Reflective Essay On Social Media

Submitted By adf26
Words: 1086
Pages: 5

Steve Wrought
Professor Granillo
ENG 101
January 7, 2015
Reflective Essay Social Networks Social media has impacted the lives of millions of people across the world. Through our advancement in technology we are able to surf the worldwide web at the palms of our hands. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. are all social networks that influence many people in today’s world. From pictures being posted to personal status reports and blogs seen all over the web. We live in a world where technology has taken over people’s privacy to the point where they cannot go for a day without looking at their social network accounts. On a personal level, I involve myself with Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and Yik-Yak. One of the main reasons to why I’m connected to these social networks is because they give me the ability to interact with friends and see how people are living their day to day lives. It may sound a bit attached, however it allows me to see the world in a different light than what’s being said on the news and how terrible things are going on in the world such as war and tragedies. Despite social networks being closely attached to the user, I feel that it further allows us to stay more connected on a virtual level such as communicating with others who aren’t around in physical form. I typically post photos of me and friends having a great time in events such as hanging out, eating out, or going on an adventure. I always have a barrier between the web and my personal life in terms of my family and stuff that people don’t need to know. Ultimately, social networks provide an insight for users to see the lives of others and see how their day has been or is going. This allows the user to feel more connected with the media and apart of this technological advanced era. My social media experience has had its ups and downs. When I was in middle school, Myspace was a rising social network that every kid needed to have. It gave everyone the opportunity to be someone online and have some sort of status. With my experience, I would always post photos of myself and post status’s of what I would do during school and my everyday life. This was not a great idea because others around me would be able to know where I was and what I was planning to do. Strangers could possibly follow me and track me to where I live and unfortunately at the time I was not aware of the possibilities. I would see others post their personal issues with their parents and friends and how much they hated them. So at this day and age I come to realize that I really need to be vigilant on what I post on the web because it will come back to me in a negative way. Presently, I tend to keep to myself and see how others use the social network and observe their actions. For example, when I see my friends posting stuff about their conflicts with their girlfriends, I tend to stray away and not be a part of that. Overall my social network experience has been great because I respect the capabilities of the web and respect myself on what I post. I feel that some social networks should focus more on what people post such as nudity, and obscenity. This is another rising con about the media, people then began to be desensitized on what they see about other individuals and the real horror in the world. Users feel that what they see on the web isn’t bad because they see it through a screen and not in real life. It truly can become a numbing sensation when seeing obscenity and violence because people become use to seeing it all the time on the web. On the contrary, social networks can be enhanced more by allowing the user to feel safer about their profiles and not being hacked and given a bad reputation. Positive experiences happen all the time on social networks and adding more simple things such as emoji’s could help. Emoji’s are smiley faces and little icons that you are able to send one