post #1

Julia Dwyer

I am currently 26, and feel I am mainly a consumer of media, both entertainment and social avenues, and not a contributor of content. Though I have an Instagram and Facebook account, both of which I view daily, I very seldom post anything myself. When I was in middle school and high school it seemed that social media was just emerging but hadn’t quite taken over the public attention. This is something I feel very fortunate to have gone through without the pressures of social media. In a time like high school, at your most vulnerable and insecure, it would have been difficult to feel you had to be constantly producing exciting and glamourous/highly edited content of yourself at a high volume.

Though social media can bring many people together and make us an interconnected global society, its constant consumption can be very harmful to one’s self-esteem and general mental state. When others are constantly posting cherry-picked images of themselves looking their best doing exciting activities, it gives the viewer a warped version of the lives others are leading, making them feel their own life and appearance is less than. This stain on our mental health in comparison to the photo-shopped Instagram posts of others also excludes the very prevalent bullying that takes place on all of these platforms. I find that I myself show addictive tendencies when it comes to social media usage, despite the fact that I strictly consume and have many objections to the downsides of frequent use.

As opposed to social media, I feel like television and film are much more ingrained in my life at this time. It feels much more worthwhile to engage with something that is a creative expression than just scroll through content. Though I feel like the short attention span created by social media on our phones also effects our consumption of other types of media. I find it difficult at this stage to watch a television show or movie without simultaneously scrolling through my phone every 15 min or so. This short attention span from media consumption will in the long run really limit your enjoyment and engagement as opposed to enhancing it.