Write a one-page reflective essay. In this essay, you need to Reflect on your own social media use throughout the day. Discuss the content you engage with, platforms you use, and reflect on how these interactions may shape your well-being and perceived friendship closeness. Mention here at least one psychological mechanism that we discussed in class: - comparison, validation, dopamine feedback loops. Search for 2 research articles that study your experiences (for instance, if you saw gaming content on YouTube you can search for a study on watching gaming streamers and how this relates to happiness) and briefly discuss what the main conclusions of these articles are. Refer to these articles using APA style + add the DOI/link to the article. important ! key words : media use, daily exposure, content, idealized, active(activity, messaging - posting)/passive (browsing, scrolling), enhancing or displacing Face-to-Face communication, friendship, gratifications
Technologies are omnipresent in a contemporary daily basis. It helps to guide you in your journey, reminds you tasks to to, converge all your contacts and your agendas. A smart phone become a tool and as an student you can not " go without ", you need these apps to connect to your virtual university, you need it to set an alarm to be on time in class, you check news, your friends' news, and you could post news as well and be active. Social medias and technologies are implemented in society as a progression and also as a necessity. Each citizen living in a smart city has their hand over a phone, media use became a normalized habit. My personal experience with social medias started when I had around twelve years old, I first had an account on Facebook and online game (such as Cromimi and Pony Academy). There were forums on these sites which I discovered later. There was a social game I was really into in named Blablaland, it was chat game with possibility to wander in maps and you can interact with users (mainly strangers), own skins, customize your profile and so on, it was very attractive and easy to use. There was also a way to connect to internet on the device Nintendo DSi on the application Flipnote Hatena. "Flipnote" was basically a drawing software and created an online platform where you can post and show you drawings to people in local server (limited to Europe because Asia has its own), some users opened chatrooms because you could comment on people creations, each comment were drawing with pixels like "Pictochat". There was also a big community : every night you could connect and chat with people, sometimes you meet again the same people and start to develop a frienship. Later on, I discovered other social medias ; there were the mainstream one like Tumblr (mainly quotes and pictures), Instagram (for friends and arts), Twitter (that became X, then I left this site), Snapchat (discovered the addictive feature of the "stories"),... I had a preference to share art on social medias and supporting other artists, for some reasons, I often felt the urge to develop my digital footprint "out the mainstream framework" and tried to find alternatives, niches websites and indie web. I discovered deviantArt (a platform where you can post drawings), Forum dessiné (a website created by a french artist where you can add a canvas to continue a story in progress, participate to contest and so on), Omegle (a chatroulette with tags), Discord (discussions servers), Cara (an alternative for artists to Instagram), Magma (an oekaki board), Neocities.org (a platform where you can code your own website), and online games like Urban Rivals, IMVU, Overwatch... Some of social medias could make you discover new people and some could reunite your actual friends. The possibility of making new contacts all around the world has expanded and it makes it easier and faster, especially when you share the same interests as some communities. Daily exposure of informations on social medias could make you drift from a reasonable sane life, because "it is so implemented" that you start believing that you can not live without it. People online built and shape their own profile, an idealized image of them and it pushed you to believe this is the reality. The time an user is taking to create its online persona can be different than others people and it "change la donne" because another person who dont take that much time to peaufiner son persona aura une différente de qualité et d'attention / perception par les autres. You only can perceive a part of someone's life online = partiality Exemple of someone qui dessine blindé et artiste amateur = différence de contenu Validation Dopamine Psychological mecanisms : comparison (idealized content?), validation (gratification) and dopamine feedbacks loops (anticipation,) 2) Daily habit 1) chatting with strangers, connecting with people. Connect with people who share the same interests as you. 3)