To Social Media, or Not to Social Media
In this week's module for MCO335, we were provided a New York Times article titled, “Holdouts of the Social Media Age” which basically discusses the pros and cons of being and not being on social media from several perspectives including the perspective of author and novelist, Ottessa Moshfegh. Moshfegh does not have a social media account and claims to not be thwarted by that fact at all and mostly speaks negatively about how people tend to use social platforms and the negative aspects that she’s encountered herself. While I understand where she’s coming from as she states, “It made me feel bad, like there was a standard for living that I didn’t even know about, and that I hated so much that, if I ever had to be in touch with that standard, I was going to kill somebody.” I fully agree with how social media can disrupt how we feel about our own lives as others seemingly perfect (curated) lives are constantly being shoved down our throats. However, Moshfegh’s next comment is not something I fully agree with, “It seemed like everybody wants to be a celebrity,”. While this statement isn’t completely false, it’s definitely not completely true. Some people simply feel more confident sharing over social media as opposed to being in person. This type of use can come off as being narcissistic when in reality it’s more empowering than anything else. Social media can act as a type of social therapy for wallflowers. Overall, I try not to judge people’s reasonings for participating or not participating in social media because people use it in many different ways for a myriad of reasons.
Though most people under 50 are online, a few choose to remain elusive on Twitter and such, trying to preserve their privacy, sanity — and n