Reflective Journal Entry 6 - Social media minds

Our final lecture makes us think about how we will use social media to further our careers and explains the psychology behind social media interactions. It also contains a video "This is Phil Fish" that gives examples of the effects that online fame can have whilst further detailing the psychology of social media interactions. It asks us to consider strategies for promoting ourselves online and outlines a step by step guide to starting your online profile.

I found the psychology behind social media interactions very interesting, especially the concepts discussed in the "This is Phil Fish" video.

I find it fascinating the way an audience intakes information online and creates preconceptions of who an individual is and how that can affect the way users interact with that individual and other users.

The social dynamic between the audience that perpetuates the fame of an individual is also quite astounding, the way an audience can collectively conceptualise a persons identity and amass a following all perceiving this person the same way is incredible and also quite scary. The video also talks about how negative publicity can be just, if not more, powerful than positive publicity. It explains that all positive attention is not as powerful as a mixture of love and hate.

It is not surprising to see that people have worked out how this system works and have learnt to manipulate it to their advantage.

Successful famous social media persons would most definitely use these techniques to make themselves more likeable (or unlikable) to generate more followers. I find this is very noticeable in a lot of professional YouTube people. There are a lot of people trying to depict themselves in a certain light, creating a branding, style and persona, all with the connotations they desire to make an appealing and marketable YouTube name. Whether the people are being their real selves or their fake online persona selves is hard to tell. I find this coincides with my preconceived notion that social media across all forms is a front people use to create an unrealistic, accentuated portrayal of their life.

When thinking of the social media account that I would be creating in the future I did not envision myself taking all these factors into consideration. It seems that a carefully planned identity is key to a successful online presence. This lecture has given me a lot to think about before being ready to decide what kind of social media presence I will try to convey.

References

Innuendo Studios. (2014, June 16). This Is Phil Fish [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmTUW-owa2w

e06e912bf52798e643bbe09032ff6eaf [Image] (n.d.). Retreived from https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/e0/6e/91/e06e912bf52798e643bbe09032ff6eaf.jpg