Social Networking Sites
Social networking sites have become a large part of many
people’s daily lives. According to the online slideshow the average person
spends roughly 2.5 hours per day on social media sites. I wanted to learn more
about how spending so much time on these social networking sites effected
people mentally. In order to do that we must first outline what makes a social
networking site. According to the online slideshow, in order to meet the
criteria of a social networking site it must: construct a public or
semi-public profile within a bounded system, articulate a list of other users
with whom they share a connection, and view and traverse their list of
connections and those made by others within the system. Based on this definition
I think that it is obvious why people tend to spend so much time on these
social networking sites. These sites bring people together and they can
socialize and share things about their lives all without leaving the comfort of
their own home.
I found one article that discusses all about how the use of
social networking sites effects a person’s self-image or as they call it in the
article, a persons “self-effect.” According to Valkenburg, “Self-effects are the effects of messages the
cognitions, emotions, attitudes, and behaviors of the message creators/senders
themselves.” One of the theories in the article that I found to be interesting
was the part where it talked about self-effects and the affordance of social
media. An interesting point that they bring up in that part of the article is
the contrast of self-effects in reality versus the same persons self-effects
online. People tend to share more personal information online than they
normally would in an offline setting. The article says that there are three
reasons for this. The first reason, according to the article, is that “it is more likely to lead to
internalization” meaning that people feel better about their self-effects when
they post positive things about themselves on their social media pages.
Another, reason is that people desire attention. People share more on social
media to gain acceptance, feedback, and sympathy from others. The third reason
that people share more information on social networking sites is because of the
affordance of social media. Having a profile on a social media site is
completely free. If you have access to the internet than you can create a profile
on a social networking site. After reading this article, I think that it is safe
to say that social networking sites have a profound influence on our self-effects.
These influences can be positive or negative, but overall, it is up to the user
to decide how they will use their social networking sites to better their
self-effect.
References
Valkenburg, P. M. (2017). Understanding Self-Effects in
Social Media. Human Communication Research, 43(4), 477–490.
https://doi-org.libweb.lib.utsa.edu/10.1111/hcre.12113
Studying the effects of spending this much time on social media is a worthwhile endeavor. When so many people spend time in the online ecosystem there will be inevitably be spillover into real life. Although social media does have benefits, understanding the negatives is also important. Since companies purposefully create these systems to optimize interaction time and keep people engaged, people can become virtually addicted.
ReplyDeleteHi Alex,
ReplyDeleteI agree that social networking sites can affect us in many ways. It can affect our self-esteem as well as our perception of others. What I found most interesting in your research findings is that people use social media because they desire attention. It can seem like that is a major reason why people use social media nowadays. Great job!
Interesting idea. The notion that we express and share more about ourselves online rather than in person is interesting. The platform of online communication and networking allows us to bolden and express ourselves more freely due to the nature of the internet. I consider this a good thing, with drawbacks if abused. - Jacob Striebeck
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