- Project Statement:
Social media is like a drug. It comes with many side effects, ranging from bad to worse. The overall promise is that it will help keep friendships and relationships strong, while also connecting you to millions of people worldwide. While it does do this, the side effects that it comes with are disastrous… Social media and social media use intrigues me. Billions of people are active on social media sites daily. While in hind site, social media seems innocent enough, it deceives many.
My project allows you to peer into the minds of adolescents and see how they think. Filmed with an iPhone, this project is ironic in many ways. I am an Instagram influencer. I use Instagram and other social media sites every day. I would never openly speak bad on social media. After going in-depth on the history of social media and how its use has changed drastically in the past years, I realized many things. Most of them negative.
For my project, I took a group of diverse participants ages ranging from 17-20 and asked them questions about social media use and how they feel about it as a whole. Prior to this project I did intensive research on social media and how it negatively effects adolescents mental health. I found in multiple studies that it is a proven fact that social media can cause depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem. When I completed my research, I realized that, while my research was extremely trust-worthy and creditable, I wanted to hear my peers’ opinions. Filming this project, I found something extremely concerning. All my peers knew, and some had experienced the negative effects of social media, but they weren’t interested in doing something about it.
- Inspiration:
My inspiration stemmed from Instagram and social media as a whole. I was intrigued with the formats of BuzzFeed and Vice videos. Their formats were an inspiration for my film.
Inspirational sources- Exploringthe Relationship between Frequency of Instagram use, Exposure to Idealized Images, and Psychological Well-being in Women – by Sherlock, Mary and Danielle L. Wagstaff andPlugged In How Media Attract and Affect Youth –by Valkenburg, Patti M., and Jessica Taylor Piotrowski
- Research Thesis:
While Instagram, a photo sharing app, is used daily by millions worldwide, studies have linked the use of the social media app to depression and low self-esteem in adolescents. It causes low self-esteem and depression because it allows people to create online personas that are often not reflective of real lived experience; and consequentially, an element of comparison by others to these fake lives. When people don’t “measure up” to the experiences of these heavily edited and filtered accounts, they feel inadequate and their self-esteem is therefore lowered. In analyzing personal anecdotes and scientific studies, it is clear that more awareness needs to exist around this issue, and a solution needs to be put in place to avoid further devastating consequences to such a vulnerable age group.
- My studio project goes more in-depth to my research thesis. It is the Part 2 to my research paper for seminar. It presents my peers, in real time, answering questions about social media and social media use. I question how they really feel about social media. My previous research shows results from many studies, proving that social media can be extremely detrimental to adolescents. My project takes adolescents proves that this is a real problem, that social media is really affecting one’s mental health, and that’s its happening to people we know.
- Bridge 3 ELP Post:
http://portfolio.newschool.edu/thomp182/2019/03/28/bridge-3-process-documentation-2019/and http://portfolio.newschool.edu/thomp182/2019/03/28/bridge-3-project-statement-2019/
- Visual Documentation:My choice of medium is video. I wanted to capture real time reactions and facial expressions for my project. A film seemed most fitting for those reasons. I needed a lot of materials that I didn’t have, so I made reservations at the Equipment Center to rent a backdrop, lights, and a camera.
Storyboard of main points and important ideas for project.
Photo of completed written up project outline.
Photo of movie light that I reserved from the Equipment center that wasn’t working properly on the day of the shoot (one of the many problems that happened on my multiple filming days).
- I do not have documentation of the actual days I filmed because I encountered many obstacles all three filming days and wasn’t able to properly document while trying to film and fix multiple problems.
Featured Image –
https://drive.google.com/file/d/11L6YeOjYcAsRJZcjxxxH6YBZxtdSy0Ch/view?usp=sharing