Communicating Online: Social Media

 Hello again, classmates! Welcome back to my little corner in cyberspace.

I've decided to answer the first and third from the list of provided questions: 

Do different social networking sites offer different benefits and drawbacks?

Social media has played a large part in my life, especially when it comes to my involvement with the LGBTQ community and other marginalized groups. Many platforms, including Facebook, connect those of us who may feel ostracized by general society, and provide outlets for expression that we may not otherwise have. However, despite social media's ability to transcend geographical boundaries and bring people into a community, there are also significant drawbacks. 

Facebook, unless your profile is completely set to private or registered using a burner email, is a platform where who you are is basically out in the open. Most of all activity on pages, with the exception of private groups, shows up in your feed, and is visible to friends with no option to turn off this particular function. Privacy settings constantly change, and some of these changes can reset everything back to default, exposing your information to friends and general users. Where and how to change these settings back require Google searches as Facebook doesn't always provide information to users, creating quite a lot of confusion. Additional pages can be created and privacy can be set, however these are also subject to Facebook's platform and settings changes, and the switch between pages is clunky. 

Tumblr, in contrast, is a site which is built for anonymity and lets the user decide when and if to reveal private information. The dashboard interface is easy to use, blogs can be highly personalized, and side blog creation is very easy. However, there have been significant concerns in recent years about the alleged Russian interference on the site, and links to trolls upending the 2016 Presidential election. There was also a major platform shift in 2018 that effectively banned pornographic images; this change was blasted by many users and journalists alike who accused Tumblr of painting all nudity with a pornographic label brush, including sex education posts. The critics also pointed out that such a ban harms and hinders exchanges between sex workers, the LGBTQ community, and content creators. Many users left Tumblr after the ban took effect, retreating to Twitter or investing in beta social networking like PillowFort. 

What factors might influence whether Facebook has negative influences, like links with depression, versus positive influences, such as boosts in self-esteem?

Although there are several factors that can, and probably do, influence whether Facebook has negative influences, the idea of social media causing depression is controversial in modern psychiatry. According to studies, many factors can cause or contribute to depression, and tracing these back to social media alone can be difficult. In the study linked here, Dr. Igor Pantic mentions that many of the studies that link depression with internet usage were conducted before the rise of social media, and are no longer applicable. However, the following graph details a surprising trend of people walking away or taking breaks from social media:

                                            [image source]

There's a significant decline in users around 2016 which may be related to the presidential election and the concern of Russian bots on social media influencing the outcome, as well as the growing polarization between political parties. This trend continues until 2019, and I'm curious how 2020 will compare, especially given the continuing polarization, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the visibility of social justice movements. As a user myself, I'm curious if, since the social media studies were done, there is now a link between depression and these platforms, especially given the change in numbers of users after 2015. I'd venture to say that at this point, we've all heard people talk about the fatigue associated with constant negative content and infighting in comment threads. I've taken several breaks, and it looks as though I'm not alone in that. 

Even more interesting, the graph below shows how we are using social media when we do use it: 

                                            [image source]

This is perhaps not surprising given the rise in popularity of memes, or many organizations using one image graphics to promote their platforms, but I'm curious what connection, if any, this has to depression and/or social media fatigue. More research is needed!

Until next time!

-H