Week 5: Academic literature

http://www.pewinternet.org/2018/04/17/concerns-about-the-future-of-peoples-well-being/

Even though my opinion is that social media negatively affects how we choose to perceive ourselves, i wanted to research to see if this opinion was agreed by others. I came across this article that was specifically discussing the concerns that social media has on people's well beings and how this could increase in the future.

Although social media has many technological benefits for communication the article states that it consumes a negative energy which will always come alongside any technological development. No matter how many positives it may come with, 'digital life has and will continue to have a dark side'. The article further explains that while we are to believe that our media is constantly updating to better our interactivity, 'much like a mutating virus, digital services and devices keep churning out new threats along with the new benefits'. An example of this is the encouragement to spend more and more time using social media. As a result, it acts like a virus in the sense that it over takes and controls the way we think and act. We believe that whatever we see in social media is a reality we can reach, although a lot of the time, media is altered and over exaggerated to meet an impossible expectation.

Consumers are 'simply in denial' about their compulsive and excessive attitude towards using social media and refuse to accept that this form of interactivity is 'addictive'. Our choices to stay indoors and spend more time online inclines feelings of isolation and loneliness, the article argues that 'digital addictions are promoting depression...and even suicidal behaviour'. Although we may feel connected through our online community, we start to neglect our physical identity and forget to care for ourselves in favour of our virtual character we expose online

Despite this possibility of depression in the works, consumers begin to accept their addiction and 'come to feel a sense of entitlement about their habits'. Consumers begin to prefer their online identity and how they are perceived through a screen which suggests we compromise our emotional psychology to carry on being our idolised selves. The article further explains that this 'creates a very human problem: the anxiety of not knowing oneself'. We become so obsessed with portraying a life we want rather than sharing the life we already have and therefore begin to forget ourselves, becoming glued to our phones. We rely on social media for communication, comfort and companionship and therefore 'we will no longer see people's faces, only the blue or white screens reflecting from this effervescent gaze'.

This article was extremely useful and interesting, as most of the opinions and arguments fit exactly with my views on the negatives of social media and how the outcomes could possibly effect our well being. Going forward i really want to focus on how the article explains that we 'feel a sense of entitlement' and how it describes social media as a 'virus' which 'mutates'. Even though social media slowly consumes all that we are, our habits to pick up the phone and log in to the online society is something we have come to terms with and do not want to give up. Creating photo shoots in which subjects are concealed or being consumed into an object/liquid will connote consumers giving themselves to the virtual world.