FAKEME
PROJECT
HOW DO PEople use social media?
“Social media is so popular because it allows people to manage and accomplish their everyday activities”.
In 7.7 billion people around the world, 3.5 billion individuals use social media, and Facebook is the largest social media platform in the world, with 2.4 billion users. YouTube and WhatsApp have also more than 1 billion users. This means that these and other platforms are used by one in every three people in the world, and more than two-thirds are internet users. But how do people use social media?
Firstly, social media started in the early 2000s with the rise of MySpace that reached monthly a million active users, achieving the milestone around 2004. In an interactive chart made by “our world in Data” it is shown that some large media sites have been around for ten or more years, such as Facebook, YouTube and Reddit. While some are newer, such as TikTok, launched in September 2016, by mid-2018 it had reached half a billion users. This social media gained on average about 20 million new users per month since 2016. Despite showing positive numbers, social media also went in an opposite direction after some past dominant platforms have vanished. For example, Hi5, MySpace and Friendster, who were Facebook competitors, were forgotten. Furthermore, those which survived the last decade have changed significantly what they offer users, like Twitter for instance, that in the beginning didn’t authorize the upload of images or videos, but today more than 50% of the viewed content includes images and videos.
Approximately all people use social media at least once a day. People regularly access a variety of social media channels from mobile apps to computer web browsers. The ordinary person will spend 5 years of their life on social media more time than they will spend eating or socializing with friends. This number will increase as people continue to spend more time online.
We also must realize that some social media sites are mainly popular among specific groups. In general young people are more likely to use social media rather than older people. The popularity of some platforms, such as Snapchat or Instagram drops so much faster with age. But it’s not clear if these younger people will continue using Instagram as they grow old. Furthermore, people use a combination of ways to access social media, as well as mobile apps, computer web browsers, mobile web browsers and tablet apps, while mobile apps are the most popular as people prefer to access social media there. Concerning gender, females are more likely to use mobile apps, while males prefer computer web browsers. Again, Pinterest is a platform where we can see aesthetic images are normally visited by women whereas Reddit is a network of communities based on people’s interests and it is visited more frequently by men.
Overall, social media are part of our routine and despite everything we could not live without them.
why do people use social media
When faced with our daily routines, our boring and stressful lives, we tend to enter a different world as soon as we log in on social media platforms. The reason behind this is entirely connected with the fact that we can create a completely different profile for us than what we were supposed to (if we were to be completely honest about ourselves).
It’s no lie that social media are an escape to our reality. And to be completely honest, everyone feels a little bit more validated every time they receive a new like or a positive comment on one of their posts. So why is it a surprise that people enjoy using social media so much? Being whoever we want to be and having people relating to us and even possibly praising us doesn’t sound like a bad thing. Besides, there’s so much more you can do apart from pretending to be someone you’re not.
If you’re not the type of person that is really interested in becoming the center of attentions, you just want something else to think about other than your own life, social media are there for you to provide you with some distractions of all sorts. Following celebrities that you might like and keeping up with their lives really does sound interesting when you’re just trying to get your mind out of your problems.
But imagine how great it is being able to communicate and discuss ideas with other people that share the same interests as you. Whether they are about music, politics, movies, etc. as long as you’re able to express yourself, your opinions and seeing other people’s points of view on a certain matter, social media really are serving their purpose of distraction by making us interact with other people and engage in discussions that we wouldn’t have otherwise in the so called real world and that will keep us glued to our virtual life.
what kind of people use social media
Different people relate to social media in different ways. If we understand this it will be easier to reach individuals because we get to know their personalities. It´s no secret the most dominant platform on the Internet is Facebook. But what kind of people use this or other social media?
We’ve said before that approximately two-thirds of the population use the Internet in their smartphones or computers. Consequently we use these devices for playing games or for work and, in fact, social media have changed the way we interact in the real world or online. For us, audiences, we tend to focus on a theory (called “Uses and Gratifications”) that states that individuals might choose and use a text for various purposes, such as diversion – to escape from everyday troubles and routines - or Personal Identity – to find ourselves reflected in texts, to learn behavior and values from writings. Subsequently there are different kinds of social media users, and we are stating a few. Starting with the Listener, this user prefers to fly under the radar, they might appreciate your post but that doesn’t mean that they will always click “Like” for everyone to know.
