Reading the article im a addict, made me reflect on my younger days on social media. as a young kid, i seen everyone on social media living happy lives, doing fun things, or having hundreds of friends. for a long time i believed social media was reality and this hurt my self esteem. to feel included i made multiple social media accounts( Instagram, Myspace, Facebook). i would post exaggerated pictures of myself having fun, going out, or socializing with people i didn’t even know. i enjoyed the likes and attention that i received online but i was still the same marckell as before, nothing changed. i was making more friends online than in my real life which left me wanting more. slowly i found myself faking pictures of fun happy moments for the sake of likes. i mimicked other famous users pictures and actions with nothing to show for it. i was just spiraling in a lonely desperate depressed state of mind. looking back at this time of my life, i hate how naive i was believing the internet. i overextended myself for attention and likes. my whole thinking was superficial. i never worked on myself as a person and this was clear in my social life. i lost a lot of relationships and potential relationships because of how superficial i was. everything was for appearance and not for the enjoyment of the moment. it took me a while to realize the faults in my thinking and started to take initiative to lessen and change my social media presence. i definitely use it less, i post more of my real life family and “real” friends, post what i feel, pretty much the real me. i still find myself trying to have a one up on others, posting exaggerated pictures but its definitely more limited. being somewhat of an addict to social in helped me gain a better perspective of myself. i understand now to appreciate what i have and who i have in my life rather than focus on what others have. although i dont use any social media platform as much as i used to, when i do im more conscious of using it wrong. however to my disservice, i still pay attention to the superficial things online.
my screen time marckell frederick
over the past couple of days , i consciously paid attention to my media screen time. i tracked how long i watched tv, went on my computer and used my phone. before i began tracking, i believed i spent the most time watching t.v and on the computer , but surprisingly it wasnt. in the morning i usually watch tv for about an hour and a half. i would catch up on news, weather, or anything interesting. i noticed as i watched tv i would also be on my phone at the same time( social media, texting, or games). since my schedule is different during the weekday versus the weekend, i noticed my t.v screen is less during the week than the weekend. while on the other hand my phone and computer usage usually increases during the week and on the weekend.
i spent most of my time on my phone. since phones are mini computers now, i usually could spend at least 5 hours a day on my phone. i would spend my time watching movies( youtube/netflix), reading news articles, on social media, texting friends, listening to music, or playing games. it surprised me how long i would spend on my phone. i use my phone for all my entertainment,social, and educational needs. whenever i would be bored or even around people i dont know, i would pull out my phone and escape to my own world. even when i had no urge to use my phone, i would find myself blindly using it. since you can watch television shows, surf the web and play games on your phone, it is my go to media platform. even though i do use my phone most of the day, i dont see it as a huge problem in my life, just simply a distraction. i find it convenient to have a thought of something unknown and looking it up with easy access. in my opinion its not how long you use it, but how you use media which dictates if its good or bad for you.
Oct 16th post
For this weeks post i will write about chapter 3 “Emails, Letters, and Post” by Mark Nunes. i found this article interesting because it explained the history of handwriting and the transition to email and typing. written text was in a way overthrow ed by email and electronic text which was the norm. as technology advances, how fast we write,send, and recieve mail has also quickly escalated. i remember my aunt telling me stories of having to write letters to people in other states and even other countries. she would tell me how long and tedious it was send information from one person to another. as technology progressed, information became readily available. the rate of how fast we can send info back and forth improved so fast, it was very similar to having a phone conversation . i even noticed how text and email advanced from its earlier days. i remember writing emails with aol, having to wait for the application to start up, the glitches, and the waiting. now we recieve hundreds of emails a day without a second thought. i find the rate of improvement scary as it is common to send a text or email so fast, i fear we as people will heavily rely on this technolgy in the long run, which may negatively affect our literacy rate for the current and especially the future generations.
Works Cited
-Nunes, Mark. “The Email, The Letter, and The Post.” from Cyberspaces of Everyday Life. University of Minnesota Press, 2006.
