First off, I’d like to acknowledge my extreme delight in how social media was compared to junk food and how this overload of social media was like a junk food binge. That was rather clever.

Secondly, as I’ve stated before, I truly don’t see an issue with my social media usage. Honestly, I don’t binge it; I use it in moderation. This article made me realize just how addicted to their phones people are. There are actual people who constantly check their phones. They can’t go a single minute with checking to make sure that they aren’t missing anything. I, on the other hand, only use my phone when there’s not much else to do. In fact, I accidentally messed up a fifteen day long Snapstreak this weekend because I forgot to check my phone all day. I was with my friends that I was streaking with, so I completely forgot to snap them back. Because I was so engrossed with reality (and also sleeping a lot), I forgot about the world of social media.

Because I’m not addicted to social media, having to pay for it would anger me. I use it honestly because everyone else does, but being forced to pay for things even when everyone else is using it, is pointless to me. When new phones come out, a lot of people want to buy it, but I’m not buying something just because it’s popular. In that case, I won’t use anything at all.

All in all, I’m certainly not a part of the group of people who binge social media. Truly, I find it rather pointless and annoying to invest so much time into something that may not matter later.

This article intrigued me because it gave me insight into the psychological effects that technology has on us. We are subconsciously addicted to our smartphones and social media, constantly checking to see if we have any new notifications or not, even if we don’t hear the phone buzz because maybe we just didn’t hear it. Seeing the screen light up with notifications gives people a certain satisfaction because they’re getting attention and appreciation from people not within the vicinity. Apps are definitely designed to manipulate their users by offering sorts of prizes with followers, likes, comments, and views. It gives users a satisfaction that the content they’re posting seems important, entertaining, or exciting.

When I read about the strategies that Snapchat uses to keep its users addicted, I realized that I was unfortunately guilty of succumbing to their tactics. Snapstreaks make it easier for you to talk to certain people constantly, and it feels almost accomplishing when you can get to triple digit streaks. I definitely have given my friend my login information just to keep up streaks while I was on vacation before.

While I do think social media is worth the time because they are platforms for communication, sharing, and memories, I think I spend more time on it than I should. I believe apps should be curated to be more organic and user-friendly so that we can balance our lives in the real and digital world. It almost seems sad that it makes people angsty if they go too long without checking their phone, but the app creators are also responsible for sucking up users’ time and attention by the design of an app.

This article awakened in me a realization of the scams that media companies are forcing on its users.  Our attention spans are limited in a sense way, in which we are unable to remain focused on a task when we are presented with our phones. Also this article essentially epitomizes this class as a whole; the various reasons for us to be mindful of our media habits. I personally have felt manipulated many times on websites by click bait. This first happened on facebook, when endless ads would trick me into following an empty deal. Ironically enough, the article discusses how facebook was the only media company to reply to independent inquiries about consumer attention schemes. They explained how they had gone after various ad agencies over unfair click bate on their platform. The interesting part is how Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn declined to comment. I predict this is because they fully know that they are taking advantage of their customers attention spans.  Apps are being consistently infused with addictive qualities that are made to attract users to certain features. For example, whenever you are tagged in a picture or receive a follow request, the red lining is specifically chosen to garner our attention away from whatever we were previously doing.  This is also elicited by the formats and platforms that social media is presented to us on. They are extremely easy for us to get hooked on. I absolutely do not believe that people would pay a premium for so called “organic” apps. If their usage was tracked they would be shocked and upset at their habits, and nobody wants to be saddened.

Reading the Binge Breaker reinforced all of my previous thoughts about technology and its impact on our lives. Although some people feel as thought they are not addicted to technology, I think that many people are without even knowing it. I totally agree that apps and many different forms of media are engineered and meant to increase the amount of time spent on then. Obviously this makes sense because by spending more time on an app or certain media, the app or media benefits greatly and in turn becomes more popular and relevant. Apps and media become obsolete when people do not spend any time on them, and because of this people are forced to figure out ways to attract users to the app or media not just every now and then, but multiple times a day. In most cases when it comes to media, there is a competitiveness that keeps people coming back. In an app that competitiveness comes out when trying to beat a level or get the most points. In forms of social media that competitiveness comes out when trying to post pictures that people will like and by making your life look more entertaining than it actually is. By doing this, people gain more followers and more likes and therefore they feel a lot better about themselves. I think that it is important for people to realize that many forms of media are meant to be addicting, and once people accept that I feel like they will be better able to control themselves and prioritize their lives in a healthier way.

