Effects of social media on the socialization of the self

What are your opinions on the effects of social media on the socialization of the self? How do you think exposure to social media has affected the development of your own social identity and/or those around you? What do you think of the findings of the study as discussed in the podcast? D

Social media has become a powerful tool to express yourself and somehow find a way to socialize yourself. My concern is that social media is becoming a tool to pretend to look someone you are not. I mean you can simply edit a photo of yours and set it as your profile photo and deceive those who do not know you personally. Sharing false statuses is another issue that I do not appreciate about the use of social media.

The author of iGen said in the podcast that technology had limited social interaction. I do agree to this notion. I think that technological interaction is not what can replace physical interaction between humans. For example, we do have video conferencing for meetings but it cannot yet be considered as a replacement for a physical meeting. The same is with social media. It is a way to interact with people, but does it work as a replacement for physical and face to face interactions, I don’t think so. Personally speaking, I had become addicted to social media and started to create a wrong self-perception. I had to gradually get myself out of it because it has started to cut me off from my family and friends.

Socialization of the self is a phenomenon that involves and active engagement of socially development one’s self. When it comes to the use of social media, I think that it can play a role in the socialization of the self in a positive manner. Social media is a platform where you can meet new people and engage in discussions that could add positive traits to your own personality. The key is to connect with people and groups who can add positive to yourself. A personal sense of identity can be improved if you can relate to people who themselves are good in nature and have some knowledge and social engagement to offer on social media.

The psychologist in the podcast has pointed out to people being influenced by social media platforms like Instagram in a negative way where they start to become a bit narcissist and want to look beautiful. I would like to respectfully want to disagree to this argument because I think that if a person has a strong personality and is brought in a loving and healthy environment, these types of psychological issues won’t arise just because of the use of social media. We cannot blame social media for the negative in our personalities. Instead we should provide our children an environment so that they can be mentally strong.