{"id":2563,"date":"2016-11-30T11:45:15","date_gmt":"2016-11-30T16:45:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/?p=2563"},"modified":"2017-03-15T19:18:11","modified_gmt":"2017-03-15T23:18:11","slug":"hannah-social-media-realizations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/2016\/11\/30\/hannah-social-media-realizations\/","title":{"rendered":"Hannah: Social Media Realizations"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

I\u2019m in a love-hate relationship with social media.\u00a0 This year marked my sixth anniversary with Facebook, and I\u2019ve had Twitter and Instagram for almost as long.\u00a0 These years have proven to me that social media can be all-at-once incredibly amusing, undeniably powerful, and frustratingly deceptive.<\/p>\n

I think that if 2016 is the year of realizing stuff, then 2017 will be the year of posting more and better managing my social tools. I\u2019ve realized a lot about social media, and one realization is that I don\u2019t use it nearly enough. I have my reasons, listed below. Here are my realizations about the joys and pitfalls of being a social media user.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s so much I love about social media.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Connecting people from all over the world.<\/strong> Adopted children have used Facebook to locate their birth parents<\/a>. And we can all stay in touch with each other, even if we move or change phone numbers.<\/li>\n
  2. New art forms.<\/strong> Is it just me? Or has Instagram ignited the photog and picture editor in you?\u00a0 Insta allows users to turn everyday moments into a photo blog to create and admire.<\/li>\n
  3. Glimpses into celeb lives.\u00a0 <\/strong>When I was eight I remember thinking, \u201cI wonder what Hilary Duff is doing. Right. Now.\u201d With Snapchat stories, I can see what Hil is up to at any point in the day, as long as she\u2019s posting.<\/li>\n
  4. Memes.<\/strong> Twitter sparked the proliferation of memes. And I just love memes<\/a>.<\/li>\n
  5. Social media management<\/strong>.\u00a0 Companies are hiring coordinators to manage their social media accounts, which is not only a really important task for brand management but also a chance to get creative.<\/li>\n
  6. Branding.\u00a0 <\/strong>Speaking of the importance of social media, it\u2019s a way for people and companies to expose their brands just by gaining followers or buying ad space.\u00a0 Social tools have become the most effective way to reach audiences<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    But there are also parts of social media that\u2026well\u2026<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Rules<\/strong>. You can\u2019t post more than one Insta in a day.\u00a0 It\u2019s best to post on Instagram at 12pm<\/span><\/span> or 8pm<\/span><\/span>. Says who? They might seem constricting, but most people, including myself, tend to follow these unspoken rules.<\/li>\n
    2. Doing it for the Insta<\/strong>.\u00a0 What came first \u2013 the picture or what\u2019s in it?\u00a0 I think we shouldn\u2019t make life decisions based on what we can turn into an Instagram post or what will get us the most likes.<\/li>\n
    3. If you didn\u2019t post a pic of it, did you even do it?<\/strong> Um. Yes. If this were true, than I haven\u2019t done anything in months<\/em>. I like to live by this mantra<\/a>: \u201cThe best parts of my life haven\u2019t made it to social media.\u201d<\/li>\n
    4. Trying to get a good like ratio.\u00a0 <\/strong>It\u2019s so hard not to watch the number of likes on a photo rise relative to the number of minutes it\u2019s been live.\u00a0 Resist it, people! If we like the pic we posted, isn\u2019t that enough? Sometimes I wish I could disable the likes on my Instas.<\/li>\n
    5. Slackers\u2019 guilt.\u00a0 <\/strong>Maybe I\u2019m more private than others, but I don\u2019t Instagram or Tweet very often.\u00a0 And then I feel so guilty about it! I barely posted during my time abroad, and that was because I was too focused on enjoying traveling, but I sometimes look back and wished I shared more of my best pics.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      I think a lot of people would agree with me about the positive aspects of social media and the nonsense downsides to it.\u00a0 Some people would probably say I\u2019m complicating things.\u00a0 But I think it\u2019s important to be critical of these platforms as they grow and increasingly shape society.\u00a0 In my own social bubble, I\u2019ll continue to use them with caution.\u00a0 And I might also make 2017 the year of sharing more stuff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      I\u2019m in a love-hate relationship with social media.\u00a0 This year marked my sixth anniversary with Facebook, and I\u2019ve had Twitter and Instagram for almost as long.\u00a0 These years have proven to me that social media can be all-at-once incredibly amusing, undeniably powerful, and frustratingly deceptive. I think that if 2016 is the year of realizing … Continue reading Hannah: Social Media Realizations<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2018,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[44323],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2563"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2018"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2563"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2902,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2563\/revisions\/2902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}