How Social Media has Shaped Me: Personal Experiences with New Media

 Personal Experience with Social Media Platforms 

 According to Business of Apps, there are around 500 million people who use Instagram daily, with 84% of total users being American teenagers. Of that 84%, 25% have said it is their favorite platform to use, and I would have to agree. Instagram is by far my most used social media platform, and it is even the reason that I do not use other social media apps. On Instagram, the content that I see is a range of different topics and opinions. I get all my news from news broadcasting Instagram pages such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, NBC, and Fox. I typically engage in content that is specific to fashion, interior design, dog training, cooking, stock shows, and rodeos, as well as art forms like modern music and musicians, classical music, and orchestras/symphonies, as well as a wide range of professional musicians.  

Using Instagram so much has had an impact on me, whether that is a good thing or not. I would say that Instagram has impacted my professional life because it is a way to help start businesses and promote content. It has also become an educational tool in some respects as well. I have learned a wealth of information on varying topics thanks to Instagram. In terms of my personal life, I no longer get my news from the nightly news broadcasts of the major television networks, but updates throughout the day from Instagram. I also hardly use other social media platforms because I feel like Instagram has created the perfect combination of the other social media platforms. I can view all the aesthetic pictures, generate ideas for a project, or just mindlessly scroll, all on Instagram Instead of having to switch between different platforms like Pinterest, Facebook, and TikTok.  

Since I do not use other social media platforms as heavily as I use Instagram, I would have to say that the next platform I use the most is YouTube. I like YouTube because of the long-form content that is available on its platform, which differs from Instagram's short-form content. The content that I engage with on YouTube is recorded podcasts, day-in-the-life videos, and musical content and I follow a few channels that some celebrities have as well as any educational content I come across. YouTube has impacted my professional life because quite a few of my professors use YouTube content in their classrooms and assign them for us to watch. 

Interactions with Social Media Influencers 

Since the content that I typically engage with on Instagram is not tied to influencers, I cannot recall buying a product simply because I saw an influencer promoting it. However, I have bought products that were circulating on Instagram, because of an influencer. Influencing has impacted my purchasing decisions in an indirect way, but I do not rely on a certain person or channel to find products to buy, nor do I trust one person's content and opinions more than another. The one influencer who has impacted my purchasing decisions uses YouTube as their main platform. I have purchased numerous products from Emma Chamberlain's coffee company that she promotes because I have watched her content for years and know that she is a coffee connoisseur of sorts, so I trusted that the coffee company she started would have excellent quality coffee and specialty drinks to purchase. I take tips and tricks from dog trainers, and I find inspiration from the interior design accounts, and I feel like those posts have more of an impact on me than influencer videos.