Immersion
MicroThoughts
You cannot fully understand social media solely by being immersed in it. In fact, one reason why there is so much bad information about social media is that most of it comes from immersed people. The full picture is only available to people who can DISTANCE themselves emotionally and intellectually and see social media from the outside — as most human beings view it.
Media:
Mediated communication refers to any communication between two people that has, as the carrier of the message, a technology (ie. computer, social media platform software). The more technologies and pieces that mediate communication between two people, the more distortion will occur as a result. Also the more complex the mediating technologies, the more chance of distortion.
Hope:
Criticism of social media is received as if one had attacked someone’s religion. There are similarities. People desperately want to believe that they can connect and be valued as special by participating in social media. Desperation and Faith meet at the door of social media.
Friends1
In order of stability and connection strength, (strongest first) friendships/relationships can be categorized as 1) unconditional 2) semi-conditional 3) transactional and 4) User Based. Social media users tend to confuse these, and believe the weakest types of ties are actually much stronger than they are.
Alice
In the sixties “You could get anything you want (at Alice’s Restaurant). Things change. Now, in the age of social media, you can BE anybody you want, and if that’s not a huge shift, what is?
