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Composing Memo
Honestly, I believe that I understood how to elaborate more on the quotes rather than
summarizing them and repeating what they said. I put more evidence from the book rather than
personal experience since we are moving away from that. My essay is out of place from my
opinion because I wasnt sure how to properly transition paragraph to paragraph since I knew I
was going from one topic to another. I am for and against social media because I have seen
people change drastically because of it and I am more against it in regards of how people are
losing themselves for attention. What I would appreciate you helping me on would be to just help
me put my pieces together. I found this essay a bit more complicated, maybe because I was so
used to digital media that it was confusing for me to transition into social media. I really want to
improve though with analyzing which is my own personal goal this quarter like I said before.

How social media changed and impacted our generation and society
In her essay,: Virtual Friendship and the New Narcissism, Christine Rosen
argues about how people make connections, how people have become so separated, and how
people put too much out there for the world to see. Social media was something that began

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within Harvard University in order to help its students interact with one another. Sooner or later
came Myspace, and then Facebook which turned out more popular and became known
worldwide which is still used in societys everyday life. Social Media has not only impacted our
relationships with others, but also with ourselves. Everyday life went from Letters in the mail to
a three word letter abbreviation within a text. It went from making plans to have a picnic with
friends at the park, to asking what time a person wants to skype. Social media has this thing that
I still yet have to grasp, that just has society addicted and wanting to know more and more about
what happens anywhere and everywhere. Individuals no longer go to friends to express how they
feel, instead they post a tweet on twitter or a depressing quote on Instagram in order to help
express themselves. People are so into having the nicest selfies and how many likes a picture
gets, rather than worrying about who they really are and not what they portray to be.
In his article, A Dream Come True, Lee Siegel discusses social media and its effects of
how people now have a stronger voice, as in they are able to speak more freely and say as they
please. Siegel quotes/references Lawrence Lessig when she says This capturing and sharing
promises a world of extraordinary diverse creativity that can be easily and broadly shared. And
as that creativity is applied to democracy, it will enable a broad range of citizens to use
technology to express and criticize and contribute to the culture all around (p, 297). The
connection this quote has to the topic would be that when creativity is applied to democracy
people are able to express themselves in their own ways. As seen on the social media mission
statements many of the repeated words that Facebook, Linkedin, Pinterest, Stumbleupon, Twitter,
Tumblr and Vine are connected, share, World, and discover. The term Social means of
relating to society or its organization. Social media means websites and applications that enable
users to create and share content or to participate in social networking. Lastly, Social networking

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means the use of dedicated websites and applications to interact with other users, or to find
people with similar interests to oneself. If Social media is intended to connect people, why is it
that people are becoming isolated?
This is where Deresiewicz comes in by saying, Solitude becomes, more than ever, the
arena of heroic self-discovery, a voyage through interior realms (p.310). When Deresiewicz
speaks about self-discovery and interior realms he is referring towards the idea of people finding
themselves. Throughout life people are told that it takes time to figure out who they really are.
Without our democracy we wouldnt have the privilege of freedom of speech; meaning no social
media. Therefore, there are pros and cons of being in solitude or just being alone all depends on
the person. This says to me that an individual just might prefer being alone and when a person is
in solitude the person is able to just focus on themselves and dedicating themselves to their goals
in life. A downside to being alone could be that an individual could possibly be missing out on so
much in life and a way to solve this could be by social networking and putting themselves out
there because Im pretty sure there is always at least one person that can relate to another. Or
those who would find solitude must not be afraid to stand alone ( Deresiewicz p.317).
For centuries, the rich and the powerful documented their existence through painted
portraits (p.173). Tracing back about roughly one-hundred years ago, the people who were able
to be have self-portraits of them painted were considered rich. Now, our self-portraits are
democratic and digital (p.173) and people no longer have to be high class in order to obtain a
self-portrait. Individuals used to embrace the beauty of their surroundings and kept as a memory
in their mind. Society adapted and corrupted beauty by taking a picture of everything we seem to
be fascinated by and put it out there for the world to see. Yes, we are meant to explore the world
and devour its beauty, but sometimes it would be nice if someone remembered what it was like to

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just take it all in. Not everything needs to be captured in a pixelated form. With this said, it has
come to show that social media has changed the way we manage to view the world. It is now by
looking at dozens of photos on Instagram, Pintrest, and Tumblr etc then by going out and
exploring the world to see that same view with your eyes in person then on a phone.
Majority of the time people just like the attention they receive from social media so they
lose themselves because The goal now, it seems, is simply to become known, to turn oneself
into a sort of miniature celebrity because, Visibility secures our self-esteem, becoming a
substitute, twice removed for genuine correction(p.312). Many people care about the opinion of
others and many others dont care at all. Society says express yourself how you want and then
when a person does it replies saying No not like that. On social media people are allowed to be
whom they choose to be or whom they wish they would or could be. The way for people to feel
important is by having certain amount of followers, likes, retweets, and even number of friends
on Facebook. Yet,What does friendship mean when you have 532 friends (p.312).
A downfall for social media is how it also affected our generation relationship wise.
Before couples would send letters, (as mentioned previously) spoil one another, the boyfriend
would buy his girlfriend flowers and go on dates all formally dressed. Social media really
changed it up. An app named Snap Chat used to have a feature where people could see your
best friends, which were just the people who one snapped the most with. This caused a
complication because either the guy or the girl wouldnt be alright with whom they would snap
with. Also with Instagram, if one or the other followed a specific person or liked a photo of a girl
or guy that would cause doubts in the relationship.
From a personal perspective toward a friend named Andrea whom I used to speak to in
high school, was a very shy girl with no intentions of opening up. She loved her space and being

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solitary majority of the time. Throughout middle school she was always the type of girl that
would always be writing in a notebook. Her every thought was written on that notebook. Then
freshman year came and that was the time Facebook was popular for us and she had created her
own profile. One day I saw her typing nonstop, and later once I got home I checked the newsfeed
and I saw what she had posted. It was the beginning of her book. By senior year in high school I
was still close to her but not as much and she had told me that ever since she finally put out her
poems, her short stories, it encouraged her to keep writing and she had showed me the book she
had written. It was novel all about high school, about all the drama she would overhear, about
her own crushes but obviously she renamed the characters but I always knew who she was
talking about. I never did know how it ended but if it wasnt for her being able to write her own
pieces of writing I know she would have kept writing in that journal.
Social media has also been a vital role with communication. Yes, two people may be
texting back and forth yet the conversation might not even have any meaning due to the fact that
this generation only speaks in abbreviation. Such as lol or wyd which people tend to say
every other message? Its no longer about sitting on the ceiling at midnight talking about life face
to face. Within a conversation one person can be so into a conversation and the other person can
just brush off the other because they are so into reading whats new in their newsfeed or simply
just not interested in speaking with that person.
Social media is the addiction of the twenty-first generation in hopes to gain fame with the
gain of followers and likes. Where people lose touch with themselves in order to put themselves
out there on social websites. The generation where a person cant be alone if technology and
social media arent present. Finally, its the generation that has let go of the small details in life
for small abbreviations.

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Work Cited Page

Deresiewicz, William. The End of Solitude The Digital Divide: Arguments for and
against Facebook, Google, Texting, and the Age of Social Networking. Ed Mark Bauerlein. New
York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin, 2011 307-317 Print.