Roan Harvey

12/5/19
Sellers- 3/4

iMedia
I have grown up in a world where social media has been a big part of my life and
affected me in many ways. As a teen growing up in the 21st century, there are so many
things that I have missed because of the norms and ideals that have been pushed upon
me. I had to grow up much quicker and start thinking about drugs and relationships
before I should have. If I had not followed the path of others then I would have been
seen as childish and immature. Media has always affected me and the world around
me, the way that social media looks at beauty, race, and gender shapes how people act
in the 21st century.

Because of how social media portrays beauty I feel like I am not enough. As a
population, we have said that white, beautiful, skinny females are the people who will be
noticed and liked on social media. We read an article called “The Cycle of Socialization”
by Bobbie Harro and in this article, there were agents and targets, these are two words
that play a big role in socialization. Being an agent means that in a certain group you
are above the other, by being an agent you are wanted and liked in society whereas a
target is someone who is not like everyone else and therefore bullied. An example of
that is male vs female. If you are a white male you would be an agent compared to a
white female. But if you were a black male the white female might be an agent. This is
just the way we have been socialized. If there was an advertisement for clothing or food
and the company advertised a model who was an agent, an attractive man or woman
for example, then more people would be likely to go buy that product because they want
to be more like the agent in the advertisement. This is something that I had never
thought about before the socialization project but I now realize this has shaped my life.

The way that social media has affected gender is also a big part of my life. Gender roles
have been around since the beginning of time and have socialized males and females
to how they act today. I am a female and because of that, I have always thought about
how males affect me. Snapchat is a form of social media that has had a big impact on
society. In 2017 Snapchat added the snap map filter where unless you were on ghost
mode people could see exactly where you were at all times. This made me feel unsafe,
knowing that people could see where I live and be able to locate me at all times. It felt
like an invasion of my privacy. When I am walking in the dark alone or with other female
friends we are usually looking over our shoulder and never really feel safe. But if there
is a male figure in the group some of that worry seems to go away. That is not
something that I should have to think about at my age.
Music also plays a significant role in gender. ​Recently society has been asking for
music that does not have a good impact. An example is the song “I Love it”​ ​written in
2018 by Kanye West and Lil Pump,
“​You're such a fuckin' ho, I love it (I love it) You're such a fuckin' ho, I love it (Love it,
love it) I' ma fuck a bitch, tell her cousin.” Based on the wording in this song and many
other songs people may believe that it is okay and accepted in society to act like that as
well.

Race​ ​is another factor of socialization and I am seen as an agent because I am white.
When I go on my feed on different forms of social media I do not really notice other
prominent races. This is another thing that needs to improve. ​We watched the film Mean
Girls as it has a very prominent role in socialization. In the movie, I realized that other
than Mr. Duval a teacher, there were no Asian or African American roles. Even though
we discussed the film afterward that factor never came up. Also at the beginning of the
movie Katie the main character moves from Africa to the United States. When the
teacher hears that the new student came from Africa she assumed that is was the one
black girl in the class, when really she was born and​ raised in the US. ​In Durango, 79.6
percent of the population is white. Meaning most people are not exposed to different
races so most of the time Ethnicity doesn’t even come to mind.​ Socialization has an
impact on race but it is something that most people do not even notice.

There are ways that the media has helped us as a population. We have been able to
help others and communicate with people we would have never been able to meet
without media. But is it really worth it? All the hours that people spend “fixing”
themselves so they can be a part of the media. Instead of wasting time trying to be
wanted we could be helping solve global warming or fixing hunger problems. What
could we be doing if we were not glued to a screen?