Stage 2 - Social Media response and provocation
Digital Influence
To confirm that I found in the first stage that my portrait and selfie photos are more popular than other types of photos. At this stage, I will post different types of photos on social media in the morning, middle and evening, so as to record people’s reactions. I also customized a questionnaire on my social media. I received a total of twenty responses and integrated people's answers (see figure 5). From the answers I collected, it can be seen that more people will choose to check social media posts in the afternoon and night. At these times, posts are more likely to be liked than in the morning. The answer to the second question also confirms my findings in the first stage. Portraits and selfie photos will be more popular. People think it will be more interesting, or they may like me very much.
Figure 5. Questionnaire answers
I'm curious do people really like my photos? I think if I beautify my photos, will I get more likes? After I experimented with this, I divided my photos into two styles and posted them on social media. The first is that I chose to publish the original image, and the photos at this time are not beautified; the second is that I used the ‘PhotoShop’ software to add filters to the photo and beautify myself with the beauty function (see figure 6). The results of the likes I received were the same as I expected. The beautified photos will be more popular than the original ones, and the beautified photos may be more colorful and make an impression. However, the authenticity of the beautiful photos will be reduced. It can be said that people will pay more attention to the visually good photos, so this is why I curate the photos to gain attention before posting. The practice can quickly increase the likes of posts, thereby increasing personal confidence and so on. But these virtual data affect my mood at any time. If my posts don't receive a lot of likes, my mood will be low. This is also a problem with friends around me. Therefore, digital influence affects people's lives at any time.
Figure 6. Same posts in two different styles
Reflection
Before I started working on this project, I didn't realize that I was so dependent and concerned about social media. After my investigation and research, I found that I cannot do without social media, which is why I spend so long on it every day. Social media is not only a way of communication but also a good platform for my daily sharing. But the virtual data such as likes of my posts are really affects my personal emotions and life. I will be sad because I don’t get enough likes or even delete unpopular posts. This irrational behavior is because I was affected by these virtual data. Too much attention can make us addicted to the social media, such as checking social media frequently in a day and can not thinking others things in a day.
According to research findings, when people overuse social media, it will have a negative impact on people's cognitive and behavioral development and even mental and physical health (World Economic Forum, 2021). The trend of this phenomenon is gradually rising, and more and more people are affected by the virtual data of social media. I can easily find people around me who have negative effects such as emotional instability due to digital influence. Social media expert Brian Carter believes that when we click to share, we obviously want people to like or follow posted posts as much as we do (Jacob, 2021).
Just like me, I beautified the photos and made the photos look diverse. I share posts on social media in the hope of getting everyone's attention, so I will follow people's interactions for posts, but this approach is wrong. In fact, many social media users, especially women, pay more attention to these data, and they doubt themselves because of the likes of the posts (Makwana, Lee, Parkin & Farmer, 2021). I think I need to avoid this behavior and find something more meaningful for myself. I can share my daily life as usual, but I can't be overly influenced by digital influence. If I want to get more likes, I might choose to publish posts with wonderful content and beautiful photos in the afternoon or night, but these data are virtual, so I don't mind that I and others pay too much attention.
Reference List
Jacob, S. (2021). These Are the Types of Posts People Share the Most on Facebook. https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/231789Links to an external site.
Makwana, B., Lee, Y., Parkin, S., & Farmer, L. (2021). Selfie-Esteem: The Relationship Between Body Dissatisfaction and Social Media in Adolescent and Young Women | In-Mind. https://www.in-mind.org/article/selfie-esteem-the-relationship-between-body-dissatisfaction-and-social-media-in-adolescent?gclid=CjwKCAjw6qqDBhB-EiwACBs6x5e3ssrety-PjnaLqGJcOlUtJZjI-uWtg8VJq9UXLKifv4x-jjF98hoCu4EQAvD_BwELinks to an external site.
World Economic Forum. (2021). Section 3: Impact of Digital Media on Individuals, Organizations and Society https://reports.weforum.org/human-implications-of-digital-media-2016/section-3-impact-of-digital-media-on-individuals-organizations-and-society/?doing_wp_cron=1617590940.7562420368194580078125Links to an external site.
