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Course: Social media literacy > Unit 2
Lesson 5: Take action! Share your storyReflection activity: What role does social media play in your life?
A deep dive into your own social media experience
What role does social media play in your life?
Social media platforms are shaped by a race for our attention to keep us engaged and change our behavior in exchange for profits. They’re built on technology that’s powerful enough to keep us scrolling and clicking without ever really taking a close look at what we’re doing.
To articulate your social media story, let’s first examine the role that social media plays in your life.
🤔 CONSIDER YOUR EXPERIENCE:
Take a look at the following questions. Write your answers without thinking about them too much. The more you focus on getting your thoughts out, the more you’ll learn about your experience. You can organize and clean them up later.
Take inventory of how you use social media:
- How many hours a day do you spend on social media?
- What apps do you use? Which do you use the most?
- What do you post on social media?
- What do you read and look at on social media?
Then, be honest with yourself about what you’re experiencing on a daily basis.
- How does social media make you feel?
- How do you think social media impacts your life for the better?
- How do you think social media impacts your life for the worse?
Some of our individual experiences may be positive: we may feel connected to a friend, feel validated when people love something we’ve created, or we might just have fun seeing what people are up to online.
But these positive experiences can also lead to something darker: a feeling of constant comparison or inadequacy, a need to constantly show that everything is good, struggles with isolation and mental health, or the feeling that we can’t log off even when we want to.
🤔 CONSIDER THE BIG PICTURE:
Social media has had some devastating effects for society. While each of our experiences are different, the fact is that these platforms are designed to compete for your attention, and can hijack our behavior to do so.
- How does this show up in your experience? How does it show up in the experience of those around you?
- Has taking a closer look at your experience inspired you to change how you use social media? To take action in different ways? If so, how?
Want to join the conversation?
1. Less than 2 hours on week days, 3+ on the weekends
2. I use Text Messages and YouTube the most
3. I don't post anything
4. Things that my friends post, art videos, random memes, etc.(5 votes)
1. 2-4 hours
2. Youtube,Games,insta,spotify
3. don't post
4. what other people are doing
1. social media makes me feel bored sometime and want to do something.
2. How it impact my life better is because if their is something going on I can find out about it and can talk to other people.
3.How it impact for the worse that when am on it I am not social and don't talk when there is people around.(4 votes)
Social media can make me feel anxious and self conscious at times but I personally learned to get past that and it has mostly helped me stay in contact with friends i otherwise could not be connected with.(3 votes)
question. does normal messaging count as social media?(3 votes)- 1.I´ve decreased the phone usage on school nights.
2.When I do the internet now I am way more cautious online.(2 votes) - 1.On weekdays I spend just a few minutes and same at the weekends.
2. I use YouTube Everyday
3. I don't post anything
4. What other users Post.(1 vote) - A)
1. Only about an hour or two total, I think. Far less if we're only considering undivided attention, or if we don't consider Youtube and other non-interactive sties as social media.
2. I use Facebook/Messenger, Ao3, Gmail/Gchat, Youtube, and Spotify. I use either Youtube or Spotify the most, followed by Gmail, then Ao3.
3. I don't post anything on social media, I only comment on stuff and talk to my friends.
4. I mostly listen to music, and look at whatever my friends have sent. I have been watching some Vtubers and when I have time, I read fanfiction.
B)
1. It's nice to connect with people somewhere where I don't feel shy and my voice doesn't automatically dim when it's a stranger.
2. I can have connection without holding back some of my humor with people who get it.
3. By getting connections online, I think it becomes somewhat like a crutch that allows me to just, not develop the ability to connect offline, and instead suppress my personality in front of actual people.
C)
1. I haven't changed much due to social media. Sure I know more of the jokes I make, but it's still my brand of humor, and my personality. However I remember once, my entire school it seemed was overrun by this VSCO girl trend, and everyone was conforming themselves to that stereotype in order to fit in.
2. I think I'll try to be more sociable offline as well as online now.(1 vote) - 1. How many hours a day do you spend on social media?
My daily average is – scraped from by screen time stats – 2 hours and 40 mins. *A 48% decrease in usage from last week.*
2. What apps do you use? Which do you use the most?
- Twitter, insta and reddit. I also use youtube and twitch for long form content. I have taken a step back from tiktok due to the pervasive algorithm that has no use for me.
3. What do you post on social media?
- My life and thoughts.
4. What do you read and look at on social media?
- Gaming news, regular news, funny posts and random discussions.
*Reflection:*
How does social media make you feel?
- It makes me feel unaccomplished, tired and angry/sad due to emotional information being fed to me.
How do you think social media impacts your life for the better?
- It doesn't.
How do you think social media impacts your life for the worse?
- Social media makes me addicted and skews my reality. In addition, it only makes me claustrophobic and the feeling of being stuck is immense even though it's a tech to form connections. Therefore my only choice is to expand my reality and try to experience what I want in the long run.(1 vote) 
I use social media to learn more about people, culture, and socializing. It is a large part of my limited social world. However, in using it, I also feel inadequate because I inevitably compare myself to others, undermining my uniqueness in order to fit with the standard. On the bright side, social media enables me to connect with people not commonly found in my community, who have similar experiences as me. It enables a sense of community and identity in me, a support group if you may.(1 vote)- Social media for me is a way that I can stay connected to friends and family. It allows me to stay connected to my family for if im ever in trouble and in need of help.(0 votes)