SOCIAL MEDIA'S IMPACT

Social media has been almost a staple in my generation; they have even begun making TV documentaries about students in secondary school and university displaying all their messages from things such as WhatsApp, Twitter, text and phone calls. Surprisingly enough, despite probably being the typical 19 year old it actually scares me how much people rely on their phones.

Recently I have been strict with my use of social media, for example I tweet a lot less than I did before and I try and go on Facebook only once a day (if that, due to a work course last week I only managed to go on once). The obsession to check other peoples’ lives and what they’re doing or not doing is something that I really don’t like. Idealism that is created of women’s’ bodies or how you’re supposed to be living your life is scary.

You don’t have to live up to anybody else's expectations other than your own.

I’ve learnt this over time, and it’s something I try and live towards – however obviously it can be difficult. Someone also told me a few weeks ago that you shouldn’t expect things from people, because you may just always be disappointed – which is something that when brought up often brings a lot of debate. It seems as social media contributes a lot to the idea that somebody should act or behave or look like someone else, which seems crazy, because you’re never going to be as pretty as someone else or as clever. You can only do your best and you’ve got to surround yourself with people that only see the best of you.

A program I was recently watching is called Teens. This show follows a group of friends and monitors their social media usage and it is very telling of how much it has crept into these young peoples’ lives. One girl, Jess, really wanted to raise awareness of page 3 models on the Sun so she set up a debate and brought in an outside speaker. It was obviously a controversial topic and a lot of people don’t really understand so it caused Jess to get a lot of abuse via Twitter. That was problem number one; that Twitter is such a massive platform and people don’t see your reaction, problem number two was that she couldn’t put the phone down. As a viewer, you know that as soon as she puts the phone down the power of the bullies has gone.


It’s just a quick post about what’s been really bothering me lately and the program on 4oD is something definitely worth a watch.

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