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The Good and the Bad: How Social Media Affected Me as a Gen Z Individua

The impact of social media on teens with respect to their social lives, self-identity, civic engagement, consumer habits, and media consumption isn’t an entirely rosy picture, but it does differ in interesting ways from older generations. In today’s climate of social media, Generation Z and Millennials have negatively been affected by social media leading to harm their perception of what the real world is like away from Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. There’s a common stereotype today that perceives “old people” mainly Baby Boomers and the Silent Generation as folks who are out of touch and they’re not keeping up with the times. Almost as if they’re John Lithgow’s preacher character from the 1984 film Footloose. One of the biggest phenomena created on social media by young people is virtue signaling to gain attention. There are countless times I’ve seen my peers pretend to be active in social issues and movements to get likes or a larger following. You see it all the time, people feel like they’re morally superior because they’re ‘woke’.

 Social media is giving this generation more opportunity to harness power than previous generations. Gen Z creators on TikTok are a perfect example of this. With the ability to reach huge groups of people in a matter of minutes, creators are putting everything out there. Millennials and Generation Zs have long pushed for social change, but the 10th annual Deloitte Global Millennial and Gen Z Survey reveals that they believe the world has reached a tipping point on issues such as racial justice, inequality and the environment. More than half of all Gen Zers (58%) and Millennials (56%) have made a purchase based on a recommendation from a social media influencer or content creator, compared with 46% of Gen Xers and 38% of Boomers. They are also more likely to purchase more products due to social media. By being able to communicate instantly not only with friends in their local area but also those spread all over the world, online teens can boost friendships and strengthen the lines of communication. They can even make new friends from diverse countries and cultures, increasing their cultural awareness.

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“Digital Divide in the New Normal”

        The digital divide rears its ugly head amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. With much of society grinding to a halt, people look to Information and Communications Technologies to adapt to the evolving uncertainty and operate with minimal disruption. All of a sudden, companies are being forced to embrace remote working arrangements facilitated by various productivity and videoconferencing tools. School closures have led to moving classes online. Quarantine restrictions have intensified the use of digital technology to mediate effective communication among family members and friends. The global reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic is and continues to be unprecedented. The shifts in our daily lives were tectonic, personally and professionally.Parents have had to juggle the roles of professionals and teachers our health care, logistics and grocery workers have risen to the challenge of being on the frontline of the crisis and now, after two months.

  The governments and organizations are beginning to grapple with what it means to reopen and return to work. Our current experience with COVID-19 shows that the transition to these extraordinary circumstances is far from smooth.  More specifically, people without access to ICTs are even more disadvantaged than before. In many cases, the lifeline provided by technologies is only available to those who can access them. This brings us to the point that while the current pandemic is new to many of us, the digital divide has been with us for quite some time now. Differential access to ICTs across many fault lines including gender, age, and socio-economic status continues to hamper people’s meaningful participation in the digital society.  On the flip side, that digital divide is an old problem means that we have some basic level of understanding and tools so as not to re-invent the wheel on how to investigate its causes, process, and potential remedies.

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Media Evolution and the Changing World

The audience, once passive, is now cast in a more central and influential role than ever Before. And like anyone suddenly thrust in the spotlight, we’ve been learning a lot, and fast. Yet the growth of communications technology allows people today to find more information more easily than any previous generation. In just one generation the Internet changed the way we make and experience nearly all of media. Today the very act of consuming media creates an entirely new form of it: the social data layer that tells the story of what we like, what we watch, who and what we pay attention to, and our location when doing so.

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Understanding the Relevance of Information and News Literacy in the Midst of Social Era

Media literacy can be considered as the process of accessing, critically analyzing media messages, and creating messages using media tools. A lot of people view that media literacy facilitates understanding of communication technology, the message code,message generated, message selection, interpretation, and impact of the message on the receiver. Furthermore, media literacy can become very important, as by ow it is a set of perspectives to interpret the meaning of the mediated messages so that it can provide clues about how to treat the media in the context of this paper, this refers to the online social media. Media literacy will potentially help young social media users better interpret the messages. While globalization has benefited international society, prevention against the glut of information on social media is still needed for the sake of youth’s mind because young persons, especially students, have immense curiosity towards all kinds of new information. There will be no problem if all information disseminated is suitable for youth. However, since international news also has content like terrorism, hedonist-tic lifestyle, and moreover a certain culture’s soft power diplomacy which can affect juvenile's mind easily, a certain effort has to done to ensure that all the content and information accessible by young people is safe. There is no mechanism to ensure that another action has to be done by empowering the youth itself. Media literacy can become a suitable solution towards this affair, since it will make young people aware of the effect of social media and worldwide information caused by globalization. By doing so, the society can consciously manage the flow of information and actively participate in determining the regulations in the use of communication technology, in order to prevent the contamination of our youth’s mind from bad content.

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The Value of Being a Media and Information Literate Individual 

Media and information literacy enables people to interpret and make informed judgments as users of information and media, as well as to become skillful creators and producers of information giphy and media messages in their own right. MIL combines media literacy and information literacy under one term, and includes a combination of competencies.

Media and information literacy enables people to interpret and make informed judgments as users of information and media, as well as to become skillful creators and producers of information giphy and media messages in their own right. MIL combines media literacy and information literacy under one term, and includes a combination of competencies.

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MEDIA AND THE GOVERNMENT

These are the two most powerful institutions in the world. The media and the government has the power to manipulate people and to change how people think on certain topics going around our world today. Both of these institutions are made for us, of the people. Without media, we wouldn’t be able to be notified or alerted about what’s happening today in our world, and without our government, who would be there to discipline us and lead us to the right path? At some points, the media and the government tends to conflict each other. People are saying that some news that are reported are biased, yet the government is saying that it’s not. Some journalists oppose what the government is saying. Because of this the government releases statements that will then oppose the media. It’s a cycle once one opposes another As a result, the people are manipulated. They have the power to change people’s perspectives. The media serves as our guide and our watchdogs to notify us whatever’s happening now in our world. The government can’t single-handedly lead the people to the right path, for they need a helping hand, and that helping hand is the media.