Social Media Article


So this week I will cover a topic that I find very interesting. Social media in my opinion has become an extremely powerful force that influences our lives every day. That is especially true when we talk about how it impacts the younger users. I read a very interesting article called “A Teenager’s view on social media” where the author, 19-year-old college student Andrew Watts, summarizes for us how people in his age bracket and younger, view the different social media outlets. I no longer belong to that group of users, so hearing from someone who does made me better understand what they think about each one of these sites.

Honestly, my favorite quote on his very interesting article is when he describes the way they see Facebook as “something we all got in middle school because it was cool but now is seen as an awkward family dinner party we can't really leave”. And that is so true because I am a Facebook user and I do not see too many posts from young people in my family. It is most of us over thirty that use Facebook to keep in touch with old friends and family. But they cannot leave Facebook because it is so popular and they need to fit in with the rest of their family members. But in reality, they prefer other platforms like Instagram and Snapchat because their privacy settings allow younger users to be themselves without the worry of their parents, uncles, etc. reading their posts. Also, Snapchat for example, doesn’t focus on “likes or Comments”, as it simply allows people to post short videos for a duration of 24 hours and then gets automatically deleted. This means that there is less social pressure attached to it because user’s aren’t being judged by how many likes they get on their posts, or having to read bullish comments.

Image from business2community.com

At the end of the day, it does not matter which social media outlet people use. The truth of the matter is that social media is the future, driven by young users who crave the attention of their followers and will post anything in order to achieve that. Companies have also caught on to this and find themselves heavily advertising their products on social media and finding ways to connect with the younger prospective clients. Social media is here to stay and only time will tell how much impact it will have on society moving forward.

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