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Josue Orellana

Professor Jennifer Rodrick

English 115

25 September 2017

Our World and New Technology

Do you know how many people, worldwide, are monthly active Facebook users? As of

June 2017, there were over 2.01 billion active users. This is a 17% increase from the previous

year ( Constine ). This is over one fourth of the worlds population that is actively using

Facebook on at least a monthly basis. All other social media platforms are exponentially growing

as well, making social media a huge part of todays world. We are in an unprecedented era of

internet and social media that has never been seen before. With this a lot of questions have

emerged as to how social media is affecting communications, society and even our very

identities. Studies conducted by Homero Zuniga, Nicole Ellison and others show the relationship

between social media and ourselves, drawing attention to how it affects our identities. I believe

social media has a positive impact on peoples lives and identities because it allows people to

express themselves online, politically and in other forms, create new relationships while

strengthening older ones, and also because it helps spread positive information between different

people and lets them view different opinions.

Social media has positively affected many people because it allows them to express

themselves in a new medium, giving them a voice and helping shape their sense of identity.

Some individuals may be too shy to express themselves in person or not feel like they can share

who they want to be with those that are physically close to them. By allowing people to share

what they like and think, it helps people, especially younger users, to form a better understanding
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of themselves. Self-expression is an important part of anyones physiological life. It helps them

determine who they truly are and lets them find what your goals and aspirations are for the

future. In the context of social media, users are enabled to express themselves in a multitude of

different media forms. Videos, photos, drawings, and text are just some of the ways that social

media users communicate with other people around the globe. One example of self-expression

on social media is political participation. Political views are the core aspect of many peoples

identities and are a fundamental block of what a person may consider themselves to be. With

social media, people can stay updated and more importantly, express their political view through

media. A study by three professors at three different universities, shows the relationship between

social media and self-expression through being politically active. Their study included thousands

of students throughout three different campuses in different continents to try and find a

correlation between social media and self-expression. The study suggests that even relational

use of social media may be able to set users on a pathway toward political expression, which in

turn may lead to participation (Ziga et al. 627). Furthermore, The key elements of social

media platforms that allow this relationship to occur are their ability (a) to provide a space for

people to express themselves and create their own identity (which may include political

expressiveness) ... (Ziga et al. 627). This study shows a relationship between the usage of

social media and the increased likelihood of self-expression through political activity. Given that

politics has become some a huge part in the lives of many people, when people are allowed to

express their political views on social media it also allows them to express themselves and what

they believe in. Although the study focuses on the political aspect of expressing oneself, The

study is leading up to the idea that social media positively influences the identity of a person

through its ability to help self-express. This is a new effect that social media has allowed to occur
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in our modern age of technology. Social media can be considered the ultimate form of self-

expression. It encourages all types of people to share who we are with the world and to go

beyond physical limitations for expressing our identity.

Social media has allowed for new relationships and connections to form between people

around the world, and for existing relationships to deepen, which has been a positive influence

on peoples identities. Through social media people have connected in a way that has never seen

before. Not only can a person instantly communicate with close friends and loved ones, they can

also use social media as a springboard for finding people who share common interests. By

having the freedom to pursue new friendships and build solid relationships with other people

people are allowing their identity to expand and help build a healthy social life. Although there

has been some concern over a dilution of close relationships because of an ever-expanding media

platform, which some argue that happens because it weakens our relationships and puts a strain

on our social life, the positives outweigh the negatives. It comes down to being able to meet

more people and therefore having more opportunities to develop relationships. People who had

limited opportunities for friendships with people around them have much greater potential to

make lasting relationships through social media. These new relationships have good benefits for

people, because in general knowing more people will get you farther in life and maintain a good

social health. A study done on Facebook and social lifestyle, links how social media usage can

be a positive thing for social media users of social media through allowing relationships to

develop online. [We] can definitively state that there is a positive relationship between certain

kinds of Facebook use and the maintenance and creation of social capital (Nicole et al. 1161).

Social capital is varied in its definitions but in our context, it is referring to the total amount of

resources, both physical and virtual, that someone gains from maintaining relationships with
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people. Benefits of social capital include getting an interview because of a friend who messaged

you about an open position at their job to reading an educational link an acquaintance posted on

their social media account. Social Capital is a measure of how much opportunity your

relationships give you. Social capital is important for a person to be more knowledgeable, have a

greater interest in their communities and contribute more to society. Through their study, Nicole

and others were able to draw definitive relationships between using social media and maintaining

connections with other people. These connections lead to having a better social life and identity.

