The purpose of this project was to analyze different sources and statistics and reflect social media's impact on ourselves and society.
The quiz result for me was "Fairly Reliant on Social Media" which is really accurate. While doing this project, I checked my phone screen time and it says that today March 11 was 6 hours and 29 minutes. It says I've spent 42 minutes on tiktok, 38 minutes on Instagram, and 36 minutes on Whatsapp. These three apps are the social media platforms that I most frequently use.
Based on the social media statistic report published by Pew Research Center about how Americans Use Social Media, I was able to find the Hispanics represent high percentages of social media users in the U.S on my top three most used social media platforms, Instagram, Tiktok, and Whatsapp.
Instagram 58% (Gottfried, 2024)
Tiktok 49% (Gottfried, 2024)
WhatsApp 54% (Gottfried, 2024)
This relates to me because I am a Hispanic adult, and I was not aware that the hispanic/latino community represented great part of these social media platform users. And technically, even though I did not participate on this survey I feel represented by it. One social media platform that I know is very popular in the hispanic community is WhatsApp, we usually use it to communicate for free with our family members in our home countries. Instead of paying for international data services/plans, with WhatsApp we can communicate for free as long as us and the call recipient also has an internet connection.
I strongly believe that if social media if used properly, and in a responsible way, it can or already has a positive impact on society. Through social media people can communicate, inform and educate themselves, express their creativity, and even generate an income through some monetization and incentives programs that some social media platforms offer for content creation. As a business administration student I strongly believe that social media plays a huge impact in society and businesses, as far to businesses, social media platforms represent a big marketing tool for business to promote and sell their products and services. I personally identify myself as part of the 15% of the young population age 18-29 that also think that social media has a positive impact on society (Auxier, 2020).
Through this project, I was able to learn that the Hispanic population in the U.S represent a high percentage of users on most social media platforms. And I also learned that I might need to lower my usage on social media, one bad habit that I have is sometimes I stop doing important things to scroll on social media. For example, I could be typing this paragraph, I would stop really quick, open TikTok, watch one video, then put my phone down and continue what I was doing. (I didn't do this just now, just an example!) So, this is a really bad habit that I am conscious about and want to fix soon!
Auxier, B. (2020, October 15). 64% of Americans say social media have a mostly negative effect on the way things are going in the U.S. today. Retrieved from Pew Research Center: https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2020/10/15/64-of-americans-say-social-media-have-a-mostly-negative-effect-on-the-way-things-are-going-in-the-u-s-today/
Gottfried, J. (2024, January 31). American's Social Media Use. Retrieved from Pew Research Center: https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2024/01/31/americans-social-media-use/