In my first blog post I expressed my feelings on how I thought the worldwide media affected my peers and I. My response was mostly negative because of the way media affects me in my day-to-day life, constantly changing the way I see and do things. I challenged the readers to be original and come up with there own ideas, to create a place in society for themselves doing the things they want instead of relying on what’s ‘popular’ or ‘cool’.
I started to read my classmates blogs and one after another my fellow classmates were stating the same opinions that I had in my blog. We all agreed that our generation is deeply affected by what we see and read in social media. We agreed that it has affected our society negatively in most ways but positively in some. I was particularly intrigued by one blogger when she chose to put a positive spin on the social media network known as twitter. She stated, “Twitter is a useful site because not only does it tell us what is happening in the world instantly through 140 characters, but many people reply to these “tweets” with strong opinions. “ (1). I had never taken this opinion into consideration, I always looked at twitter as a way of people simply telling their followers what they have been up to, not as something more serious such as spreading worldly events. This blogger has shown me the positive side to the social media that I hadn’t noticed. This led me to a better understanding of why people use these networking sites as an outlet of their own opinion.
Next I read a blog that I couldn’t have agreed with more. Every point the blogger made was one I could strongly relate my blog to. The blogger stated, “Between stick thin models and perfect looking celebrities in almost every magazine and movie, it’s easy to understand why many young tweens and teenagers want to resemble what they are seeing in the media.” (2). I had stated in my blog that teens rely far too much on what they see in the media. The girls they see on TV and in magazines show an image of what teens think they should look like which is simply unrealistic. This causes a foggy idea of reality for teens and can be dangerous to their self-esteem. As girls we know what it feels like, always trying to achieve the body and looks that we will simply never have. Our blogs were very similar because I think that social media personally affected both of us in the same way.
Finally was a blog I read written by a male individual, I was interested to see what boys thought of the things they see in social media, I had often wondered if they would they would have the same ideas as me and other females. Turns out we had many ideas in common of how media is portrayed. I realized that media affects everyone in the same way; we are all bombarded with social media each and every day. I particularly agreed with one opinion he had, he wrote “Right now, there is a current dance that many people do called, “Twerking”. This dance gained a lot of popularity after singer Miley Cyrus performed it at the VMAs last month. Because of that, girls across North America have been posting videos of themselves partaking in this dance as well.” (3). I agree with this statement because it helps back up my idea that teens in today’s society are simply unoriginal and are essentially stealing others ideas, or in this case dance moves. I had challenged my readers in my past blog post to be original and I am challenging you again. Do one thing a day that’s different than everyone else. Set yourself apart from others and be an individual in your community.
I really enjoyed reading my classmates blogs because I realized just how much we have in common. We share a lot of the same ideas on the way social media negatively and positively affects us in our lives everyday. We have each been affected in some way by the social media because it has become apart of our lives whether we know it or not.
(1)- http://melissalocquiao.blogspot.ca/?view=sidebar
(2)- http://hb123na.wordpress.com/2013/09/19/the-influence-of-media-a-blog-for-cpcf-1f25/
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