Learning the Ins and Outs of Social Media

 Hi and welcome back to my blog! This week I just wanted to give a quick overview of some things I've been learning regarding social media in one of my class. I want to share some of the highlights, and honestly what I've found to be not so interesting. 

     Firstly, one of my favorite things to learn about social media thus far has been the ways social media impacts people psychologically everyday. Some interesting points have when we discussed the various roles every person plays in their lives, and the ways this can be both positively and negatively seen and done through social media platforms. Similarly, impression management has been a topic I continuously find my self thinking about, even when I am on social media myself. After learning about theses topics,  I find myself looking at my own social media and seeing the different ways I follow impression management, as well as the various roles I present myself with on social media. Learning and understanding these topics has been really beneficial in holding myself accountable on social media and my time and energy spent on it. 

    Along with some really interesting topics there have also been some more not so interesting topics. I never truly realized how much data analytics, algorithms, mathematics, and just general marketing went into social media. While I enjoyed these topics a bit less, they still helped me to understand what goes into social media to make it successful. This information also helped me to understand the work companies and brands put into their social medias to be known and seen successfully. 

    Finally, being a psychology major, the details of social media and the way it impacts individuals, and even mental health rates, still deeply interests me, and I would love to learn more. However, through all that I have learned in class I have come to realize social media is not simply in the hands of its users, but is a very complex system manufactured to work and allow people to flourish in very specifics way. 

Just my opinion,

Madison