This project had me exploring my own relationship with social media after some societal reflection and self reflection.
My social media addiction quiz results are "pretty inseparable." It's disappointing but truthful, I have developed an addiction that is hard to pull away from!
I found it interesting that democrats have a more positive view of social media than republicans do. Seventy-eight percent of republicans age 30+ have a negative view of social media while that number for democrats age 30+ is fifty-eight percent. I didn't realize the extent of the perception that social media is anti-conservative among republicans.
My own view on how Social Media is impacting society is that it can really make one more extreme in their worldview. This course has given a lot of information on how ubiquitous "the algorithm" is, even when one doesn't realize there is an algorithm. It can also make it feel like one's opinion and worldview is a lot more common than it actually is. It's a sad contradiction that the internet connects people globally but at times makes people's worlds smaller. I think social media makes people less likely to engage with people that are different from them.
This project taught me that social media is truly a force that our society has not developed tools quickly enough to manage. It's also interesting that I didn't think my problem with social media was too bad before I took the social media addiction quiz. After taking it my perspective changed.