Final Digital Project

From both my Social Media class and my internship at SimplyZinhle Productions this semester, I've learned a lot about social media. Here's what I know and how I learned it:

I really enjoyed using my knowledge of positive psychology to share happiness activities with the rest of the class. Here's how I got interested in the topic:

Trends in Social Media

A lot of what I learned this semester came from what my classmates shared on Twitter.

I enjoyed learning how companies use social media to brand themselves as more personable than competitors, whether that’s by “throwing shade," as Rachel says, at another company, or using a funny meme. Even though companies have business accounts, social media allows them to have more personality and use humor in a new way.

Or...it exacerbates when they fail:

Social media allowed the video of the doctor being dragged off the United Airlines flight to spread. United failed to use social media to their advantage with an adequate apology, and their market value dropped. It's hard to have sympathy.

Social media is not only changing how businesses work, but our culture, too. I very much appreciated this tweet from Emily:

I had never consciously considered how Instagram has changed what we choose to eat, but it makes sense. Social media makes us want to showcase our lives in the best possible light, and with apps like Instagram, this translates to making our lives visually appealing. This goes back to people engaging in activities with the purpose of sharing a photo of it on social media, which I talked about in my previous blog post.

I also stayed on top of social media trends myself this semester. I noticed three major trends:

1. Companies are quick to use a competitor's failure to promote themselves, often inspired because of social media backlash.

This was seen multiple times: Uber vs. Lyft, United vs. Delta, Pepsi vs. Heineken. In the Uber vs. Lyft example below, it's debatable whether either company is taking action solely for their public image, but it's clear that social media played a role in them choosing to take action at all.

2. The debate about free speech on social media is just getting started.

Is social media a right or a privilege? If it's a privilege, who should not have it? How should that be determined? In the case below, I'm sure it was argued that sex offenders could endanger others through their use of social media. That makes sense to me, but I'm sure others would hesitate at agreeing with this, and I can see why--social media allows free speech.

Free speech also comes under debate over the case below, where Twitter locked accounts that swore at celebrities.

As I say in my tweet, I don't agree with this. This is censorship, in my opinion. It's also determined by algorithms, which leads into my last trend...

3. Algorithms are everywhere.

And I mean everywhere. I doubt there is an ad you see that wasn't specifically targeted for you. It's made me paranoid--is there anything that isn't curated by an algorithm? As I say in these tweets, are my Twitter feeds determined by algorithms? (I think yes.) When I read an article on a social media cleanse, a tweet for a similar article from The New York Times popped up the next day. I follow The New York Times on Twitter, so was it coincidental, or did they know?

It makes me feel like I'm being watched at all times, but I'm being dramatic. It's just my online presence being tracked, not me! Ha ha...I feel so much better now...

Concerns in Social Media

Social media is powerful. We stay connected with people we otherwise might never hear from after high school, we learn from people in different countries with different experiences, we watch movements like #BlackLivesMatter form and reach people who wouldn’t have access to it without social media.

But social media can also enable a happiness-sucking addiction. In The Craving Mind, Dr. Judson Brewer analyzes how social media notifications act as positive reinforcement, each “bing” giving us a hit of dopamine. This leads us to craving this validation through posting on our social media accounts. These articles show just how possible it is for social media to harm personal relationships, whether it's with family (shown in the picture), or with peers (discussed in the quote).

I have never encountered anything in life that is not improved by moderation. Social media is not exempt from this. If people are looking to decrease their dependence on social media, I would suggest they turn off the app’s notifications or delete the app altogether, keeping their account only accessible through a computer. For organizations that use social media, I would recommend ensuring that social media posts center on engagement so they feel enjoyable and productive for your users.

Social media has changed how we operate on a daily basis. As social media continues to evolve, so will how we go about our daily lives. Perhaps this is seen most clearly in how dating has changed in the last decade.

This Vanity Fair article on Tinder shows the app in its worst light: an app that encourages random hook-ups and shallow relationships. It would make anyone want to swipe left on deciding to download the app. (Swipe left = Tinder language for “not interested.”)

Here's a quote from the article:

Dating apps can be successful, though, with some thoughtful planning. In Aziz Ansari’s book Modern Romance, which focuses on dating in the digital age, discusses this. He concludes, backed up by dating experts, that dating apps are most successful when people use them as “introducing” apps. In other words, you use the app to meet someone, exchange a few messages, and then arrange a time to meet in person. Dating apps should be centered on the first part of that: dating. Not the apps themselves.

Ultimately, it is up to us how we decide to engage with social media.

We can attach our self-esteem on the number of Instagram likes or shallowness of digital relationships through dating apps, or we can connect with old friends and new social movements.