Blog Post 2 - Abby Klar
Baym defines social shaping of technology as a combination of affordances and the unexpected and emergent ways that people use those affordances, asking us to consider how societal circumstances give rise to technologies, and the practices of use as possibilities and constraints that are taken up and reworked in daily life. After reading the Guardian article, I reflected on how the Instagram creates a specific type of sociality, which is then reinforced by the user throughout their activity, resulting in negative effects on self-esteem issues, particularly among teenage girls. The choices that people make when it comes to uploading appear to have glorifying elements where they represent a perfect lifestyle and image for their followers. This in turn affects those viewing these posts and can cause anxiety from the platform's interactive nature. In some cases, users often upload items that don’t authentically demonstrate their lives or how they're feeling. This type of false identity construction and anxieties that stem from it, may be related to the platform's interactive affordances such as likes, comments, followers, and reposts. However, I believe it lies more in the emergent ways people use these affordances, particularly in the context of misleading representations of a person's lifestyle and physical appearance.
Hi Abby! I love your discussion of false identities on social media! On Instagram, users often curate their posts to present a carefully crafted image of themselves. These posts only show the best of themselves, creating a sense of an idealized life. This discrepancy between perception and reality can lead to feelings of insecurity and low self-esteem in those who compare their lives to those idealized on the platform. At the same time, the interactive features on social media platforms (likes, comments, and retweets) fuel the cycle of social comparison. Individuals measure their worth and success through the seemingly perfect lives and images of others, which can erode self-esteem and lead to low self-esteem, especially among teenagers.
ReplyDeleteMONICA´S COMMENT
ReplyDeleteHi Abby,
You are absolutely right in what you have put in this post, the nature and purpose of Instagram makes users, more specifically teenage girls, develop high levels of anxiety. Not only because of what you say about likes or followers, but also because there is a very high degree of comparison when we see the lives of third parties. We always upload the photo we like the most, the most beautiful photo that often does not match reality, but we capture a good moment and upload it, making our followers think that we have a perfect life. Teenagers are still in the process of growing and maturing and being immersed in these platforms is not good for them, as they are not able to distinguish between reality and fiction, often falling into the lie that fiction is real, and therefore, they want to achieve impossible things. I think it is a very delicate matter, and although it is difficult, it is necessary to find some kind of solution as soon as possible.