Final Blog Post!

The role of media is significant in my life. I use technology on a daily basis, much like everyone else, however, I use it as a part of my online job. My digital footprint is pretty big compared to most. This is a direct result of my role as a social media influencer. 

I never planned on being an online influencer. My previous role on social media was similar to most
teenage girls, I would post silly videos and cute pictures with my friends. I never took it seriously until one day in 2020 when one of my videos blew up. 

The 30-second video that tracked thousands of views a minute began my career as an influencer. I knew from this moment, it was part of my job to keep and maintain this new role. That's when I discovered my passion for creating content and posting online. 

Now, I want to continue to use the knowledge I have gained in this role in my future career. I chose to major in social media and digital communications because of the influence social media has had on my life. I am a pretty active influencer that could maintain the role of a social media marketer for a company. 

A social media marketer does a similar role to that of an influencer. Both create content based on trends, post consistently, and generate more views and followers to build their pages. This is why I think I can handle this future career. 

I think that my relationship with social media is both healthy and unhealthy. While I use it to help build a name for myself and it opens a lot of doors for me, it also slightly damages my mental health. After using social media for so long and being used to gaining followers and views, once I post a video or picture that doesn't do as well as others, it takes a toll on me. It makes me overthink the post and I start to wonder if it's me that the viewers don't like. 

The second video attached to the final post prompt about the dark side of technology is more accurate in today's world. While it may be sad, more people are disconnected from the real world than we realize. People have stopped caring about each other's feelings and started caring more about the number of views they get. This has started to take a toll on people's mental health and relationships. 

Technology and social media are still amazing and offer a lot of opportunities. But when they are used too often or misused, they can quickly become very draining and damaging. From my experience, I know that if I do not take breaks from social media throughout my day, I will become exhausted from reading or viewing others' opinions online. 

My role as an influencer may seem to contradict this since I know how damaging it can be to your mental health yet I still continue to use it. This is because I know that sometimes we have to take risks for the outcomes to outweigh the negatives. I feel that I have learned how to use social media responsibly. It does not rule over me, I know that I control it and the role it plays in my life. 

Overall, the role of social media and technology in my life is huge. Without it, I do not know where I would be or what I plan on doing in the future. Social media is an up-and-coming thing that we have only just begun to discover. The possibilities are endless when it comes to media and technology. We just have to make sure that it does not start to run us as we run it. This is when it becomes more damaging and causes harm rather than good.