Interaction and Engagement with Social Media
Social Media is something that the majority of us are vastly familiar with. Most of us use it every single day and countless times during each day. We use it to talk to our friends, our family, and even people we’ve never met. We use it to watch funny videos and see breathtaking photos from across the globe. Maybe we use social media to have a discussion about various topics or to meet someone new. However, I believe that the one thing many people social media for, maybe without even realizing it, is news. People can easily consume media in seconds with just a few simple strokes of their finger. Open up any app and check the trending tab and the most popular stories in the world are their for anyone to read. So with all of these different reasons to use social media, I began to wonder why I myself use all these different applications so many times a day. With this in mind, I have started to monitor my social media usage each and every day, attempting to think more critically about why I use the apps I do, why I seek out the content I search for, and even why I avoid some content online. What I found intrigued me.
In my quest to understand better why I use social media, I have begun to ask myself a simple question every time I reach for my phone. “What do I want to see?” What I find is that more often then not, the answer is simple. I want something to laugh at. I always start on Instagram. I spend several minutes scrolling and liking all sorts of content from memes to videos to news. I use Instagram more than any other social media application. Instagram is used exclusively to share photos and videos. While I consume a vast variety of content from Instagram, a lot of the media that I seek out is of a politically satirical nature. Posts from sources like The Onion or Clickhole are a personal favorite of mine. I usually only look at posts from sources like these for a quick laugh or to pass the time but as I studied my habits this week, I realized that these posts that make fun of current events always spark a curiosity in me that leads me to seek out more information on the topic. This then leads me to use the other applications on my phone such as Twitter or YouTube to see if there is anything on the trending tabs regarding the topic.
I also found that I make it a point to check more then just one source, and that the different sources I do check are from opposite or opposing political angles. For instance, I follow both President Trump and President Obama on Twitter and consistently check both Fox News and MSNBC while scrolling through my Twitter feed alongside everything else. I enjoy seeing what each person has to say and why they believe what they have said. But that begs the question… why? After giving it some thought throughout the week, I believe it is because of the dynamic shift in political stances from my mother’s family to my father’s.
My mother and the vast majority of her family are republican while my father and the majority of his family are democratic or socialist. This major shift in viewpoint has left me more or less politically gray for the larger part of my life. I believe that this grayness lead to a lot of the habits that I noticed this week. My lack of interest in initially seeking out news stories or coverage stems from my natural reaction to just not mention politics at family gatherings, as it would start a quarrel of sorts. However, my interest in seeking more information after reading a headline or short article comes from the conversations that I do have with family members or even with my friends. My need to seek out both viewpoints definitely comes from the different sides of the political spectrum that my family stems from. That desire to hear what Sean Hannity (FOX News) has to say and immediately follow up and see how Wolf Blitzer (CNN) reported on the exact same story comes from this strange family dynamic.
It has been thought provoking to say the least to pay closer attention to my social media and news consumption habits this past week. It has kept me constantly thinking and questioning my behaviors in a way the has not only helped me to better understand the content that I’m seeking out, but why I’m seeking it out. To understand why I see certain things in the way that I do has been a joy and something that I’m going to continue thinking about going forward.
