Forget the morning cartoons, I’ll take my cell phone

Cartoon Network, among other television networks, were once a large part of every child’s morning routine. However, with the explosion of social media in the past decade, this is no longer the case.

If you can remember way back to when you were in elementary school, what did you do when you woke up every morning? It was pretty normal to brush your teeth, get a shower, watch morning cartoons on Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network, and maybe even eat some breakfast if the bus is running on time. We eased ourselves into each day. Looking back, those were much simpler times. Now when you wake up, it’s likely that the first thing you do is check your smartphones to look at your Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts. Maybe you got a text from that girl you met last night or your friends posted a picture of you passed out on the quad (I’m not speaking from experience, I promise). To some, this may seem far fetched, but it is actually reality. A study in 2013 suggests that on average, around 4 out of every 5 people check their phone right when they wake up.

IDC Research surveyed 7,446 Android and iPhone users ages 18 to 44 during a week in March, reveals some eye-opening mobile social media intel.

Even though we agree that this does happen, we should be asking ourselves why. Why exactly did these habits change? Why didn’t we notice this steep movement happening? How did we essentially “cut the cable” and transition to social media so quickly? The answers to these questions are obvious if you look at the most crucial difference between the platforms; engagement. With most forms of media, the main reason people watch is that they can feel like they are part of something and voice their opinion. For example, you can call in to your local radio station to request a song, or vote for your favorite contestant on American Idol by dialing “7392” (data rates may apply). But do you ever get the total freedom that social media allows for? Absolutely not. José Van Dijck, author of “The Culture of Connectivity: A Critical History of Social Media”, loosely defines social media as “a platform that allows for maximum sharing and connectivity”.

Different social media platforms may differ in style, privacy-level, and quirks, but they all have the main goal and purpose in connecting you with others. This may be Snapchat which consists of a 1–10 second splice of your life through video, Twitter which gives you 140 characters to voice your opinions, Reddit which consists primarily of lurkers looking at topical content created by others, or Facebook the massive giant that does just about all that and then some. The popularity of these platforms, especially Facebook, have shot through the roof since their inception. In March 2012, Facebook claimed 835 million users worldwide, making it the largest social network in the United States and Europe. Van Dijick, states that these users join and stick around due to the size, ease of the platform, and constant efforts by Facebook to improve and maintain their purpose.

Facebook continues to grow and expand outwards into different fields and ideas. They take user recommendations seriously and look to impact as many people as possible.

As Clay Shirky’s book, “Cognitive Surplus: How Technology Makes Consumers into Collaborators”, literally states in the title, this technology has the ability to turn consumers into collaborators. Anyone with access to the Internet can get a Facebook account and immediately create content and connect to others. Instead of just watching the adventures of your favorite cartoon characters every morning, you could instead post pictures of your recent trip to Germany that others could follow, like, and comment on. Instead of watching commercials, you could watch videos on user-created Facebook pages, Twitter, or even Netflix. With the addition of Facebook Marketplace and the revisions that have been made on Facebook to promote eCommerce, the amount of users and groups coming together is continuing to grow even larger. I can’t even tell you how many items I’ve got from the site, including hundreds of dollars worth of video games, shelving units, and a free couch!

I picked this beauty up yesterday in Hesston for the price of the gas to get there. Perfect timing too, considering our other couch was broken this past weekend.

Shirky discusses how the Internet has drastically evolved from a separate world to an extension of our lives that we simply cannot be without. Many people are sucked in to these platforms and just can’t give them up. This is why you see so many students walking from class to class with their eyes glued on their phones. These people are motivated to interact with others, and social media is the way to go while living a very busy life, in a very busy world. We may do it for different reasons, motivated by very different things, but in the end we all just want to be connected.

So in conclusion, why have our habits changed? It’s due to our culture changing. We no longer have the same tastes and as technology advances, so will we. Although cable hasn’t completely been “cut” yet, the only thing keeping it alive are the people that don’t want change. Social media has impacted so many people and will continue to make an impact in our lives as they advance.

References:

Shirky, Clay. Cognitive surplus: how technology makes consumers into collaborators. New York: Penguin , 2010. Print.

Dijck, José Van. The culture of connectivity: a critical history of social media. Oxford: Oxford U Press, 2013. Print.