Social Media's Influence on Society

Johanna Blakley thoroughly explains her perception behind social media in today’s society and its powerful influences on gender in the near future.  Her team has discovered that it is becoming more difficult to interpret demographics because of the things individuals can do on a social media site. For instance, people nowadays go so far as to steal someone’s identity off Facebook or copy pictures of others and post them on their pages so people believe they are a “pretty, young girl”.  This flawed behavior makes it hard for companies to effectively determine if the specific person is a male or female. It is even tougher for them to find out their race or age.  It seems as though companies are now taking a closer look at peoples’ unique tastes such as, what their interests are and how they communicate with others. Blakley later discusses how technology and social media allow us to communicate easier than ever before and we are now relying heavily on the technology that surrounds us. I completely agree with this statement because the technology in today’s society is more productive than in the past and our life would be incomplete without the technological advances we are equipped with now. Machines now make production faster and more efficient and the call phones and laptops now contain all the information we need. The research completed by Johanna Blakley suggests that women have dominated the social media recently, which some think may lead to a more feminine kind of entertainment soon enough. I disagree with this assumption because I don’t think women will merely take over the entertainment industry just because of their dominance in social media. I personally believe most men do not enjoy romantic movies or chick filled drama shows and the majority of the population like watching shows that include both genders.  I think that the dominance simply implies that women are more social beings and are able to communicate and express themselves at a higher level than males. I do however agree with her point of how advertisers and other social media are starting to concentrate on appealing tastes and preferences and are now slowly moving away from demographics. It is harder to direct attention to a certain age group or race and therefore social media is moving in a different direction by focusing on self-interests and tastes. Blakley’s speech was very informative and I thought she had some valid points but other points I would have to disagree on.