As much as I’d hate to admit it, social media plays a pretty large role in my life. When I wake up in the morning, the first thing I do is grab my phone lying next to me then spend the next fifteen minutes going through my notifications. I scroll through my texts, emails, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter feed until I realize I’m running behind schedule. This morning ritual is just the first of dozens of times throughout the day that I will habitually check my phone to see if I have any new notifications. Social media has become a way for me to escape reality, feel social when lovely, feel alone in a social situation, and above all appease my boredom.
Facebook
Of all the social media platforms, Facebook does the best job of keeping users on site for extended lengths of time. Aggregated by complex algorithms, users’ Facebook feed is filled with a seemingly infinite number of links, videos, and photos all custom tailored to the users’ interests. Even though I can be quite disdainful of Facebook, it’s my rabbit hole, once I fall in it’s hard for me to crawl back out. I’ve spent hours of my life clicking
through photos, scrolling through articles, watching the latest YouTube video, always without any regard to the world around me. I attribute this “rabbit hole” effect to Facebook’s lack of chronology. Unlike most other social platforms, the Facebook feed appears in a seemingly random order thus removing the notion that time has passed within and outside of the platform. Facebook doesn’t reflect the cyclical nature of our day, but instead supplying us with a steady stream of supposedly engaging content. Since Facebook lacks a sense of fleetingness, I see my profile as a place to archive and
immortalize my favorite content almost like a virtual museum of my life.
Twitter
Limited to 140 characters, Twitter users are forced to articulate themselves in short form blogging or microblogging. This short format encourages users to Tweet often with 6 tweets or more a day being optimal. I run three twitter accounts and can crafting tweets upwards of thirty times a day. While that might seem like an incredible amount of time dedicated to a platform, I never spend more than a few minutes on Twitter during each session. Of all the social media platforms, Twitter has the greatest sense of immediacy.
Since tweets are displayed in real time and sorted chronologically, a users feed is constantly moving as new tweets from followers come in. The pace of twitter generally feels accelerated making it almost exhausting to be on for any lengthy period of time.
Instagram
Purely visually driven, Instagram is a platform that is easy to get lost in. Each feed is comprised of snapshots, each giving a little insight into another person’s life. Like Twitter, Instagram is arranged chronologically giving the impression of time passing within the app. However, the nature of personal visual content versus something like news related tweet doesn’t have the same immediacy. I completely understand the appeal of the platform, even find myself checking it regularly, but I’ve never found myself as emotionally invested in it as I have with other platforms.
Facebook
Of all the social media platforms, Facebook does the best job of keeping users on site for extended lengths of time. Aggregated by complex algorithms, users’ Facebook feed is filled with a seemingly infinite number of links, videos, and photos all custom tailored to the users’ interests. Even though I can be quite disdainful of Facebook, it’s my rabbit hole, once I fall in it’s hard for me to crawl back out. I’ve spent hours of my life clicking
through photos, scrolling through articles, watching the latest YouTube video, always without any regard to the world around me. I attribute this “rabbit hole” effect to Facebook’s lack of chronology. Unlike most other social platforms, the Facebook feed appears in a seemingly random order thus removing the notion that time has passed within and outside of the platform. Facebook doesn’t reflect the cyclical nature of our day, but instead supplying us with a steady stream of supposedly engaging content. Since Facebook lacks a sense of fleetingness, I see my profile as a place to archive and
immortalize my favorite content almost like a virtual museum of my life.
Twitter
Limited to 140 characters, Twitter users are forced to articulate themselves in short form blogging or microblogging. This short format encourages users to Tweet often with 6 tweets or more a day being optimal. I run three twitter accounts and can crafting tweets upwards of thirty times a day. While that might seem like an incredible amount of time dedicated to a platform, I never spend more than a few minutes on Twitter during each session. Of all the social media platforms, Twitter has the greatest sense of immediacy.
Since tweets are displayed in real time and sorted chronologically, a users feed is constantly moving as new tweets from followers come in. The pace of twitter generally feels accelerated making it almost exhausting to be on for any lengthy period of time.
Instagram
Purely visually driven, Instagram is a platform that is easy to get lost in. Each feed is comprised of snapshots, each giving a little insight into another person’s life. Like Twitter, Instagram is arranged chronologically giving the impression of time passing within the app. However, the nature of personal visual content versus something like news related tweet doesn’t have the same immediacy. I completely understand the appeal of the platform, even find myself checking it regularly, but I’ve never found myself as emotionally invested in it as I have with other platforms.
--Sofia