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Elana Sedor
VISA 1500
Dr. Terryl Atkins
November 1, 2021
Assignment 3, Part A
The SNS platform that I use the most is Instagram, a photo-sharing application created by Facebook. I use Instagram in two ways: I have a private account to post about my personal life to friends and family, and a public account where I share my love for k-pop (Korean Pop) and trade and sell my collections with others in the community. One of the positives about Instagram is that it is a place where people with similar interests can come together and make friends worldwide. However, it has also caused a lot of issues as it creates this expectation for perfection, only the prettiest photos get posted. What the casual follower does not see are the days when influencers are human, because those photos should never be posted. There is also such an importance on numbers: how many followers you have, how many views or likes did your post get. Instagram, like many other social media platforms have become popularity contests. Having a specific number of followers and friends inflates anyones ego. Specifically, in the k-pop community on Instagram, I have seen many accounts with thousands of followers who become big and powerful and intimidating. Soon enough, all their friendship break-ups and mistakes are put on full display and it becomes a massive scandal.
The account that I chose to track for the week was my “fan account.” It is a k-pop sale and trade account where I am most active 99% of the time. On this page throughout the week, I would post items I would like to trade or sell, and I also post my wishlists via Instagram stories. It is also where I talk to my friends about new music and album releases or give and receive updates when items arrive. After checking the ‘recent activity’ option in Instagram for the last week, it showed I spent a daily average of 54 minutes on the app. Which is a number that does and does not surprise me, considering how my k-pop collection is my biggest hobby at the moment, but it also scares me how attached I am to my account.
I know that my reliance on SNS’s, like majority of the population during the Pandemic has increased. As people are unable to be physically together, virtually meeting has become a new normal and we need the online world for everything. This is a sentiment that most people born in Generation Z are already used to, since we grew up when the technology of today started to grow. Now, we are the adults of today, learning to adapt to the addiction and behaviours of the online world.
Works Cited
Chatzoglou, Prodromos, et al. “Generation Z: Factors Affecting the Use of Social Networking Sites (SNSs).” 2020 15th International Workshop on Semantic and Social Media Adaptation and Personalization (SMA, Semantic and Social Media Adaptation and Personalization (SMAP), 2020 15th International Workshop On, Oct. 2020, pp. 1–6. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1109/SMAP49528.2020.9248473.
Kluck, Jan P., et al. “Putting the Social Back into Physical Distancing: The Role of Digital Connections in a Pandemic Crisis.” International Journal of Psychology : Journal International de Psychologie, vol. 56, no. 4, Aug. 2021, pp. 594–606. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1002/ijop.12746.