In my Intro to Digital Communications course last week, we were asked to define social media in our own words. This was my response:
I define social media as a form of digital communication comprised of various social networking websites which allow users to create and distribute their own content in addition to other media products. Social media also allows users to socialize, collaborate, and interact with other people across the globe in real time, and it is a resource for businesses and advertisers to allow the public to engage with their products by sharing comments, reviews, tutorials, and ratings with their peers.
I stand by my above definition; however, I believe that the popularity social media has gained over the years is really rooted in the fact that these platforms allow us to be social without actually being social at all.
Case in point; when I’m commenting on Instagram pictures or retweeting tweets I am more than likely alone, laying in bed or lounging on the sofa. If I do happen to be in public, then I am probably still alone, but doing a mundane activity such as waiting in a line at the grocery store or some place. In the physical sense, I am being introverted and reclusive with my eyes glued to a screen. But, in my digital world I am actively engaging with others, oftentimes holding multiple riveting conversations simultaneously.
Sound familiar?
If you can relate to the scenarios I’ve described then you, too, use social media to be social without actually being social. This phenomenon is what I believe to be the real hook that pulls us into social media. It allows us to engage with others as more of a pastime than an activity that demands a lot more energy from us.
Getting together with friends requires turning off Netflix, changing out of your pajamas, transporting yourself to whatever trendy hangout you all have chosen to meet at, and interacting with not only your friends, but complete strangers including the server who got your order wrong, or the random intoxicated woman on the street who swears you look like someone she knows, or the creepy man who will not take “no” for an answer after you’ve declined to give him your phone number.
Who wants to deal with any of that? No one. We’d all much rather just pull out our phones and exchange memes and GIFs in the group chat we have with our closest friends.
Of course I know that people aren’t completely avoiding going into the real world, but I’m sure we can all recall more than one occasion when we could have made the effort to get out, but opted to stay in bed with our phones instead.
There are plenty of great uses for social media which make it extremely appealing to the masses and are important factors in why it has been so successful — many of which I mentioned in my initial definition. But, above all, social media offers us the best of both worlds by giving us complete, autonomous control over our social interactions.
CiCi Says 