Final Blog Post

 A Chronological History of Social Media

Social Media and My Consumption

    Social Media has been one of the most popular forms of media within the past 20 years. With this popularity also comes the droves of people who are using these sites during their day to day lives. While some forms of social media attract a younger crowd like TikTok or Instagram, other attract an older audience such as Facebook and Pintrest. When it boils down, people are using these platforms as a way of connecting to other people who have the same interests as they do. That is the main pull of social media, it sucks you in with an addictive algorithm to keep you scrolling or watching. It is the very nature of social media to keep you engaged, get your data, and make some money off you with their personalized ads.

    When it comes to my consumption of social media I was unaware of how much time I spend scrolling through my favorite platforms on a day to day basis. In the past week alone, across all the social media sites I use, there was a combined 52 hours of use. 42 of those hours were spent watching Youtube. This statistic was incredibly eye opening especially since I didn't realize just how much I was consuming. So when the question "Do you have a healthy relationship with social media?" comes up, I like to think that I do. I know the numbers are staggering, but those numbers are inflated by Youtube watch time, which for me is basically my TV. Since I don't watch normal television, Youtube takes that slot in my day. And Youtube in and of itself is not what many people would call social media, but it is still a website of content creators who can share what they are passionate about, and that is a big part of what a social media platform is. Without those 42 hours, the past week I only spent 10 hours out of my whole week on social media. And that number to me is not a whole lot of time out of the 168 hour week. So to me I like to think I have a healthy relationship with social media.

    Now if we are talking about technology in general and wether or not I have a healthy relationship with it, I think it is a different story. I spend a lot of time on my computer for obvious reasons. I have class work, emails, and all my streaming platforms accessible via my laptop. I spend a lot of my day on my laptop, which ends up adding up. I would say about just about half of my day is spent using some form of technology. Wether thats my laptop, phone, gaming console, etc., I am constantly looking at a screen. This is not healthy, and I know this, but the nature of being a college student these days means that your laptop is the heartbeat of your life. You save all of your files, music, games, and documents on the laptop, and without it, you would likely fail. So it is a duality, you need the laptop, but the laptop can cause unhealthy behaviors. 

    I often find myself pondering on wether or not technology and its ever evolving and improving push towards the future may be a bad thing. I think technology is a Ying and Yang situation There is darkness in the light side of innovation and there is also light in the darkness. A balance that is held so delicately and can be swayed one way or the other. 

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