Secondly, The Activist who is that user who constantly wants an immediate change in everything they believe that it’s wrong. Next we have the Social Butterfly, which is a user that is super popular and never seems to stop being identified in pictures with what appears to be every person we have ever known. If you want to reach them you have to be very social and you have to make him very integrated in every group. In addition, we can found the Family Person who is that individual that tends to avoid technology, but started to really enjoy the moment they understood that they could talk to their family members everywhere, much like our parents, isn’t it? Don’t forget that if you want to be friends with them you should post loads of “love” and “family is back together” kind of things.
Before finishing, everyone knows those little annoying people who constantly are trying to bring everyone down with hate speeches. Keep a reminder that those people are not worthy and what you really should do is to hit the “block” button for them. They say that the best is saved for the end so, I present to you the Influencer, this user is that one creative person who creates original content. They are able to produce high-quality content, sharing passionately their topic and love to their followers. They live and breathe quality content.
Overall, it is essential to understand the types of social media users if we want to sell something, because if we do so it will be so much easier to reach them. So, I’ll leave you with a question: What type of social media user are you?
Why do people follow certain profiles on social media
It’s inevitable. When you’re working, when you’re on your break, while you´re in class before you fall asleep and after you wake up, your brain has the urge to be entertained. And it’s no news that social media are the number one choice of entertainment – not necessarily because there’s something we need to check on, but because it’s as addicting as it can be. So yes, we do use social media all the time, but who is it that we follow? And the golden question: Why?
The Uses and Gratifications Theory shows us that people consume media objects for several reasons: to be informed and educated, to be entertained, for personal identity issues, for integration and social interaction issues and, lastly, for escapism or diversion. And although this theory was developed with TV usage in mind, it completely applies to social media. I follow "BBC News" on Twitter so I can know what’s happening in the world – it keeps me informed; I follow “Tasty” on Instagram for my amusement (and obviously for my cravings) – it keeps me entertained; I follow “Chessie King” on Instagram because she’s a wonderful role model that promotes a healthy self-image for people – I identify with her and I mimic her behaviour in the sense that I try to follow the same principles as her; I follow “Love Island”, a reality TV show’s account, because I like to gossip with my friends about it – it propels social interaction; and, last but not least, I follow accounts like “Kim Kardashian” and “Rihanna” because they have excellent lives and experience things that I’ll never be able to (and them going to the Bahamas is much more interesting than me sitting on the couch) – that is how I escape reality.
But the study conducted by Courtney Seiter about the “Psychology of Social Media” showed us that wanting to follow someone is more deeply engraved in us than we think: while scientists used to believe that dopamine was a pleasure chemical in the brain, they’ve found that it actually creates want, and so dopamine makes us seek, desire and search almost chronically. Dopamine is stimulated by unpredictability, by small pieces of information and by reward signs – exactly the conditions of social media.
So, all in all, we come to the conclusion that we follow certain accounts based on what they post or portray. Those different values will mean different reasons as to why you follow them, but it will be mainly to maintain a relationship, far or near, and to be embraced by the different and the same of social media.
When it comes to social media, are people too trusting
We are all users of social media – give or take very few rare exceptions. And people naturally have an instinct to trust others if not given a reason to do otherwise. So why shouldn’t media users apply that rule to social media? They do – we do.
People tend to be trusting in social media in a way that can sometimes be careless. It’s understandable - I mean, no one wants to think that their online friend may be a murderer, or that that advertisement that they’ve been eyeing isn’t exactly as transparent as they think. But as Thomas Reid, an 18th century Scottish philosopher, once said: "The wise and beneficent Author of nature, who intended that we should be social creatures, and that we should receive the greatest and most important part of our knowledge by the information of others, hath, for these purposes implanted in our natures two principles that tally with each other. The first of these principles is a propensity to speak truth [... The second principle] is a disposition to confide in the veracity of others, and to believe what they tell us.”. In normal words, humans have a natural instinct to be trusting. But maybe we should fight that instinct.
Are people too trusting because, perhaps, the human race tends to tell the truth? Generally speaking, we do. Think of how many times you lied today – probably not many, if any, right? But, on the other hand, think of the amount of fake accounts and fake news there are on social media. Isn´t all of that considered lying? And we tend to give them the benefit of doubt.
But being trusting, sometimes even gullible, on social media doesn’t mean we’re blind to the danger of lying or that we don’t have critical thinking – sometimes we use our intuition rather than our analysis. David Robson, from BBC Future, on his “Why are people so incredibly gullible” research, gave us some examples. For starters, two simple questions: “How many animals of each kind did Moses take on the Ark?” and “Margaret Thatcher was the president of what country?”. Between 10% and 50% of study participants that answered did not notice the mistakes. Moses didn’t build the Ark – Noah did. And Margaret Thatcher was never president – she was Prime Minister. This is known as the “Moses Illusion”, that shows how easily we can fail to notice details of a statement in order to favor the general instead of the specifics. So ultimately, our responses from our logical side can be swayed by futile and alien details that have nothing to do with the truth.
