Research Update!
My research into some of the effects social media has on society has been interesting and not quite what I was expecting. I have ran 2 polls asking people if they have taken a break from social media. I was expecting for the poll on twitter to have more people select "yes" where in reality my followers on twitter were less likely to have taken a break from social media than my friends on facebook. I think a possible explanation for this could have to do with age as a lot of people that voted yes on facebook are significantly older than me.
The explanation from most that shared their justification was that social media simply took up too much of their time and attention. They felt more focused and better about what they were investing their free time in.
I had two responses that were related to cyber bullying, one deleted the accounts for the majority of high school and now keeps her accounts on private. The other was being attacked personally after his friend committed a crime and decided it was unhealthy to stay logged in while it was still a hot topic and while he processed it. He only keeps his accounts now so he has something to do.
I had a few responses from people that liked to take a step away from their accounts while they went through a breakup to avoid the constant profile checking of their ex or just to have even more of that separation and time to them self.
The response I found myself most excited about is someone I work with who has completely shut down from Facebook and only has an Instagram and pinterest specifically to look at farming ideas. Her explanation was that it was such a distraction and made in person contact essentially meaningless. She realized most of the people on her friends list were just there to see her account but never really interacted and she didn't like that so she posted a "hey here's my number if you want to spend face to face time together." and then deleted the accounts over 7 months ago. She hasn't had a single facebook friend contact her after that.
The explanation from most that shared their justification was that social media simply took up too much of their time and attention. They felt more focused and better about what they were investing their free time in.
I had two responses that were related to cyber bullying, one deleted the accounts for the majority of high school and now keeps her accounts on private. The other was being attacked personally after his friend committed a crime and decided it was unhealthy to stay logged in while it was still a hot topic and while he processed it. He only keeps his accounts now so he has something to do.
I had a few responses from people that liked to take a step away from their accounts while they went through a breakup to avoid the constant profile checking of their ex or just to have even more of that separation and time to them self.
The response I found myself most excited about is someone I work with who has completely shut down from Facebook and only has an Instagram and pinterest specifically to look at farming ideas. Her explanation was that it was such a distraction and made in person contact essentially meaningless. She realized most of the people on her friends list were just there to see her account but never really interacted and she didn't like that so she posted a "hey here's my number if you want to spend face to face time together." and then deleted the accounts over 7 months ago. She hasn't had a single facebook friend contact her after that.
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