Social Media Obsession
Margarita Arzoumanian
In this Cyber Field Observation I chose to observe and interview one of my best friends, Diana. Diana is a girl, she is nineteen years old, and she is obsessed with her phone and social media. She has a Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat accounts and she manages to stay relevant and updated on all of her accounts. Her phone is literally attached to her hand at all times. She is always either texting or on social media. She goes on each one of her social media accounts at least once a day. Her most often used account is Snapchat. She checks her Snapchat account at least five times a day. Twitter comes second at three times a day, Instagram third at two times a day, and Facebook last at once a day. Diana likes to constantly check on her social media accounts to keep herself updated on her family, friends and classmates lives. She’s very busy with school which doesn't give her enough time to see and spend time with everyone in her life so she manages to stay updated by social media to make her feel like she is still apart of their lives and still knows what’s going on with them.
Some methods I used in this Cyber Field Observation are observations and interviews. Diana is always texting non stop, she likes to take pictures of herself, thats one her favorite things to do. If you left her in a room alone all she would do is take pictures and post them on social media. She loves to post things on her accounts and receive likes and comments, chats with people, and meets new people. She likes the attention. Unlike me, I hate attention and even more than attention, I hate texting and taking pictures of myself. I feel as if I am not photogenic,
I don't like the way I look in pictures, I don't look the same as I do in person. I don't feel like I look like myself in picture so I literally run away from pictures and cameras. I don't have any social media accounts besides Snapchat, and even on Snapchat I don't take pictures of myslef. I used to have a Facebook when I was thirteen but I only kept it for about a month and deleted it. I never had an Instagram account, nor have I ever had a Twitter. I don't have an Instagram account because I don't like to take pictures and Instagram is based off pictures. Twitter is one of my most hatted social media networks. I feel like for this young generation it is the easiest way to make enemies and start fights. From what I've seen people pick on each others posts the most on Twitter and start fights. It doesn't make any sense to me, as for Diana its funny and entertaining, it’s a way for her to connect with her friends. For me it’s a waste of priceless time and energy.
When Diana has free time she automatically starts taking selfies of herself. She takes about a hundred until she finds one she likes, that she thinks she looks good in. She then takes about ten minutes to decide on what filter she will use and what caption she will put under the picture she is about to post. Now when Diana takes a picture she likes, she posts the same exact picture on every social media account she has with the same exact caption and filter. So the picture she posts on Facebook goes on Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter as well. She then sits and stares at her phone constantly refreshing the page on her Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat feeds to see who and how many people liked it, commented, favorited or viewed it. If less than ten people have liked it in the past ten minutes she has posted it, she deletes the picture because not enough people liked it. Thats something I didn't understand until I asked her about and she said to me, “There is an unspoken rule on Instagram, if you don't get a lot of likes within the first ten minutes of posting the picture then that means it wasn't a good picture.” So I learned that there are unspoken rules for social media that I never knew about and I would have never known because I don't have any social media accounts. Some other rules I learned would be if you take a picture with someone and post it on social media you must take them in the picture so that they know you posted a picture with them, or if your Instagram followers like your pictures you must like theirs back as a sign of respect. Another one would be if you comment on a followers picture on Instagram, they must leave a comment on the next picture you post. These are some rules that most users of social media know and follow as a sign of respect and mutual understanding.
Some needs that are satisfied by this culture of social media networking are
the constant communication. People feel good about their constant communication with
one another. They feel that even with their busy lives they make time for friends
and family through texting and social media. They feel social media helps them interact
even when they are busy with more important things in their everyday lives. Its another
way to keep contact with people you normally wouldn't keep contact with if it weren't
for social media. Cyber-
If I had to return I would, and I would focus more on how much time she spends on her phone, tablets, or social media and how much time her spends doing other things during the day. I would compare the two and analyze her past behavior, patience, and attention capacity to her present.