been used to symbolize differences in “race, socio-economic status, education, and lifestyle” (Boyd 412). Although these social media websites were not created with the intended use for social division, it was almost inevitable that it was going to happen. Due to the many social divisions already existing in society, it was …show more content…

In my personal experiences, social media caused social division due to existing lifestyles, hobbies, and fashion caused by sites being liked by certain social groups in my high school. Boyd in her article quotes a comment made by a student named Craig where his description of the segregation caused by social media “focuses on a comparison of MySpace and Facebook to a series of lifestyle brands” (413). While my high school was not clearly segregated into cliques, friend groups were usually made due to similar hobbies, such as sports, or similar interests such as fashion or comics. It was during high school that the popularity of social media became apparent to me, and honestly before high school and the introduction of social media I can’t remember what I had done online. By then Facebook was considered a site that everyone used, there was no social segregation. However, there was a segregation between people who used Instagram, Twitter, and Tumblr. When I first started learning about social media I was told that Instagram was used by the “preps”, anyone who was considered “social” and “popular” and usually played sports. Twitter was for “hipsters” whom were people that scorned the “preps” and liked grunge fashion and alternative music. Tumblr, the social media website I initially joined,

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