JRN 200
March 24, 2017
Social Media Burnout
One night in February, Michigan
State University freshman Olivia Baratta made a Facebook status that got 124
likes. By the next evening, all of her social media accounts had been
deactivated.
Baratta announced over Facebook
that she was taking an indefinite break from social media, the last step in a
process that had been going on for years, she said. Twitter had been the first
to go, early in high school, but it took longer for her to detach herself from
Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook.
At the start of year, she was
“hyper-sensitive” to what her friends and classmates from high school were
posting, she said. It seemed like everyone was having a lot of fun, which was
stressful to Baratta, who was unsure if she wanted to stay at MSU. However, she
didn’t post anything negative, either.
“If you were to look at my
Instagram, you wouldn’t think I hated where I was,” said Baratta.
Social media offers endless
possibilities for self-expression, but also endless audiences who can
potentially see that expression, said Dr. Scott Campbell, a professor at the
University of Michigan who researches smartphone and social media use. It
creates a lack of context, and can be confusing when family, friends, and
co-workers are all on the same platform.
“We play different roles on
different stages,” said Campbell.
THIS IS A GOOD PLACE FOR SOME TELLING DATA THAT HELPS STATISTICALLY
DETAIL THE PROBLEM AND ISSUE
Baratta said she realized that in
order to figure out what she wanted to do at school, she would have to stop
surrounding herself with online images of people who seemed to have everything
figured out.
She started with Snapchat, but
Instagram was harder to break away from, she said. She deleted and re-downloaded
it a few times. Despite feeling like she, and others, were posting things that
were “fake,” the validation of a like or a comment still felt good.
“It makes you feel like okay,” said
Baratta, “Even if, like, my stress was not from my looks, it was from something
else, another part of my life, that validation makes you feel like you’re fine.”
Alyssa Bedaine, a senior at MSU who
is active on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, and Tumblr, said she views
social media as a creative tool. She joked that she takes her Instagram layout
and style “way too seriously,” but sees it as a supplement to her other modes
of expression, like writing and makeup.
Creative pursuits, such as
photography, have changed with the introduction of social media, said Campbell.
The focus now is less on curating photos to show friends later, and more on
capturing the moment, posting it, and then letting it go.
AGAIN, IS THERE DATA THAT CAN HELP CONTEXTUALIZE THIS AND SHOW THE
TREND?
“I’m friends with a lot of creative
people. That’s who I normally surround myself with and they do the same thing,
so it’s kind of like keeping up with others,” said Bedaine.
Bedaine said she checks Twitter and
Instagram most frequently, at least once an hour, to keep up with friends, celebrities,
and the news. Her visits are usually brief, but sometimes last for hours.
Baratta said she used to use social
media all the time, but didn’t fully realize it until her Spanish professor
asked her class how many hours a day they spent on their phones. Her
classmates’ answers ranged from three to seven hours a day. Baratta was
surprised to realize that she too sometimes spent seven hours on her phone in a
single day.
All the time spent responding to
texts, calls, and Snapchats added up, Baratta said. There was always something
new to see.
“It doesn’t run out,” said Baratta.
Bedaine said she hasn’t had an
issue with any media platform that would prompt her to cut back or quit her
use, except Facebook. She recently deleted the app from her phone after
noticing how angry she felt after using it.
“I was finding myself disliking
people who have never, like, actually been mean to me,” said Bedaine.
Bedaine said she noticed that she
would separate herself from people if they posted things she didn’t agree with.
A political fight that took place on Facebook caused one of half of her family
to stop speaking to the other half.
Just as people can use social media
to make things look better than they are, Baratta said, it also has the ability
to make things look worse. It creates a disconnect where people don’t have to
care what they say because they’re not speaking to others directly.
It is unlikely that large swaths of
the population will begin to reject social media, said Campbell.
“It’s cool, it’s a statement, it’s
kind of counter-cultural,” said Campbell, of the decision that some people have
made to exchange their smartphone for a flip phone.
Baratta, who is majoring in Media
and Information, MAJORS ARE LOWER CASE,
PER AP STYLE said she does see the irony in the close relationship between
her chosen career path and the websites she has distanced herself from. She
expects to use social media again later in life, but in a professional setting,
not posting as herself.
“People are like, ‘I don’t understand
why you don’t just cut back’…Part of it is, I don’t think I’m strong enough to
have it,” said Baratta.
Baratta said some of her friends
have also made an effort to stay away from their phones when they are hanging
out together, but not everyone is willing or able to do so. She pictures a
bygone era when no one even had an option.
“People used to go dancing on
dates, like how fun is that?” said Baratta, “We don’t do stuff like that
anymore. We get drunk and Snapchat, and the more we’re Snapchatting, the more
we have our phones out, the less fun we’re having.”
Word Count: 792
Sources:
Olivia Baratta
MSU Student
(313) (redacted)
Alyssa Bedaine
MSU Student
(redacted)@msu.edu
(517) (redacted)
Scott Campbell
(734) (redacted)
ASSIGNMENT GRADE: (REDACTED)
INSTRUCTOR COMMENTS:
VERY NICE JOB WITH A HUMANIZING ANECDOTAL LEDE AND GOOD STRUCTURE AND RANGE OF
SOURCES THROUGHOUT. I THINK THERE’S ONLY TWO SIGNIFICANT MISSES: ONE, AS NOTED
ABOVE, DATA THAT HEPS SHOW HOW MANY PEOPLE USE SOCIAL MEDIA AND HOW MANY
MINUTES A DAY THEY USE IT AND WHETHER THAT IS HIGHER OR LOWER THAN BEFORE AND
HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE QUITTING SOCIAL MEDIA, ETC. THE SECOND IS SOMEONE DRIVING
THE ISSUE: SOCIAL MEDIA COMPANIES THEMSELVES. WHAT DO THEY SAY OF THE PROS AND
CONS AND WHAT THEY ARE DOING OR NOT DOING ABOUT IT? STILL, NICE WORK HERE.
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