A Social Media Analysis

Media can be simply defined as the means of mass communication. It may take many forms such as; the Internet, radio, television or the newspaper. The rapid development of media technology in the 21st Century, has had a direct affect on our everyday life. To keep on moving forward our society relies on information and communication in all aspects of our daily activities. To consider the affect of media on our everyday life it is vital to set the arguments on the fundamental idea introduced by Mark Deuze in Media, Culture and Society, that we “live in media, rather than with media” therefore, “media cannot be conceived of as separate to us” (Deuze, 2001, pp.143). Nonetheless, it is crucial to understand that this doesn't mean that our lives are

In this reality, there is a constant clash between notions of approaching our everyday. For instance, media both connects and isolates the individual. There are those qualities of media that have enabled us to visibly see and observe our individual lives and those of others. As such it brings out our shared social responsibilities; the idea of uniting with others for joined causes, “such as global warming, terrorism and worldwide migration” (Deuze, 2001, pp.145). However, at the same time replacing person-to-person contact has had other affects on our daily life. As we pile communication with layers of technology, we inevitably end up questioning the reality of our interactions. We may know more about each other's lives because of the technologies at hand, but at the same time this new form of being connected has created distance. A form of alienation takes place because it is an illusory and more passive engagement in others lives. Social media has put physical distance between people, and now the person-to-person interactions are more meaningful and unique only because of their sparseness. Taking Facebook as an example of social media, we see that we are surrendering conversation for connection. In this paradox we claim to have many friends and yet feel lonely. We pick quantity over quality. Facebook, designed to conquer isolation is propagating it. Mark Deuze uses the metaphoric example of the 'Silent Disco' to illustrate “being

Now, all the events, even those from the most distanced places, seem to be happening at the same time and seem to be equally tangible. Before mass media the experience of events was based on the location of the individual. Therefore, there was the assumption that the same time equalled the same place. Mass media has emancipated time and space as two separate concepts. Therefore, the technology allows us to experience and receive, two events happening in different locations. Through this our experience of the past has changed. Before mass media, people learned about the past and about distant places through direct communication; through tradition. The accessibility of the information carried through mass media changed the way in which people gathered information, the way they experienced the past and the world that was out of their physical reach. Tradition was completed and re-processed through the products of media. Most of what we now know about the world and its history comes from the media, from: books, the press, movies, TV programs or the Internet. The present time has become an intense experience. Time has divided itself into many present moments and mass media allows us to be constantly living in the present. And therefore, our sense of the future shift because the possibility of being everywhere, acquiring knowledge on everything and becoming whoever we want to, doesn't make the future easily predictable. It