Social Media Addiction

Breaking the Gender Roles

Annie Murphy Paul’s “Is Pink Necessary” was an interesting read for me. It concentrated a lot on the fact that “external signs – clothing, hairstyle, favorite color, choice of toys – determine one’s sex.” If this really applied, I would probably have been considered a boy when I was a child.

Growing up, I was never interested in playing dress up, Barbies or baby dolls. Instead, I spent my time outside riding four wheelers with my brother and cousin, 5 days a week on the softball field, and countless hours playing every sport possible in my front yard. I preferred riding bikes and roller blading over tea parties and playing house, and I was more interested in ESPN than Disney movies.

Sometimes, I believe that being a “tomboy” growing up helped me become a much more well rounded individual. By playing sports, I learned many characteristics that have been beneficial in my collegiate years and in both of my internships, and I know that these characteristics will be very beneficial for me in the future as well. I have gained leadership experience, a strong work ethic, responsibility, and strong communication skills.

I believe that allowing young girls and boys to break the gender roles is very important. It does not matter if a boy’s favorite color is pink and his favorite toy is a Barbie, and it doesn’t matter if a girl’s favorite color is blue and she likes to play in the dirt. There is a lot to be learned from possessing characteristics that have been deemed for the “other” sex.

Social Media is Changing the Way We Eat

I never put much thought into the ways in which our diets are changing with the evolution of social media. After browsing through my Instagram pictures, I realized nearly 35 of my pictures were of food. I can almost guarantee that there are at least two pictures of food on m timeline every time I check Instagram. This led me to the realization that our society is obsessed with taking pictures of our food and posting them for everyone to see.

Growing up, my family always sat down for dinner together every night. Our phones were never welcome, so it was a shock for me to come to college and have dinner with my friends…and their phones. Generally, it was difficult to have a conversation with my friends at dinner because they were so consumed by their phones.  Since being at school, I have noticed myself start using my phone at meals as well. It is normal for all of us to be scrolling through social media while out at a restaurant. For the most part, tweets or posts we see are what spark conversations. The constant need for being plugged in has definitely changed the way we eat as a society for two reasons.

As the “How the Web is Changing the Way We Eat” article mentioned, we are beginning to favor many smaller servings that we can share with our friends at dinner. This definitely applies to my friends and me. When going to a restaurant, we usually all order one or two small appetizers and share them.  

I think social media also affects the way we eat because we are constantly scrolling through seeing pictures people post of their meals. There have been many times I have seen a picture on Instagram and then decided to make that for dinner or to go eat somewhere because I saw someone posted a picture of their food from that restaurant. There is a lot social media has changed, and the way we eat is definitely at the top of the list.

Branding

After reading the Noel C. Paul article, Branded for Life, I was very intrigued by the statistics it provided. In the article, it mentioned that children begin recognizing characters, colors and symbols in infancy, brands at 18 months and they begin asking for products by name at age 2.

I was aware that companies are beginning to target children much more frequently in their marketing efforts, but I did not realize how effective their efforts actually had become. I began to recognize how influential these brands were when we viewed the Brand Recognition by a Child YouTube video in class. The number of brands the five-year-old child recognized blew my mind.

I took some time to play around with this concept with my cousin’s three-year-old daughter. I was amazed by the amount of brands she was able to name. I was also incredibly impressed when I took the time to watch her as she asked for various things at dinnertime and was able to pick out what she wanted while grocery shopping by referring to the product name.  It is mind-blowing to think how marketers are beginning to just bypass the parents and directly target children.

I believe knowing how to use the product goes hand in hand with recognition of the brand and product. There are several products this is very evident with, but I think the iPhone is the most prominent. Companies are making apps that are targeted towards young children or parents of young children because children know how to iPhones and iPads.

Personally, I do not agree with marketers directly targeting a much younger demographic. I am confident this causes many issues for children as they grow older. By learning the "best" brands at an early age, they almost have a sense of entitlement and a desire for the best of everything. I feel that marketers should cease the targeting of the younger audience, but I do not foresee this happening because it seems to be a very effective marketing strategy.

Parasocial Relationships

Parasocial relationships are definitely a topic that I was most interested in this semester. I was very invested in the discussion because I felt that it directly applied to my life, as well as many of my friends.

Let me tell you about my roommate, Kolbi. Kolbi is in love with Jax Teller, the President of the Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle club, and the star of the popular television show, Sons of Anarchy. Kolbi binge watched the entire series on Netflix to get caught up to the weekly episodes in a matter of weeks. During this time, Sons of Anarchy was brought up in daily conversations when Kolbi would tell all of our roommates why she was in love with Jax and how she would marry him one day.

After walking into the house one day to Kolbi lying on the floor and crying in the fetal position because Jax just held his dying wife, I knew she had a problem. However, I was not sure what this problem was until we discuss parasocial relationships in class. According to the Rhetorical Power of Popular Culture,  parasocial relationships are “one-sided relationships where one party knows a great deal about the other party, but the other does not.”

Since our discussion in class, I have realized that I have established many parasocial relationships throughout my life. Netflix fuels the fire for many people I know because it allows viewers to watch episode after episode. Watching episodes in the privacy of their own home, they are able to connect with the characters as details are revealed. In turn, these details create a sense of realism because the characters become believable and their experiences are relatable. Therefore, it is easy for viewers to feel personally connected to the television characters.

It is easy to judge people like my roommate for their obsessions, but it is important to remember that producers and streaming sites like Netflix should be taking some of the blame.

Capturing the Moment

Steve Furtick said it best, "The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind-the-scenes with everyone's highlight reel." Not only has Instagram sparked a new level of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out), it has become the big screen for everyone's highlight reel. Of course everything we see on Instagram is going to be "picture perfect." We are all guilty of it. We want everyone to see the good. We save the bad and the ugly for late night chats with our best friends, when snap an Instagram pic of the cookie dough and wine with a caption about how amazing our friends are.

Every girl’s night out, beautiful sunset, trip to Puerto Vallarta, birthday, snow day and everything in between requires an Instagram picture. We are no longer focused on living in the moment; we are focused on capturing the moment. We take time getting the perfect angle and staging the perfect picture, then we have to collaborate with our friends to decide which filter makes the picture look the best. What are we missing out on while spending 10 minutes to get the perfect Instagram picture?

Not only do we take time to create the perfect picture and scroll through the Instagram feed looking at everyone’s crafted photos, we are constantly comparing likes. On multiple occasions, I have heard comments like, “Ahh I got 105 likes on this picture. That’s a new record!” Instagram has created an unspoken competition. Who can get the most followers, comments and likes?

We are consumed by Instagram and everything it has to offer: the feeling when we finally get the PERFECT picture, a record-setting number of likes on a photo and the parasocial relationships we create (If you haven’t heard of Theo and Beau, go check out mommasgonecity. Your heart will MELT!). As Williams mentioned in The Agony of Instagram, Instagram is becoming an epidemic. I think it’s crazy when I meet someone that doesn’t have an Instagram, but maybe they are the ones that have it figured out. They may not have all of their moments captured, but maybe they have enjoyed the moments a little bit more than those of us focused on the best filter.