Blog Post #2 - Victor Legrand

 

The social shaping of technology perspective is relevant when looking at the hidden research about Instagram's impact on teenage girls, as reported by The Guardian. This perspective emphasizes the reciprocal relationship between technology and society. In the case of Instagram, its design, including interactive features like sharing pictures and receiving likes, is not a neutral tool but is socially shaped to influence user behavior. The anxiety about interactivity becomes evident in how Instagram's design, influenced by societal values, contributes to issues like body image concerns among teenage girls, as highlighted in the leaked research. The social shaping perspective allows us to understand that the platform's features and their impact on well-being are not isolated but are interconnected with broader societal values and norms, reinforcing the concerns raised by Nancy Baym regarding the anxieties arising from interactive digital media.

Comments

  1. Dante TestaniJanuary 31, 2024 at 11:55 AM

    Hi Victor,

    First of all, I really enjoyed your blog post this week. I assumed everyone would have written about Kayla and 'Eighth Grade', so it was nice to see a different approach. When you discuss the emphasized reciprocal relationship between technology and society, which one of Baym's four perspectives best relates given the information?

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  2. Hannah AlexanderJanuary 31, 2024 at 1:46 PM

    Hi Victor, you did a nice job summarizing the Guardian's article! While I already knew that social media can worsen the body image perspective of users, it is saddening to read that the app increases rates of anxiety and depression among teens and that 1 in 3 girls experience a worsened body image after using Instagram. I think that the technological determinism perspective can definitely be seen here. Instagram is an external agent that statistically changes the thought process of users. Instagram's release of the option to turn off commenting or to hide the 'like' count, is a step in the right direction. However with the ubiquitous accessibility of photoshopping and editing, it is difficult to imagine that these stats will decrease in the future.

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  3. Kaileigh KleinFebruary 2, 2024 at 8:37 PM

    Hi Victor, great job summarizing the article, I completely agree that social media is harmful in shaping the false realities of other people for young girls. This can definetly cause anxiety for many people. It makes you wonder what the long-term impacts of these types of reactions to social media are, as these sites have only been around for a decade or so and we have no way of knowing how the anxieties of social media will truly effect people in the future. This article makes you wonder things like that.

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