As a young adult, I am one of the many who are being described in the article, “Explaining Why Young Adults Use MySpace and Facebook Through Uses and Gratifications Theory.” There are many ideas in the article that I knew before reading it. What I was interested in learning from the article was how much of an extent social networking websites has influenced a generation.
Face to face communication allowed gratification but social network sties give instant gratification to its users. The immediate connection with others is a new concept. It instantly fulfills the needs and wants of users. Using social network sites users fulfill the need for entertainment, information, surveillance, diversion, and social utility needs.
I found it most useful to learn the five themes that explained why individuals use social network sites:
1 efficient communication
2 convenient communication
3 curiosity about others
4 popularity
5 relationship formation and reinforcement
These five things embody what today’s youth focus on. Our need to communicate quickly and to know what people are doing or saying or if they are noticing what you do are what today's young adults think about when using social network sites.
Face to face communication allowed gratification but social network sties give instant gratification to its users. The immediate connection with others is a new concept. It instantly fulfills the needs and wants of users. Using social network sites users fulfill the need for entertainment, information, surveillance, diversion, and social utility needs.
I found it most useful to learn the five themes that explained why individuals use social network sites:
1 efficient communication
2 convenient communication
3 curiosity about others
4 popularity
5 relationship formation and reinforcement
These five things embody what today’s youth focus on. Our need to communicate quickly and to know what people are doing or saying or if they are noticing what you do are what today's young adults think about when using social network sites.
I like that you can admit that you are one of the many people that can admit social networking has influenced you. I know many people that say, “Facebook isn’t my life” or “I don’t care about Facebook it’s so much drama” yet they still participate everyday almost all day. Some people don’t want it to influence them so they try to deny their use.
ReplyDeleteWhen you say face-to-face communication allows gratification, but I think that it does give that instant satisfaction like social networks can. I can understand if it is over the phone, then people might not feel the instant gratification, but even over social networks, people can take their time to respond. Face-to-face communication almost forces you to respond immediately, which is instant gratification to me. I do agree that it fulfills our needs for entertainment and many other amusing aspects.
Because technological advances have surrounded younger people, social networking sites come with this. The youth needs to emphasize on more important things, so that future generations have better models to follow after.
I found it interesting that there is a huge divide between people that were born prior to 1982 and those that that were born afterwards.
ReplyDeleteThose born after 1982 expect have information given to them immediately. They can't wait for an answer.An immediate answer is required or instant gratification for that matter. This can be attributed to the influence of those born under the computer age. The perspective from this segment of the population must have a huge impact on the culture and political landscape of not only the United States but the world with this viewpoint. It will be interesting to see what the world will be like in about 30 years when those born after 1982 will be the majority of the population. I never thought much of it but that is probably why people perform these studies.
When it comes to using facebook, I do agree with the five themes. Which are efficient communication, convenient communication, curiosity about others, popularity, relationship formation and reinforcement. The only one I do not agree on is the one about popularity. Maybe it works for some people. To show off new things or what they are doing, and also by how many friends they have. Using online social media such as facebook is one of the most effective ways to communicate these days with the ability to chat, message, and follow their updates. Which in the process makes it convenient and easy to use. The curiosity comes into play when you look at a person’s page and look at what they have posted and their info, and also their pictures. You form the relationships by adding your friends, family, and people for all parts of your past. Also, it shows that you are loved and friended.
ReplyDelete