Hello again! This week has been kind of a drag. Nothing bad happened and I didn't have too much work, but I still feel quite drained. I'd like to pause time for a day, just to do things I enjoy without feeling guilty for taking the time to relax, and then I can get back to real life. But unfortunately, that's not how life works, so we press on.
For the past few classes in COMM 373 we've had some guest lecturers come in and present on a social media related topic they found interesting. The concept that captured my attention the most was Dr. Yang's discussion of affordance. Affordance relates to the action intended of an object. This got me thinking about the intended uses of Instagram and Tik Tok. I think they both were supposed to be used to create content that connects users from all over for entertainment purposes, but they both have shifted from this use.
I often use Tik Tok to distract me from my boredom or to give myself a "break" from doing work. I go on the app saying I'll just look at a few videos but end up scrolling for over 30 minutes. I'm not actually entertained by the content, and I'm not ready to give my work my full attention because I didn't let myself have a real break. And I don't think I'm alone in feeling this way.Instagram on the other hand, I mostly use for its intended purpose... except for when I want to look busy somewhere so I end up on the explore page for longer than I meant to be.
A very short post for this week, but as I said before, I'm tired. Hope everyone has a great week! :)
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