Kayla, Eighth Grade, and Technological Determinism (Keelin Levasseur)
In the film that was viewed in class Eighth Grade Kayla has curated for herself, a persona on social media. One that does not coincide with who she is in the real world. This can be especially seen in the film’s scenes about Kayla’s YouTube channel. Where she pretends be someone who is confident, optimistic, and popular, which is far from reality. Hence, proving the anxieties that individuals feel in regards to new technologies, in this case, social media.
In the text Personal Connections in the Digital Age, Baym (2015) defines the perspective of technological determinism as viewing “[new technologies] as causal agents, entering societies as active forces of change that humans have little power to resist” (p. 26).
Further, in the text, Baym (2015) goes on to mention many of the anxieties individuals feel in regards to technological determinism. For instance, while people believe that new technologies can bring about better human connections, others are concerned that in mediated environments like social media platforms, there will be a lack of visual and auditory cues which will cause an uncertainty among users when it comes to trusting other people to be who they say they are (Baym, 2015).
In Eighth Grade, this is extremely apparent. As per my previous comment, Kayla has constructed a false persona of who she is, directly proving the fact that technologies, or more specifically, social media platforms like YouTube, allow people to lie about who they are (Baym, 2015). As per Baym (2015), “[individuals] often expect that sparse social cues will cause people to lie about themselves” (p. 38) much like what Kayla does in the film.
In your personal experience, has social media given you a false interpretation of someone? Does social media cause you to have trust issues?
Thanks for reading,
Keelin Levasseur
First of all, thanks for this great post! I was really intrigued by your question and this blog post was very interesting and kept me entertained! Social media has given me many false interpretations of people. There are some people I personally know that would show their life as being fun, care-free etc... but in reality they are a whole other person. Same goes for celebrities or social media influencers. There are some people who I follow who even admit that there life is not what they make it seem on social media. Everyone wants their life to look like a highlight reel, no one wants to be open about their struggles or their everyday lives. This definitely has created mild trust issues for me. I wouldn't say these trust issues are detrimental to relationships with people but it makes me see people in a different life. I kind of see it as looking at two different people. Thanks again!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for your reply! This is a great take on this! I completely agree that while it may not be hindering to real life relationships, social media has definitely caused me to look and individuals in a different light because so much of the information that we see out there can be false or manipulated. For instance, we can look at posts where people edit and refinish their photos, making them look very different from what they do in real life. This is especially prevalent with celebrities and in Hollywood, as you mentioned in your reply.
DeleteThat is a great question that you brought up. It is common for people who are online to want to portray themselves as something they are not in order to impress other people online. In my personal experience I have been given a false impression of a person based off of their social media profile because on social media, it is alot easier to display yourself as confident and a free spirit, as opposed to when you meet people face to face when your true personality is on display. This has led me to put less faith into what I see in social media profiles.
ReplyDeleteHi Keelin,
ReplyDeleteGreat post ! I really enjoyed reading the connection you made between Kayla's anxiety and Baym's ideas on technological determinism. In regards to your question, I personally think social media platforms foster a sense of 'individual grandiose narcissism'. Apps like Instagram, Facebook, and even Tik Tok are online environments whereby users can share (and overshare) one's own image and opinions. While posting opinions and sharing pictures is not inherently narcissistic (heck we all love to share cool things we come across on the internet and do a selfie here and there) it is the ways in which social pressures, anxieties, and normative discourses for social media causes its users to produce content that may very well tie in with themes of self absorption and attention seeking. In addition we can look at the ways in which the amount of likes, comments and followers can feed into this 'grandiose narcissism'. I think social media gives off false impressions of individuals to a certain extent- such as those who share and post alot online but when it comes to face to face chats and conversations they tend to be rather socially awkward or unable to follow social cues in the physical world. As others have already mentioned in the comments, many social media influencers have also come forward letting their followers know that much of what their life looks like and who they are is a facade. I think social media is on the path of causing a lot of trust issues- while more and more individuals are talking about the negative effects associated with social media, it is still wildly misused and manipulated amongst its users. Ultimately, I do tend to find myself being more and more untrustworthy of social media and the content found on it. Thank you for sharing.