The Trust Issues of Being In A Relationship With Social Media
When Keanu Reeves so philosophically debated the realities of our existence in The Matrix, he didn't realize that he would be foreshadowing the world we live in today. Not with agents, or a blue and red wire that would decide our fate, but a dual reality we experience in everyday life: social media. Living through a screen is taking away from our day to day experiences but some major media outlets have a plan to cut bake on the false realities presented by social media.
Image Courtesy: Vbout
Social media impacts our lives in many different ways, but what we don't realize is the validity of everyday social media. Nowadays, media moguls are comparable to deities being worshiped within a religion, with a hefty price tag on products that only emphasize their influence. As consumers, it is our duty, right, and virtue to understand that the ‘God' of social media we are worshiping is an ideology. Social media is not an accurate portrayal of life; it is entertainment. There is a fine line between the two, and now we seem to be sitting in a limbo of what is real and what is portrayed to be real.
Every now and then we need to step back and re-evaluate where our media consumption comes from. The sourcing of your media is the key value to its truthfulness. Whether it's an Instagram entrepreneur, or high profile media companies such as The New York Times or The Washington Post, we as consumers need to be in a relationship with our media where we can trust and learn from one another, not be taken aback by pretenses and judgments.
Thankfully some of these media companies are understanding the importance of trust in our relationship with media and are working towards validating information for the consumer. Media as we know it will change in the next month as Facebook and Instagram work to battle the false realities by adding labels that will designate a post as "false information." It is the world's first defense in our ongoing battle against "fake news."
Instagram is enduring another media makeover by removing all augmented reality (AR) that highlight cosmetic surgery, whether it's depicting surgery or promoting it. Filters that present a "better" version of yourself will be gone along with the self-esteem problems that came with them. This comes with the company's re-evaluation of its policies and stigma around mental health. "While we're re-evaluating our policies, we will remove all effects from the [effects] gallery associated with plastic surgery, stop further approval of new effects like this and remove current effects if they're reported to us," a spokesperson from InstagW told the BBC.
We are all stuck in a complicated relationship with social media. Memes bring us together, while political tweets and fake news tear us apart. We must realize that social media is about presentation and that a post may not always speak the truth. Facebook and Instagram's initiatives are the first steps in bringing truth back to social media but there is a long journey ahead of us. The first step starts with yourself. Put your beliefs into outlets you love and trust; you must be conscious of the consumption you choose to take.
Strike Out,
Writer: Teaghan Skulszki
Editors: Gillian McKendree and Savannah Tindall
Tallahassee