Hands On Assignment 2

     

Social media is a way for people to stay connected and express themselves through their posts. This allows people to communicate with each other from thousands of miles away and share experiences along the way. Currently, the forms of social media that I use are Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, and Youtube. Although these applications have similar features, I use them all for different purposes. I use Snapchat as one of my main forms of communication and I use it daily. I have group chats with my friends on Snapchat and I also will snap them individually. It is a very casual app so there is no pressure to have a theme to your posts. I use Instagram much less frequently, probably closer to two times a week. Instagram seems less casual to me, therefore, I will only post my best pictures on my main Instagram account. However, I do have a second account that I keep private so that I can post things that are more true to my personal life that my friends have access to. TikTok is where I spend a lot of my time; I tend to open the app countless times in a day. If I ever have a couple minutes of freetime with my phone it is likely that I will scroll on my “For You” page for entertainment. I will also occasionally post a video if I get bored; usually content that follows my daily life or something funny. Lastly, I use Youtube the least often, maybe about once a week. There are some podcasts that I like that are only available on Youtube so I will open the app to listen to those, but that is the extent of my usage. I do not make my own individual posts on Youtube. 

Utilizing social media in any way is bound to initiate some sort of feeling. In the past, social media has led to feelings of insecurity within myself. Being young and having exposure to such a vast amount of information, good and bad, can have effects on your self esteem. After gaining some years of experience with social media and the internet, I have found ways to make it more of a positive influence in my life. I only interact with content that has a positive message behind it and makes me feel good about myself. That being said, I do feel like social media gives insight into how toxic the world really is. The internet is often used as a space to be ‘anonymously’ negative, in turn showing people’s true colors. However, I am happy with my usage at this point in time and I think it is a great way for me to express myself as well as stay connected with my friends. 


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