iMedia

Media, a word that anyone in the 21st century has heard. People will try to base their life off of a
screen and devote their life to fitting into a certain category, losing themselves in the process.
How you are socialized played a big role in how media affects you. ​Social media is a way to hide
or put on a mask. You could be a totally different person than portrayed on social media. But
why do people feel the need to hide? This is where socialization comes in. As a population, we
have said that white, beautiful, skinny females or males are the people who will be noticed and
liked on social media. So someone who does not fit into that category is not seen as liked.
Instead of trying to change the norms people will bend to fit in them. ​Media is something that
affects people through their life, Instagram, advertisements and even music shape the 21st
century.

People who express their feelings and tell people who they really are on social media are never
accepted.​ I never see someone posting something about sadness because socializing people to
think that everyone is always happy.
Agents and Targets 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 and you would be
the target. This is just the way we have been socialized. If there was an advertisement for some
product. Clothing, food, or something else and the person advertised a model who was an agent,
an attractive man or woman for example. The more people would be likely to go buy that
product because they think even if they don’t realize is that by having that product they will be
more like the agent in the advertisement.

Music is another form of advertisement. ​And the fact that music has changed over the years has
socialized us. Songs used to sound like this “​When I see your face there's not a thing that I would
change 'cause you're amazing just the way you are and when you smile the whole world stops
and stares for a while 'Cause girl you're amazing just the way you are.”This song was written by
Bruno Mars in 2013. Now the songs sound like this, “​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)” This song
was written in 2018 by Kanye West and Lil Pump.
You can see a dramatic change in the wording and based on songs written like this. People may
believe that because of the wording in the song it is accepted in society to act like that as well.
Music can also have a huge impact on one’s wellbeing. Depending on the different types of
music that you listen to could affect your mood. If you are sad and listen to happy music it might
boost your mood. Or if you were happy and listened to sad music you could get sad or depressed.
I have grown up in this world where ​social media has affected me.​ 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
You are expected to grow up faster and let go of the goofy childhood. If you don’t follow the
path of others then you are seen as childish and immature. We watched the film Mean Girls and
there was a very prominent role of socialization that I had never noticed before. There was a
group of girls called the “plastics” and they had certain rules and regulations. If they did not
follow these rules then they would be kicked out of the group. The reason that they had this
many rules and regulations is so they could stay agents or be the liked people at the school. Katie
one of the main characters in the movie moved from Africa and therefore was not socialized in
the normal way and had to learn. We also watched a documentary about a girl, her name was
Genie, she was kept in confinement with no one around until she was 13. She had never been
exposed to the real world and therefore was unable to participate in socialization. She was unable
to respond to social cues and was unable to perform tasks that we do every day. From the day we
are born we are taught how to be a member of society and we are expected to never make
mistakes. But everyone knows that being perfect is impossible, not on social media. On social
media, people can be perfect and because that is what society wants people will try and become
perfect.

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 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.
What if we had never discovered the effect media has on us. Instead of wasting time we could be
helping solve global warming or fixing hunger problems in the United States. What could we be
doing if we were not glued to a screen?

Instagram​ is something that has been around for a while. It was really the first form of social
media that I was interested in.
Snapchat is something that I feel is something that really affected society. Not necessarily in a
good way. Cyberbullying has a very big presence on Snapchat because of the way that the
website is built. 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, as a
woman me knowing that people could know where I live and be able to locate me at all times. It
felt like an invasion of my privacy.
Instagram is something that has been around for a while. It was really the first form of social
media that I was interested in. In my experience, I have never really seen Instagram as a
competition. I enjoy posting content that I am proud of and interests me.
But some people get so caught up in wanting to be liked and if they aren’t they think they are not
enough
Fads, ​an intense and widely shared enthusiasm for something, especially one that is short-lived
and without basis in the object's qualities; a craze. This is the definition ​that I found off the
internet. This word has a really big impact on our society. TikTok is a video app much like
Instagram but with videos not images. It was something

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 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.
What if we had never discovered the effect media has on us. Instead of wasting time we could be
helping solve global warming or fixing hunger problems in the United States. What could we be
doing if we were not glued to a screen?