After reading the “Binge Breaker” I was not surprised to see all the negative associations discussed about electronic devices and their massive impact on our daily lives. It is no shocker to almost anyone in my generation that electronic devices are inevitable. Even when it comes to situations that are not related to social media, such as Gmail, we are still notified when there are updates or someone has come in contact with you. I agree with the author, that this behavior may not be healthy and should be reduced. With that being said, it appears almost impossible to reduce electronic activity and no longer binge on our accounts. We get that “high” from the satisfaction of a like and the feeling of recognition. Everything we do is not for ourselves to view, but is so other perceive us as fitting in.

I have most definitely felt manipulated by an app to continue to use it because of the satisfaction it gives you. We as a society have almost been classically conditioned to automatically respond when we are notified.  The idea of not looking at one’s phone for 30 minutes is honestly challenging for most individuals in today’s world. The solution seems as though to cut back on electronic use and limit our social media presence, but that is unrealistic in this day in age. We continually add new platforms that will grab more of our attention. We are spreading ourselves too thin through our electronic use and will eventually have nothing left to give.

After reading this article, I’ve become aware of the negative effects social media has on our daily lives. Social media has negative effects even if you don’t think so.

Social media has negative effects on us in some aspect even if you don’t think so. You may not get as many likes on Instagram and it could make you feel like you aren’t good enough. You may not get enough retweets that could make you feel like you are socially inadequate. On Snapchat, you are more likely to see more inappropriate posts because they are on there for a such a short period of time. Social media leads to bullying which can really cause negative effects on someone.

Social media can easily drag you down by making you think you aren’t good enough, you aren’t pretty enough, and you aren’t social enough. It leads to eating disorders because social media platforms are promoting a body image they seem is acceptable when in God’s eyes you are wonderfully made. Snapchat is not my most used social media platform. I don’t use it to snap my friends, I just use it to post to my story. “Snapstreaks” can show favoritism towards your friends. It can show unhealthy relationship with friends. Snapchat can make one feel like they are being left out when seeing a story or something.

Social media hinders people from spending time with others in person. People now a days tend to build relationships through social media rather than actually spending time together. Social media has lots of negative effects on people and sometimes we don’t even realize it.

While reading this article, I wasn’t as surprised or disgusted in the ways that different social media companies use to hook us as what I thought I would be.  I’ve always felt that constantly being on your phone or laptop probably wasn’t the healthiest, but at the same time I feel as though we don’t have any other choice; this has made me pretty numb to all of the crazy things that come out against social media apps or smart phones in general.

I don’t necessarily agree that apps should be trying to make us become addicted to their products, but every marketer is essentially doing the same thing.  Fast food, cigarettes, and now social media  markets all want their products to be used by the largest population that they can reach, but so do organic food distributors.  All markets are going to sell their products in ways that appeal to the buyer; they all make the buyer feel as though they want more or can’t live without their product, and this manipulation shouldn’t be acceptable to anyone, no matter what the product is.

I haven’t experienced manipulation by social media firsthand, but I have definitely seen the negatives that staring at a screen can have on someone.  I’m constantly checking my phone, whether its for snapchat, Instagram, or anything else; I’m pretty much always on my phone, but I don’t feel as though there’s a way for me to just decide to quit using my phone or social media.  When social media becomes the only way that you have to keep up to date on school, work, and friends, you don’t have much of a choice other than to constantly check your phone.  I suffer from migraines, and they’re often triggered by extended amounts of time of my laptop (writing papers is the worst), but I’ve never thought, “I can just not use my laptop or phone, and all of my problems will go away!” because of how much society has changed to depend on the use of social media.

I realize I’m quite a few days late for submitting this. While I did interview my friend early last week, I had been so busy studying for midterms that I had gotten behind in homework. Better late than never, I suppose.

