A Teenager's View on Social Media - Backchannel - Medium - 0 views
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I wouldn't say a lot of “socializing” — at least in the way we've defined it in our social media society—occurs on the site
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Facebook is something we all got in middle school because it was cool but now is seen as an awkward family dinner party we can't really leave.
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Facebook is often used by us mainly for its group functionality. I know plenty of classmates who only go on Facebook to check the groups they are part of and then quickly log off. In this part Facebook shines—groups do not have the same complicated algorithms behind them that the Newsfeed does. It is very easy to just see the new information posted on the group without having to sift through tons of posts and advertising you don't really care about.
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Messaging on Facebook is also extremely popular among our age group, mainly because they provide the means to talk to those people who you weren't really comfortable with asking for their number but comfortable enough to send them a friend request.
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Facebook is often the jumping-off point for many people to try to find you online, simply because everyone around us has it.
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I'm not terrified whenever I like something on Instagram that it will show up in someone’s Newsfeed and they'll either screenshot that I liked it or reference it later.
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I am not as pressured to follow someone back on Instagram, meaning my feed is normally comprised of content I actually want to see
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Another point: tagging. I don't have to constantly check Instagram to make sure I wasn't tagged in any awkward or bad photos. That’s because you can't easily see them in your feed, making the whole experience seem way more private.
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People do not post 10000 times a day on Instagram. Many are much more polite about posting, either doing once a day, a few times a week, etc.
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There are no links on Instagram, meaning I'm not being constantly spammed by the same advertisement, horrible gossip news article, or Buzzfeed listicle
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Facebook gets all of the photos we took — the good, the bad, etc—while Instagram just gets the one that really summed up the event we went to.
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Many of those younger than me (10–16 years old) who I've talked to about this matter don’t even have a Facebook — Instagram is all that they need.
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Your tweets are also easily searchable on Twitter which is good but not good if you want to be yourself and not have it follow you around when you're trying to land a job. Thus, to others Twitter is used like Facebook—you post with the assumption that your employer will see it one day.
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There are then three main groups of Twitter users: the ones who use it to complain/express themselves, the ones who tweet with the assumption that their prospective employer will eventually see whatever they are saying, and the ones who simply look at other Tweets and do the occasional RT.
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Snapchat is quickly becoming the most used social media network, especially with the advent of My Story.
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On Facebook you post the cute, posed pictures you took with your friends at the party with a few candids (definitely no alcohol in these photos)
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Without the constant social pressure of a follower count or Facebook friends, I am not constantly having these random people shoved in front of me. Instead, Snapchat is a somewhat intimate network of friends who I don't care if they see me at a party having fun.
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Snapchat has a lot less social pressure attached to it compared to every other popular social media network out there.
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If I don’t get any likes on my Instagram photo or Facebook post within 15 minutes you can sure bet I'll delete it.
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Another quick aside about Snapchat—I only know a handful of people (myself included) that believe Snapchat does delete your photos. Everyone else I know believes that Snapchat has some secret database somewhere with all of your photos on it. While I will save that debate for another day, it is safe to say that when photos are “leaked” or when there’s controversy about security on the app, we honestly do not really care. We aren't sending pictures of our Social Security Cards here, we're sending selfies and photos with us having 5 chins.
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Tumblr is a place to follow/be followed by a bunch of random strangers, yet not have your identity be attached to it.
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You post yourself getting ready for the party, going to the party, having fun at the party, leaving at the end of the party, and waking up the morning after the party on Snapchat.
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Tumblr is where you are your true self and surround yourself (through who you follow) with people who have similar interests.
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It’s often seen as a “judgment-free zone” where, due to the lack of identity on the site, you can really be who you want to be.
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There is a lot of interaction on this website in the form of reblogs because people just simply have feeds of only things they care about (and are then more likely to support with a like/reblog)
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I wouldn't say a lot of “socializing” — at least in the way we've defined it in our social media society—occurs on the site
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I wouldn't say a lot of “socializing” — at least in the way we've defined it in our social media society—occurs on the site, but people can really easily meet others worldwide who hold similar interests
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There’s an advertisement I see often on Twitter for Yik Yak that says something along the lines of “Everyone’s on it before class starts.” I can 100% reaffirm that this is true. And everyone’s on it during class, talking about the class they are in. And everyone’s on it after class to find out what else is going on around campus.
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Yik Yak is a powerful contender that people actually use. Often I see people post about the fight for anonymity with other applications such as Secret. I can tell you that I do not know a single person in my network who uses that application.
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Yik Yak is only as good as the 10 mile radius around you, so if you are in an area with a low population of Yik Yak users, you won’t really be using the application much.
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LinkedIn — We have to get it, so we got it. Many wait until college to get this (as they probably should, it isn’t for this demographic anyways).
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Pinterest—It’s mainly female-dominated and is for those who have an artsy/hipster focus. Not too many people talk about it.
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GroupMe—By far the most used group messaging application in college. Everyone has one, uses it and loves it. GIF support, the ability to “like” others messages, even trivial things such as being able to change your name between group chats all make this both a useful and enjoyable application.