Social Media Synthesis Essay

Presely describes this audience as “digital natives” (Boyed, Presely,2014, pp.13), in association with their character raised in the 2.0 era of digital media. As it is a significant factor within many youth’s identities and the way they are raised, affecting the way they portray themselves to others, as they are exposed to this digital world from a young age.A result of this upbringing gives them the knowledge to be their own agents, portraying of media consumption. Sharing similar experiences to friends through vast instances of, synchronous communication to large numbers of people, i.e., Facebook, snap chat and Instagram. Surrounded by a culture where youth regularly need to see peoples, fulfilled lives, thriving on the visibility of these,

Goodwin et al. (2016) reinforce this notion with their study on Facebook drinking photos and the attention this draws of one's Branded Self. Maintaining that young people’s predilection for posting Facebook drinking photos is understood concerning Facebook’s particular formation and affordances, and is symptomatic of innovative forms of online sociality and vital aspects of identity work which are connected to imperatives for self-promotion and power. Using qualitative comparative and thematic methods to examine how participants constructed specific meanings about their socialising, drinking and social networking. The study focused on twenty-four focus groups aged eighteen to twenty-five years, around New Zealand. Centring their argument around young people’s accounts of media use, that is drunken spectacles posted on Facebook by this

,2016 p.1). It quickly became apparent that participant’s activities while on Facebook revolved around broad, user generated visual culture participants often constructed Facebook as an optical medium with a utility intimately linked to photos and photo sharing across numerous networks. In this sense, Facebook is a closely intertwined culture of universal smartphone use, so the picture-taking and uploading is a normalised routine when associated with alcohol consumption and identity of this age group. For example, participant's Ben and Erena from the case study describe this as a "Sunday morning ritual". Stating that often on a Sunday after a night out drinking. Participants would go through, and “Tag” and “untag” themselves from photos making sure they do not depict themselves as having “crazy eyes” or “puking in a bush” (Ben). This dialogue, confirms Boyed, Presely (2014) and Goodwin et al. ‘s (2016) sentiments, on the audience's ability, to make decisions on whom they want to be through the process of selection and self-actualization on sites like Facebook. As for this audience, one's Facebook profile is a representation of their identity and how they wish to identify themselves. (Goodwin et al. ,2016,