Relationships between people become more deep and meaningful because of social media.. So as

a result, social media allows us to have better relationships which overall provide us with more

resources to form our own identities.

Social media positively affects users perspective and identity because it expands our

knowledge of positive events and news from around the world, which also leads people to

expand their view of the world. Through social media platforms people expand the tiny bubble

that they physically live in and lets them communicate with the entire world. By gaining more

knowledge about the worlds different cultures, history and ongoing events we allow ourselves to

become a more inclusive and well-rounded individual. Sometimes it is argued that social media

provides communities that are just echo chambers, which help reinforce incorrect ideas and

beliefs that are detrimental to our society. Although such places do exist within social media, the

majority of user gravitate towards using social media in a positive way. People spread positive

news through social media which help all people develop healthier identities. In respect to news

spreading through social media platforms, a study shows that good news will propagate more

than bad news. The positivity bias (or Pollyanna effect) rapidly kicks in when we analyze

how many times the tweets become retweeted or favorited: individuals online clearly tend to
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prefer positive tweets, which are favored as much as five times more than negative or neutral

ones; the same holds true for the amount of retweets collected by positive posts, which is up to

2.5 times more than negative or neutral ones (Ferrara and Yang 4). Inherently, users want to

spread good or relevant news to themselves, giving entire social platforms a positive bias. This

makes social media platforms a good way to spread positive information around the world and

help people feel better about themselves. Through social media, people can learn positive things

about the world and develop their sense of identity positively. Although knowing positive things

is important, knowing different viewpoints around the world is even more important. By

allowing people to reach out and communicate with others who they normally wouldn't be able

to, social media helps people see multiple viewpoints on different subjects. In a TEDx talk, guest

speaker Cliff Lampe talks about some of these things. As an associate professor in the school of

information at the University of Michigan, Lampe studies online communities and social media

to understand how it affects people. In the TEDx video, professor Lampe argues that social

media allows people to have many more connections with others. The majority of these

connections are weak ties, relationships in which people occasionally communicate with each

other. These weak ties often provide social media users with opinions that are vastly different

than their own. These differing viewpoints are very healthy for developing identities, because

this will cause a person to question their beliefs and set foundations for good rational thinking.

Overall, social media helps to spread positive information and develop a good sense of identity

by providing differing viewpoints to people.

Social media is ultimately a tool. A tool that can be used for both good and bad purposes.

Although there are instances of social media being used negatively, social media has been a

positive force in the majority of peoples lives. It gives the freedom of self-expression and allows
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users to get involved with what they are passionate about. Social media is a birthing place for

new friendships and deeper relationships to form between people and communities from around

the globe. It also helps expand peoples perspective about cultures and leans towards sharing

positive news about our world. I urge everyone, if not already, to consider using social media as

a way to express yourself to other people and to help other people. Join online communities that

share similar interest in hobbies to help you to open your social circle. Comment and share on

positive things to help make other peoples days brighter. In the end by allowing yourself to

express yourself, have interests and share positive news you are helping yourself become a better

person.
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Works Cited

Constine, Josh. Facebook Now Has 2 Billion Monthly Users and Responsibility

TechCrunch, 27 Jun. 2017, https://techcrunch.com/2017/06/27/facebook-2-billion-users/.

Accessed 24 Oct. 2017.

Ellison, Nicole B., et al. The Benefit of Facebook Friends: Social Capital and College

Students Use of Online Social Network Sites Journal of Computer-Mediated

Communication, vol. 12, no. 4, 23 August 2007, p. 1161. Wiley Online Library, doi:

10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00367.x. Accessed 25 Sept. 2017.

Ferrara, Emilio and Zeyao Yang. Quantifying the Effect of Sentiment on Information Diffusion

in Social Media PeerJ Computer Science, 9 Sept. 2015, PeerJ, doi: 10.7717/peerj-cs.26.

Accessed 27 Sept. 2017.

Lampe, Cliff. Is Social Media Good for You? Youtube, uploaded by TEDx Talks, 6 Apr. 2015,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=po01VlNvCcQ. Accessed 3 Oct. 2017.

Ziga, Homero, et al. Social Media, Political Expression, and Political Participation: Panel

Analysis of Lagged and Concurrent relationships Journal of Communication, 2014,

p.627 ResearchGate, doi: 10.1111/jcom.12103. Accessed 28 Sept. 2017.