Social Media or Bust: Revamped
Many college students treasure their social media pages. To them, these pages indicate their identities. Baym states that these media pages, “provide different cues that people use to construct personal identities” (Baym, 2015, p. 124). So what would happen if I disrupted this personal identity? I asked several people I did not know if I could use their phones or devices to get on the Internet and search through their personal social media pages. My main goal was simply to get an overdramatic response.
On Monday March 27, 2017, my camera woman Emily Angeline and I took a tour through the Juniata College campus to see how many people would let me borrow their smart devices to get on the Internet. The original hypthesis was that everyone would scream bloody murder when I even went close to them, but that was not the case. Surprisingly, I only got one ‘no’ as a response. Juniata has a reputation for being a trustworthy campus, apparently, this holds true, even when a random stranger asks to use their smart phone!
Linked here is a video of my time during this journey. Watch it on Youtube: https://youtu.be/MNkikAZkdqY
I began this venture in the Technology Solutions Center. I went up and asked the student worker if I could use his laptop to get onto the Internet. He was hesitant and did not know what I needed his laptop for as I could have just as easily checked one out for my own use. I should have known that the Technology team is smart enough to log out of their secured pages before loaning their computers out.
The next person I went to was in the Library. Unfortunately, I went at a time when all of the students were eating dinner, so I had limited options here. I decided to go to the Sodexo worker, Juniata’s catering company, who was operating the coffee machines. She was on her laptop when I approached her and did not understand what I was asking originally. I then explained that I needed her laptop to get onto the Internet and she looked around to the copious amounts of open computers at all of the desks and proceeded in giving me her laptop. This experiment did not have a result as she just kept logging me out of her Facebook every time I showed her something on her own page. I don’t think she understood what I was doing. I then told her about the experiment as I returned the device and she chuckled and ignored me the remaining time I was in the library.
The next victim I chose from was of a group people who were just sitting on a bench outside on the quad. I decided to ask them, as a group, for a phone to see who the brave contender was. One of the students gave me her phone openly and watched me as I searched through her Facebook page agreeing that she has many dog and knitting videos on her feed. This experiment did not seem to phase her as she saw the microphone on my neck. Shortly after that, I found one of my classmates who openly agreed to let me search through her Facebook page. She found it humorous as I commented on each of her friends statuses. The final group of people I found were in our cafeteria or ‘Muddy’ as Juniatians call it. This was where I got my one and only response of ‘no’.
Each person I spoke to loved the experiment and had a good time with it. I did not go too far into everyone’s personal lives as I do attend this college as well. I can’t spoil the reputation with only a month left.
Please, watch the video. All of this will make more sense on how the experiment played out.
