CS371 Blog Post #3 - McLeod

In class, we watched and discussed a film titled, Eighth Grade. Eighth Grade is a film which encapsulates the social anxieties brought forth by modern social media platforms. The main character Kayla is made to be like pre-teen children in the society of today. Throughout the film, we can see Kayla feel the pressures of social media. She has a YouTube channel where she posts videos about her "life", at least that is what her public profile seems like. Whereas in reality, she is very anxious and anti-social. She wants to give off a false reality that she is not impacted by others. As she filmed the videos she was a positive, happy person. Then, she would become gloomy and anxious as the camera light went off.  This shows us technological determinism as Kayla's technology holds an impact on her emotions. The more time we spend on social media, there is more of an influence that technology holds upon us. We can see this in modern society as social media impacts our self-judgement and tells us to be a certain way. People act a certain way in order to fit the social norms online.