When we began to talk about this assignment in class I had already picked out the perfect person to interview. I chose this individual because – in my mind – she’s highly addicted to social media. She is constantly updating her feeds and checking her notifications. Whether we are out eating, watching a movie, or even at a concert, she is on her phone checking to see how many ‘likes’ she is getting on her Tweets and Instagram posts. I learned a great deal about her social media usage during this interview, and I can without a doubt say that her use of social media is much different than mine.

After going through the questions with her, I learned that she checks her accounts constantly. She checks them when she wakes up, as she’s walking to class, once class gets out, as she’s eating lunch, etc. In her mind she doesn’t believe that she has a problem. She thinks her use of social media is average. After we continued to go through the questions, I learned something very interesting. Apparently my friend has four Instagram accounts. She has her main account, a ‘finsta’, an account made to follow famous people, and then an account for herself. I was so confused by this. Her main account and finsta account I understood. It was the other two accounts that confused me. Her third account has no other purpose than following famous people. The reason she has this account is because it helps with her ratio of Followers:Following. Since famous people aren’t going to follow her back, she doesn’t want to follow them on her main account. She would rather keep her ‘following’ low and make her ‘followers’ seem higher. Her fourth account was basically used as a photo album. She posted as many pictures as she wanted and she had the layout very carefully designed to look as nice as it possibly could have. This account was something that was for her eyes only. She was on private, so no one could follow her and she didn’t follow anyone. It was made for the sole purpose of creating a type of art in a sense. After talking through it with her, I did begin to understand her reasoning behind why she had four accounts, but I will still in shock.

We moved on to the subject of privacy. She has her main Instagram account on private, but her Twitter account left on public. This isn’t because she is worried about people seeing what she is posting. This is more of a strategy for her to gain more and more followers. With Instagram, in order for people to see her photos they need to follow her. So she explained that if she is on private, people will be more inclined to follow her because they will want to be able and look at her posts. If she was on public, anyone could come in and scroll through her pictures without following her. She does this in order to gain more followers. With Twitter however, it’s different due to one feature – the retweet. On Twitter if you’re private, no one is able to retweet your tweets. They are only able to ‘like’ them. In order to reach as many people possible and get the most feedback on a tweet, you need people to be able to see it. Therefore, she has her account on public so that way her followers can retweet her tweets and share them with their followers. This is a strategy she uses in order to get to most interaction as she possibly can. While I understand why she does this, I don’t understand why she worries and puts so much effort towards this. I feel as if she is putting too much thought into something that was made to be simplistic.

After interviewing my friend, it was clear to me that not everyone uses social media the same. While I simply check once or twice a day now, and don’t put all that much thought into my posts, she spends her entire day on social media. She spends her free time creating posts and tweets that she thinks would get the best interaction. While I would call her use an addiction, she sees it as nothing more than average.

I decided to interview my mom for my mini-interview because of how her use of social media differs from mine. Even though my mom uses Facebook and Instagram, she uses them for very different purposes than I do. I think that a lot of people think that if you use any social media, for example Facebook, you use it the same way everyone else does, but after this interview I figured out that assumption is far from the truth. I use Facebook for the purpose of keeping up with my friends and posting pictures in order for people to keep up with my life, but my mom uses it for those reasons and more. Yes, my mom uses it to keep up with her friends now and her friends from high school and college, but she also uses it to keep up to speed on news stories, to communicate with her friend who lives overseas, and to find new recipes to make. By “liking” certain pages like Fox News, CNN and Food Network, my mom is able to gain information that she otherwise would not have as easy access to. I use Instagram to again keep up with my friends and post pictures, and my mom mentioned that she uses it for those purposes too, but in addition she also uses Instagram to follow fashion blogs in order to make shopping easier. In Atlanta, going to the mall has gotten pretty dangerous and many people won’t go alone, because of that my mom pretty much only shops at boutiques, which means she doesn’t get to see the fashion of the big department stores. By following fashion blogs, my mom is able to see what is in style and can easily buy items that the bloggers post online, taking away having to go to any store to buy them.