“Adults complain that teens are wasting their time publicizing trivia, whereas teens feel as though their audience can filter out anything that appears to be irrelevant.” (Boyd, 62).
Yes. Adults are correct. As teens we tend to post things online that others may or may not find enticing. However when we post we hope that our followers will interact favorably towards the content. My friend Gabby and I were actually discussing this earlier this year one late night. The other day, instagram announced that they would soon experiment with taking away the “like” function of their app. Users would still be able to “like” pictures and videos, however only the creator of the content could view the amount of likes the post received. Like Nikki Minaj, I hated this idea. Unfortunately the point of instagram is to gain followers and “likes”, not to actually connect with friends. Deleting this aspect of the app would completely defeat the purpose of posting. Because of this, I can see why parents believe us teens are wasting our time.
However, I also agree with the notion that if people don’t actually care about my content they will not waste time viewing it. Although I post pictures partially because I believe my viewers might enjoy it in some capacity, I also do it for myself. Instagram is a great modern-day picture book. It has all of my favorite pictures from the years on one easy page. If someone doesn’t like what I am posting, they simply ignore it. Just like if someone posts a picture that I do not like, I will not “like” it, I’ll just continue scrolling.
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