Reflection On Social Media

777 Words4 Pages
Self-reflection through Social Media: The influences the digital age has on our formation of identity.

In this essay I will be investigating the influences that social media sites such as Facebook, has on the formation of our identities. How does spending so much time on these sites influence the way that we understand ourselves? Considering "How [do] people and digital technologies interact, how [do] we live together?" (Bell 2007: 5). I will be investigating the way in which social media influences the way we act and think and ultimately the effects it has on our Psychology.

According to internetworldstats at least 30% of the world population uses the internet, with the most popular social media site being Facebook. (Balick: Online). Not only does Facebook have over 1,870 active users, but as smartinsights.com reports, 76% of these users log into the site daily. (Chaffey: online). Socialmediatoday reports that teens easily spend up to 9 hours a day on social platforms, which means that the average teenager will spend more time a day on social media than they would spend on eating or drinking. (Asano: online). With these statistics it’s easy to come to the conclusion that not only is a majority of the population on social media, but they also spend a significant amount of time there. While social media was initially designed for connecting and engaging with people with similar interests, today we use social media to express ourselves, form opinions and make decisions.