Just the other day on the bus ride to class, I overheard two students talking:
Student 1: "So wait...he doesn't have a Facebook?"
Student 2: "Not that I know of. I searched all possible variations of his name and still couldn't find him."
Student 1: "Wow...that just means that he's sketch and that you don't want to talk to him.Where has he been living anyway? Under a rock?"
I couldn't help but chuckle a little after hearing this. If this conversation was to go on just a few years back, then simply not having a Facebook would be pretty common and wouldn't be deemed as being "weird." This just goes to show that times have changed and the realm of social media is only becoming more powerful.
Today, almost about 58 million Americans use social media sites on a daily basis. This is just a 4% increase since 2011 which was 18% as compared to 2012's 22% of daily usage/logins.
To check one's Facebook page is most often the first thing one does right when he wakes up and right before one goes to sleep. It is also the first thing one checks when they open their internet browser.
Knowing these facts only brings one question to mind -- Do we control social media or does social media control us?
Great post, Jyoti! It really is scary to see how dependent we are becoming on social platforms, but at the same time, it makes sense, considering how quickly technology is evolving and becoming a greater part of our daily lives. I think that in today's time, we need to find the balance between how much we use social media platforms for certain purposes and how much we actually rely on it.
ReplyDeleteI love the graph! It really gives us some perspective on how social media has become a bigger part of our lives over time. In terms of your question, I would say it's a bit of both. We're judged by what we put on our social media by our colleagues, friends, and family. So while we have "ultimate" control over what we ourselves post, over our privacy settings, etc. social media still does a lot to control us. Many people feel the need to micromanage their social media to be sure that it's portraying exactly what they want it to and to the people they want it to. I think in that way, we're controlled by social media (because it's used to evaluate other people).
ReplyDeleteGreat post!