Social media is a big part of my reality being co-constructed. Media sensationalism and the general non-stop stimulus of infinite human perspectives affects how I view my reality. Being constantly exposed to negative news sometimes makes me see the world as a macomb place. Simple pleasures of tangible life sometimes lose their value because of this. However, it is also where I’m in touch with a lot more points of view than I would be had I only been the product of my neighborhood, school, and family. Social media as a major tenet of globalization has made the world feel a lot smaller, so my sense of reality goes beyond the ground I tread. As a rule, we could say reality is the way you are perceived and the way you perceive the world. Since we only expose what we want to expose of ourselves, we construct an image for others online. The more I’m invested in these social networks, the more I start to internalize what I created for others to consume. So how people react to me online, is how I start to see myself. My reality is skewed towards the opinions of people who don’t really know me. Social media itself is pseudo-reality, but how it affects our actual reality is very real. On the bright side, considering there is now never-ending access to different perspectives, there is more potential for fostering empathy in our own bubbles of reality. We’re able to apply what we’ve learned about different societies, systems of thought, individuals, in real time, because real people and real sentiments are a lot more powerful than reading a textbook. However, some say that because of this we are desensitized and social media just creates virtual cult groups. This can exaggerate politics that affect reality and not the semi-“fictional” realm of social media.
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