Social Media and Society: a Generation Transformed and Transforming Consciousness and Culture

SOCIAL MEDIA AND SOCIETY: A GENERATION TRANSFORMED AND TRANSFORMING CONSCIOUSNESS AND CULTURE _______________________________ A Thesis Submitted to The Honors College in Candidacy for Graduating with Honors FALL 2019 ii Abstract The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the scholarly literature regarding social media use and the effects it has on human communication, consciousness and culture. Social media are ubiquitous; thus, our mediated and non-mediated interactions are being affected and transformed because of it. After analyzing myriad studies, it is possible to conclude that the literature tends to surmise the implications of media are either all good or all bad but fail to acknowledge the complexity of the impacts on transforming consciousness and culture and how they exist on a continuum. One dichotomy that appears in the literature is that people are either being selfish or selfless in their motivation for sharing on social media, but not both. In this paper I analyze two case studies that explode this dichotomy. Stoneman Douglas activists and Greta Thunberg and youth climate activists use their social media for activism both in their own self-interest and in the interest of the greater good of society at large. The literature review suggests this dichotomy can only exist exclusively. Yet, integrating and analyzing current examples it is possible to conclude this dichotomy is false. Moreover, the reality of this false dichotomy is exactly what has shaped this generation to be transformed by, and transform, consciousness and culture. Keywords: Communications, Public Relations, Social Media, Motivation for Sharing, Intergenerational Relationships, Media Ecology, Health, Fear of Missing Out, Sleep, Performance, Emojis, Nonverbal Communication, Sharing, Computer Mediated Communication, Greta Thunberg, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School iii Table of Contents Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………………ii Review of the Literature…………………………………………………………………….…….1 History of New Media Ideologies…………………………………………………………….…..1 Social Media and Quality of Life…………………………………………………………….…...6 Social Comparison and the Fear of Missing Out………………………………………………...11 Social Media and Sleep………………………………………………………………………….15 Social Media Use and Performance……………………………………………………………...20 Emojis and Computer Mediated Non-Verbal Communication………………………………….23 False Dichotomy of Motivation for Sharing……………………………………………………..28 Case Study – Greta Thunberg……………………………………………………………………29 Case Study – Marjory Stoneman Douglas……………………………………………………….38 Conclusion and Future Work…………………………………………………………………….46 Appendix………………………………………………………………………………………....48 References………………………………………………………………………………………..52 Review of the Literature History of New Media Ideologies “Media, I will argue, are vessels and environments, containers of possibility that anchor our existence and make what we are doing possible,” John Durham Peters, professor at Yale University argues in his book The Marvelous Clouds: Toward a Philosophy of Elemental Media (2016). Peter concludes that while media are environments, environments are media. Peters argues that media are the very infrastructures which combine nature and culture. Further, he argues digital media is an extension of practices that were deeply rooted by the establishment of civilization. He suggests that “new media” do not take society into unchartered territory but rather challenge us to ponder fundamental questions of our society, such as how we manage our relations and interactions with ourselves, our peers and the world around us. Peters poses an important ideology that stands as a testament to the importance of this thesis and discussion that reads: Media are not only important for scholars and citizens who care about culture and public opinion, but for everyone who breathes, stands on two feet, or navigates the ocean of memory. Media are our infrastructures of being, the habitats and materials through which we act and are. This gives them ecological, ethical and existential import. (p. 14-15) This quotation inspired this thesis. This ideology that media are of critical importance to every person is vital because of the way media overwhelms our societal landscape. Understanding the 2 ecological history of media is critical establish a basis to then further understand its present-day implications on consciousness and culture. Marshall McLuhan, one prominent media scholar has been studied, quoted and challenged widely and with profundity. The Legacy of McLuhan by Lance Strate and Edward Wachtel is compiled of essays by various media scholars who highlight, challenge and discuss the legacy of McLuhan’s impact on media scholarship. McLuhan is credited with implementing the rhetoric “the media” into the public sphere, allowing it to become a recognizable and used phrase in public discourse (Strate & Wachtel 2005). One of McLuhan’s most famous ideologies is the medium is the message. This transformative idea has been quoted, supported, denied and modified, even by McLuhan himself. This ideology arises in McLuhan’s work Understanding Media (1964) where he proposes the medium itself, not the content it carries, should be the focus of study. Strate and Wachtel highlight McLuhan’s view that media are part of our environment. While they fade into the background of daily life they are constantly influencing and shaping us. McLuhan’s investigation into media focused on the relationship between culture and consciousness through his investigative attempt to define the relationship between media form and cognitive effect. Ultimately, McLuhan’s ideologies and thought processes regarding media have shaped the landscape of media ecology in a lasting way. Strate and Wachtel concede The significance of any individual’s brilliance is not so much in what it sheds light upon, but what that light enables others to see. McLuhan’s light has made visible the invisible environments of media, of communication, culture and technology. He has extended our powers of perception and our capacity for understanding. (p. 11) 3 Paying homage to the origin of media scholarship is critical in proposing further analysis. While Marshall McLuhan remains a controversial figure in the study of media ecology, it is only right to make note of his vast theoretical contributions and influence. Contextualizing the history of communication pre-social media is imperative to discuss where society has been relative to where society is now. Joshua Meyrowitz in his essay From Trial to Global: A Brief History of Civilization from a McLuhanesque Perspective in the book the Legacy of McLuhan paints in broad strokes a concise description of the general history of communication in civilization (2005). He remarks how human civilization has been marked by three major phases—traditional, modern and postmodern. Each of these phases has been linked to a mode of communication; traditional to oral, modern to literate, and postmodern to electronic. Meyrowitz describes how traditional oral societies had thick boundaries separating them from other oral communities, thus, their communication had been the most constricted and limited. Modern societies had a larger boundary, but new internal boundaries within the society allowed them to encounter strangers. Finally, in the postmodern society, as marked by the internet and dawn of social media, the electronic matrix led to permeable boundaries between different nations and social categories, thus giving a global sense of familiarity, ultimately increasing human interconnectivity. Media scholars varying methods of inquiry allow them to draw different conclusions about the implications of media. Donna Flayhan’s essay Early Medium Theory, or, Roots of Technological Determinism in North American Communication Theory in the Legacy of McLuhan discusses two media scholars, McLuhan and Harold Innis and their varying contributions to media scholarship (2005). Most notably, Flayhan dissects their ideologies about 4 implications of media on consciousness and culture. Flayhan clearly defines the reasons for difference in the scholarship: The main differences between the ideas of Innis and McLuhan are a consequence of their different methods, paths of investigation, ways of looking. Innis’ empirical, historical, “dirt research,” method led him to investigate the cultural implications of communication technologies concerning access to information, power, empires, and monopolies of knowledge. McLuhan’s theoretical, literary, “probe,” method led him to discuss the effects of communication technologies on consciousness—changes in sense ratios, sensory balance, and alterations of the central nervous system.” (p. 237-238) Ultimately, Innis was concerned in his scholarship about the cultural consequence of forms of communication and the interaction between existing social structures and the time and space bias of various forms of communication. McLuhan conversely theorized that our thoughts and ideas (brains) are mere content (thoughts as symptoms) reflecting changes in forms of media that alter our sense ratios and the balance of our central nervous system (Flayhan, 2005). Flayhan concludes that both scholars offer unique contributions to media scholarship. Moreover, there is a transformative opportunity to expand if scholars find a middle ground between the two ideologies. Malcom Gladwell in his book The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference (2000) discusses his concept of “the tipping point.” This idea encapsulates Gladwell’s theory expressing how

Load more