‘Freedom and control’ (pp. 37) can be a couple of reasons why we use social media. If we can, we would all like to be in control and be free to do whatever we like all day and everyday throughout our lifetime. This may not be the case due to work and family life commitments, and for some, other limitations may be not having the monetary capacity to fund such extravagant indulges.

 Instead, we live our life – and sometimes through the lives of others – online. Our online life connects us to other people who are not with us at this current moment as we are huddled under a mountain of blankets in our cold, dark rooms, as well as people from diverse backgrounds and from a mixture of cultures that have may have unusual morals and values than you. Their perspective on life may alter the way we think about the world, certain types of people and situations such as the Arab Spring and the war on terrorism.

We call have a voice online, the freedom of speech, we can say all the nonsense that we can’t say to people in our daily lives or in public as people may get heat up by our slurs and take offence of our public nuisance (pp. 31), and next thing you know, you’re in court for saying the very thing you could of said online and no one would have give a damn as you would just be perceived as a “troll”. Funny that.

 I am very surprised at the level of tracking used against all of social media users. Did we agree to the ‘‘terms and conditions’’ when we logged in on Facebook to be tracked? I fathom, that is the contract when you log in, that is, you allow Facebook to track what you like, the time of day/night you view your Facebook account. And what you do on that service provider, whether that be stalking your old mates from high school or checking out that hot chick that you grew fond after seeing her at a mutual friend’s birthday party or maybe you’re more interested in that new band’s song that you kept hearing on Fox FM or maybe you are just innocently connecting with other people by chatting them up. Who knows what you do, but you, or is it?

So, the question I pose is that, do we allow such third parties know who we are? You know, whether we are either male or female or in-between, where we’re from, the sort of music we like, or the friends we are friends with. Are we so blind to the fact of what the implication of those two mere words, “I agree”, actually means when we click on the button to allow third parties to receive information about us and/or receive information from them? Are our little minds capable of understanding the influences of such clever marketing techniques? These third parties or even a service provider such as Facebook collect our data so much so that the cooperation can use our data against us by exploiting our online personalities and what we ‘like’, or maybe Facebook will suggest to you to add these “people you may know” since you share a mutual friend with that particular person (pp. 32-33).

We may think that we have the freedom and control over our social media use (pp. 31), but do we actually do? Are we aiming to find fulfilment and satisfaction through our online life by using digital tools such as Facebook and Instagram, is it to equip us from the disappointment in our lives that we are unable to achieve our own desire? For example, whereas others may travel to Alaska and witness the Northern Lights, we live our dreams by viewing their selfies with a pillowy string of green and blue splash across the night sky in the background. That, we only know ourselves, and soon, the media service you use, will too.

 Whatever your reason may be for going online, keep one eye open and pray that the next Kim Kardashian news isn’t in your news feed on Facebook.

Reference:

Hinton S & Hjorth L 2013, ‘What is Web 2.0?’, Understanding Contemporary Culture Series: Understanding Social Media, London, 31 July 2014, SAGE Publications Ltd, pp. 14-38.