Authenticity in Social Media

Media 1: Week 2: Lecture 2

During the lecture this week the idea of authenticity with in media came up. In particular, authenticity within Social Media .One specific question on this topic was asked “Are the friends you have on Facebook really your friends, have you made friendships online that have developed offline?”

When it comes to the topic of Facebook I am unabashedly biased. I love Facebook. I love the interconnectivity it has given citizens of the world politically and socially. I love Mark Zuckerberg and everything that comes out of his mouth. Basically, I think Facebook is the Bee’s Knee’s.

When I first new I was coming to Australia on Working Holiday I had a couple friends already based in Victoria. I made these friends during a 6 month volunteer trip in South Africa 2.5 years prior. Facebook had been our tool to keep in touch. Not only did we keep in touch through the use of messenger, or commenting on each other posts. But also by the simple fact of seeing there post on my newsfeed reminded me they were still apart of my life in someway. Not only is Facebook a platform to maintain friendships but also to create new ones.

When I was 12 I listened to a podcast called Mugglecast. If you can’t tell by the title it is a podcast that focuses around all things Harry Potter. The hosts of this podcast developed a following and now host a opinion news podcast called #Millenial (the hashtag is silent). The listeners of which participate in a Facebook group where we all discuss and share topics that may have been of part of a piece in the last episode. When I knew I was coming to Melbourne I was able to post on this group if there were any listeners in Melbs that would be willing to meet up. As a result within a week I had met more people who I knew I would have something in common to develop a real friendship with.

Obviously, this is not how everyone uses Facebook. And many people may use Facebook and Instagram alike to project a false sense of the life they live. They use it to show people they have lots of friends/follower. They get a false sense of achievement or admiration from others based on how many ‘likes’ they may get on a post. Social interactions on these kinds of platforms can be very self serving, vapid, and empty.

But overall I think Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, Tinder etc… add to our social lives more than detract.  When it comes to the authenticity of relationships on Social Media it is what you make it – as is authenticity of relationships in real life.