What do we feel when we're on and off Facebook and other social networking tools? Do we feel the strong urge to check our phone for the latest updates? Do we look for the numbers of comments/likes/shares in order to validate our lives to be ones as successful and happy as others?
As the New Yorker article states, "Facebook isn’t the problem. It’s the symptom". We choose what to post, and more and more know that says something about us. In the few years since the rise of the internet and social networks, individuals and society is still working out how to adjust to the new tools and technology available to us. These early years have been a burst of revelation and sharing, reminding me of the first days of a student at university, finally away from home and able to sample quickly an attractive selection of drugs, alcohol and sex. But the vast majority of us do not succeed in life by living in that way. We work out our place at college, and then in life.
So, I think, we all have to work out our place in the digital landscape. I think we will become wiser to the personas we choose to play in various digital arenas. As Kathleen Richarson writes, "we are all participating in mediating our real lives". Let's become wiser so we both project a truer view of ourselves to those we select, and also better can be aware of the distortions of others.
And hopefully those who have been sucked into a more passive role, resulting in boredom at best, but depression and sadness at worst, can recognise what they have been sucked into, and understand that their value is not one to be assessed against the most flattering updates of their friends and networks.
The End of Aura | robot anthropology: Me2: Kathleen Richardson examines how digital technology and virtual existence present challenges to the human spirit.
How Facebook Makes Us Unhappy : The New Yorker
"little is known about how social media impact on self-image. Young women are particularly high users of social networking sites and post more photographs of themselves on the internet than do men.
To look at the impact on body image, researchers at the University of Strathclyde, Ohio University and University of Iowa surveyed 881 female college students in the US...
The research, presented at a conference in Seattle, found no link with eating disorders. But it did find a link between time spent on social networks and negative comparisons about body image. The more time women spent on Facebook, the more they compared their bodies with those of their friends, and the more they felt negative about their appearance."
As the New Yorker article states, "Facebook isn’t the problem. It’s the symptom". We choose what to post, and more and more know that says something about us. In the few years since the rise of the internet and social networks, individuals and society is still working out how to adjust to the new tools and technology available to us. These early years have been a burst of revelation and sharing, reminding me of the first days of a student at university, finally away from home and able to sample quickly an attractive selection of drugs, alcohol and sex. But the vast majority of us do not succeed in life by living in that way. We work out our place at college, and then in life.
So, I think, we all have to work out our place in the digital landscape. I think we will become wiser to the personas we choose to play in various digital arenas. As Kathleen Richarson writes, "we are all participating in mediating our real lives". Let's become wiser so we both project a truer view of ourselves to those we select, and also better can be aware of the distortions of others.
And hopefully those who have been sucked into a more passive role, resulting in boredom at best, but depression and sadness at worst, can recognise what they have been sucked into, and understand that their value is not one to be assessed against the most flattering updates of their friends and networks.
The End of Aura | robot anthropology: Me2: Kathleen Richardson examines how digital technology and virtual existence present challenges to the human spirit.
"Academics, including myself,
have tended to see the rise of participation in the web as a challenge to the
retreat from public life, but I now believe that in fact, the web is part of
the retreat. If Web 2.0 represents a shift from hierarchical structures to
democratic ones - a digital world where we can all potentially participate in
broadcasting ourselves - in practice that must also mean we are all
participating in mediating our real lives. And that real life becomes mere
material for our creation of a digital performance."
"in
every study that distinguished the two types of Facebook experiences—active
versus passive—people spent, on average, far more time passively scrolling
through newsfeeds than they did actively engaging with content... Demands on
our attention lead us to use Facebook more passively than actively, and passive
experiences, no matter the medium, translate to feelings of disconnection and
boredom…
Whenever
we have downtime, the Internet is an enticing, quick solution that immediately
fills the gap. We get bored, look at Facebook or Twitter, and become more
bored. Getting rid of Facebook wouldn’t change the fact that our attention is,
more and more frequently, forgetting the path to proper, fulfilling engagement.
And in that sense, Facebook isn’t the problem. It’s the symptom."
BBC News - 'Selfie' body image warning issued:"little is known about how social media impact on self-image. Young women are particularly high users of social networking sites and post more photographs of themselves on the internet than do men.
To look at the impact on body image, researchers at the University of Strathclyde, Ohio University and University of Iowa surveyed 881 female college students in the US...
The research, presented at a conference in Seattle, found no link with eating disorders. But it did find a link between time spent on social networks and negative comparisons about body image. The more time women spent on Facebook, the more they compared their bodies with those of their friends, and the more they felt negative about their appearance."
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