All in all, although we’re becoming more aware and alert about possible persuasion on social media each day , social media creators and users are also becoming more experienced and bigger experts on how to make persuasion that much better and credible that we may actually be convinced. Yes, we trust too much. But some don’t trust enough. So we think there’s a balance of those who close their eyes, and those who force them to open.
Can social media brainwash people
It is easy to understand that social media hold huge power over us users; or else how would we explain this obsession for spending so much time using them? However, it is important to notice that it is not just the addiction that is taking over us but also something much bigger.
When we think about social media, it seems like such a nice thing; but like any other media we can be so easily manipulated through them. This happens daily as a result of people scrolling through their timeline on any platform and finding all sorts of information which people may not be so familiar with; the more likes some posts have, the more believable and reliable they become - and we tend to go with the flow. What I mean by this is that if we are not well informed about a subject and we see a popular opinion about it, we will instantly follow the beliefs of those opinion leaders as it is easier to relate to someone with a large influence rather than someone who can’t reach a wide audience. And that’s how those media messages get spread around the internet, the biggest form of media nowadays, and become viral.
Most of the time these messages are not correct, whether morally - and that’s why we see so many hate messages online - or simply because the content creators are trying to manipulate us into thinking their own way, even though we may have not thought like them initially.
So yes, it is clear that social media can in fact brainwash us as we are easily controlled by the popularity of a media message - which is not always correct - and make us believe in something we wouldn’t think otherwise.
SCAMS on social media
The impact of social media in our daily life is strong nowadays. Business, school, work and personal life are scattered all over social media incessantly. Surely, it brought good things – real time news on all sorts of subjects, easy access to all kinds of information, podcasts, videos, opinion states, music and books with just an easy and simple click. However, not everything is good.
With the rise of social media, scams have become a prominent problem and each time harder to detect. Social media users are continuously bombarded by fake news, clickbait and fake followers. Consumers International, a company that fights for consumers’ rights all around the world, stated in Social media scams: Understanding the consumer experience to create a safer digital world that “Social media is a dream come true for fraudsters. 4 billion people (…) are active users of social media (…). This popularity, combined with the open nature of social media platforms, makes it easier for criminals to reach incredibly large numbers of people” (Consumers International, 2019). It is safe to say that, with the right software and a certain manipulative narrative, it is simple to create a storyline that does not exist.
Awareness is key. Still, Consumers International also stated that “(…) it is difficult to get accurate data about the scale of the problem (…). Scams are severely underreported (…). This has resulted in fragmented and inconsistent data.” (Consumers International 2019). Despite this, you can’t forget to stay alert and report when you think you have been scammed.
To sum it all up, social media are a pretty garden full of all different kinds of flowers. It’s a place for you to research, relax, share your opinion and check other people’s opinion. But it is also a dangerous platform that provides abusers, harassers and fraudsters with all the tools necessary to extort users all around the globe. Once again, keep yourself aware and use the platform given to you in the right way.
sEXUAL HARASSMENT
Sexual harassment is a current topic in contemporary times – not only on social media but also on newspapers, television, classes and even on the streets. Of course there have been fights and counter-arguments (and some people might even say that they’re tired of the subject) but it’s still there. The small things matter.
Marylin A. Campbell, professor at the Queensland University of Technology stated in Cyberbullying: An old problem in a new guise that “anonymity, instantaneousness, the ability to escalate quickly, and intrusiveness are features of the Internet and social media that can enable or increase bullying and sexual harassment. A lack of specific physical locale may also convince (…) harassers that they are beyond the (…) legal reach as they sometimes are” (Campbell, 2005). The author states what could be common knowledge to us – it is easier for audiences to act on an impulse if they are protected by inconspicuousness.
This social study shows us exactly that. Audiences are eager to present their opinion, regardless of who is reading it, applying it or feeling it and social media portrayed an important role in spreading harassment – specially, sexual harassment – as it provided its users with such confidentiality and confidence that they can’t resist their most basic instinct of attack. Because it is important to note that virtual sexual harassment – even though based on words – is still sexual harassment and, thankfully, laws are continuously being made to prevent such crimes.
We urge you to think before you write because whether we accept it or not, social media are nowadays part of our business and social life – so much that they can be confused with our own lives. We hope this study somehow helps you open your mind on the subject. For that, we provide you with concrete and practical examples of a few of the messages we got.