Social Media and Self-Worth

     

       Most social media sites and communities include a like-system, in which users can show interest and increase popularity of original posts. Although this is a valid way to get feedback from followers and friends, it inevitably ties in with personal self-worth. More likes means that more people appreciate your posts and in a time where social media is where we tend to represent ourselves it unavoidably becomes linked to ones self-esteem.

       SheKnows is a website that gathers news stories, DIY activities, and advice from experts in various fields. The site has a slant towards women and promoting feminist equality throughout all facets of society. Their YouTube channel updates regularly with a variety of series and topics. The video above is one from their series where they interview kids on their opinions of society and how it functions. In this case, the girls discuss how social media can cause anxiety and issues due to the like/popularity system that it seems to rely on.

       This is where the idea of FOMO enters - the fear of missing out. Applications like Snapchat and Instagram are very socially inclined and people tend to use them to exhibit activities that they are participating in or people that they are hanging out with. In the age of social media, there are constant reminders of and copious opportunities to display one's social life, and because of this those that might be left out are constantly reminded of that fact. 

The fact that @MAD_aboutyouu and @charlesisgross were together last night and i wasn't there <<<< #FOMO
— Melissa Charles (@charliehorsee) October 19, 2014

       Searching #FOMO on Twitter shows a lot of results, though most of them are silly or jokes. The anxiety that comes with FOMO and getting the most likes on a post drives people deeper into the social media sphere. Although these likes are ultimately trivial, in a world that relies and revolves on social media they become everything and inevitably linked to one's own self-worth and popularity. As these are already volatile aspects of teenager's lives, it can be distressing and all-consuming especially as social media puts a quantifying factor on reputation.

       Because of the nature of likes and bragging on social media, there is an obvious trend in such sites causing depression in users. A teen who usually gets 200 likes whenever she uploads a new profile picture only gets 50 in the first couple of hours: even though this does not quantify the teen's actual worth, the discrepancy in likes is sure to cause anxiety and the assumption that the picture isn't beautiful or exciting. It is the quantification of popularity in social media, the permanent determinant of acclaim that anyone can see that causes insecurities and the need for attention.

       What can be done about this? As represented in the video above, a strong step forward is to encourage dialogue about social media and its effects. Even though there are some discouraging trends in teenage social media use (such as the popularity implications discussed above), teens seem to generally be aware of its dangers and predictabilities. By opening up discussions on the "real life" social and mental implications of social media, it not only helps this digital generation to understand their actions, but it also encourages considering overall impact. As one of the girls in the video explained, teens are often discredited and assumed to not know as much as their adult counterparts despite teens having more experience with digital media because it is all they have ever known. If we encourage dialogue and education on social media, maybe FOMO and the need for likes will be more understood instead of an unavoidable condition of social media and self-worth. 

The Inevitable Hacking of Social Media - The Secret App

The scope and reach of the internet has allowed users to find confidence in anonymity, as it is easy to construct a persona to hide behind, with little consequence or judgement. The juggernauts of social media such as Facebook and Twitter have the capacity for creating false or hidden identities, but the idea behind them (to connect with others) promotes the use of one's "true" self (or at least a version that they wish to project).

Over the past couple of years in conjunction with the immense global popularity of mobile phone applications there has been the popular option of "full" anonymity. Apps such as Snapchat provide the guise of self-destructing photos: the idea is that you can take a photo and send it to a friend knowing that it will only last a predetermined number of minutes before it is permanently deleted. This has given users the confidence to "snap" whatever they want without having to worry about the picture being around to haunt them. Problems arose though, as people realized that they could screenshot the photos they were sent or that despite the photo disappearing the company keeps copies of everything that goes through the server. Situations such as this solidify the idea that everything you put out on the internet and the social media sphere can never be permanently deleted.

Enter the app Secret that is available on iOS and Android.

The app allows people to share messages anonymously within their circle of friends, friends of friends, and publicly. Unlike other apps in a similar vein (PostSecret, Whisper, Yik Yak) this app is specifically made for sharing primarily with friends, which in turn makes it more interesting and addictive for people reading the updates. 

The app was founded by two social media moguls, David Byttow who was the former technical lead for Square Wallet  and Chris Bader-Wechseler who has worked at Google+, Photovine, and YouTube. One would think that an app built by people who have had extensive experience in the social media realm would be immediately successful, but initial forays were lackluster. Social media enthusiast Dawson Ingersoll downloaded the app last year about three months after its launch. "I downloaded Secret and I didn't find it to have a large enough community to continue with it," he said. Dawson said that he deleted the app after only a few weeks of having it. 

A couple of months ago,  the app had around 5 million downloads, which in the scheme of things is not many. Despite this, users have found a way to hack the main draw of the app - its secrecy. Two users who are also security researchers, Benjamin Caudill and Bryan Seely were able to infiltrate the app's system and expose the origins of specific posts. The leak was discovered as the men were trying to find bugs and weaknesses within the app's operating system. After figuring out the weakness, they reported the problem to Secret and now the company assures users that their secrets will be safe from exposure. 

Though the hack was staged and not malicious, the fact that these professional security researchers were able to not only break into the fundamental baseline of the app, but were also able to contact the founder directly through Twitter and initiate a scare to the system proves yet again the ever changing stability of such applications. Over the past month or so there have been numerous hacks to the Cloud, notably the leaking of salacious and/or private celebrity photos. There is an overwhelming feeling that permeates through the social media and digital world that precautions have to be made and users run the risk of being exposed or exploited. Can an app such as Secret ever truly live up to its name? Is there any way that things put on social media and the internet can be safe and protected? The more and more apps like Secret that come out make it easier for professional researchers and any hacking enthusiast to infiltrate. What will be hacked next? Can any social media be foolproof in the wake of groundswell?

Even though Caudill and Seely were professionals and their job revolves around exposing the weaknesses in applications and the like, it doesn't mean that the non-professional can't do the same. As Li and Bernoff simply put, "lawyers and entrepreneurs aren't the most powerful force on the Internet. People are." By having the app so readily available to anyone with a smart phone, anyone can mess with it and examine it to the point where they can hack the system, as it is the "technology in the hands of the almost always connected people that makes it so powerful". Caudill and Seely get the spotlight because their attempts were successful and they aimed to market their company Rhino Security Labs. They took advantage of the groundswell in that they used the technology to "get things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions like corporations." Their security company gets publicity from the hack, but they also help fix a glaring mistake in the coding of the app. Even in the bad news that Secret received from the hack, there is an inevitable boost in those who are aware of it, reminiscent of the cliche that all press is good press.