Blog Post #5: Reflection of the Semester so Far

 Hello my fellow bloggers,

Happy to be back from spring break and to be sharing my thoughts with you all once again. Since taking COMM 373 Social Media I have learned a great deal about different definitions, phenomenon, viewpoints, and behaviors we as social media users may display or emulate through their online presence/footprint. One of the very several topics I have found fascinating while learning more about it was impression management. Impression management is a concept first introduced to us in the Goffman text in and is defined as "a conscious decision on part of the individual to reveal certain aspects of the self & to conceal other, as actors do when performing on stage" (Gottman 1959). I found this topic and definition to be very interesting because not only does impression management take place on out social media accounts daily, but it also takes place IRL (in real life) in most of our everyday interactions. I also very much enjoyed learning about the 3 reasons why we used impression management online told to us by our Becker & Stamp reading. Along with what effects impression management has on individuals. 


Looking back at the other topics covered throughout the course so far is is very hard to pick out a topic I didn't enjoy learning about. With social media entering into its second decade of existence new found information and research on how it affects us as a society is constantly coming out. Not to mention more people than ever are now have at least one social media account or online profile of some sort. I feel as though the topics covered in this class do a great job in encapsulating the most relevant information about the different phenomena and concepts that have been created since the establishment of web 2.0. I believe this to be very useful in helping myself as an individual navigate the daily pitfalls of social media (which I wouldn't be able to recognize without taking this class). This is important because more than half of our planet is on social media in 2022 in some form and learning this information can keep your mental as healthy as possible.

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