Reflection

Writing my final project was a deeply enjoyable and introspective process. It served as a reflection on my personal growth. not just as an individual but as a participant in and critic of digital society. This project allowed me to grapple with the ways I have been shaped by social media, including the addictive cycles of comparison and performance that have defined much of online life. Through education, research, and exposure to diverse ideas and theories, I have gained a more critical perspective on how I engage with social media. The project became a meditation on this evolution.

The structure of the project allowed me to explore different dimensions of social media’s impact, beginning with grounding my ideas in foundational concepts from the course, particularly the piece It’s Complicated. This reading helped contextualize Gen Z’s position within the digital world, introducing the concept of “digital agility.” While Gen Z is often labeled “digital natives,” we lack the expertise implied by that term and continue to suffer the adverse effects of this ecosystem. This concept informed all four of my op-eds, providing a cohesive framework for examining how we navigate and are shaped by digital spaces.

In the second piece, I introduced my theory of the social panopticon, drawing on the traditional concept of the panopticon but reimagining it for social media. Unlike the original design, where the few watch the many, the social panopticon makes us both watchers and the watched. This duality reveals the performative nature of social media: we curate content to present an idealized self while simultaneously consuming the curated lives of others. This constant oscillation between watcher and watched creates a prison of comparison, where we feel compelled to perform rather than simply exist. I connected these ideas to Cléo from 5 to 7, a film that explores the shift from being seen by others to truly seeing the world. This comparison offered an introspective lens to interrogate my own relationship with social media.

The third op-ed pivoted to a discussion of fashion, an industry I am passionate about. I explored how aspirationalism, amplified by social media, often commodifies identity and perpetuates exclusion and overconsumption. Fashion, when driven solely by profit and product, loses much of its artistry and transformative potential. I questioned whether creating another product like a T-shirt merely perpetuates the cycles of insecurity and exclusion fostered by social media. This piece challenged me to reflect on my own contributions to these systems and whether they align with my values.

Finally, the fourth piece brought the project full circle by proposing solutions to escape the social panopticon. Its power lies in the illusion of constant surveillance, which makes us believe we must perform for an audience that, in reality, largely does not care. By recognizing this illusion, we can step outside the cycle and engage with social media on our own terms. This conclusion reflected my personal journey toward disengaging from the validation-seeking behaviors encouraged by social media and using these platforms with intention rather than compulsion.

What I feel was most successful about my project was its structure: the four op-eds stand alone as individual pieces yet collectively tell a cohesive story about my evolving relationship with social media. They reflect both my personal growth and the impact of education on my ability to critique and navigate digital spaces. Each piece is unique to my experiences, but together, they present a unified narrative grounded in the topics I have learned in this course. That said, there is always room for improvement. I could have delved deeper into certain areas, such as connecting more specific statistics or case studies to my arguments, to further strengthen my analysis. Additionally, refining the transitions between op-eds could have made the narrative flow more seamlessly.

Reflecting on this course as a whole, I found it highly enriching and thought-provoking. The course exposed me to new concepts like virality, sharenting, and anti-intellectualism, helping me contextualize and critically analyze issues I had been aware of but had not approached from an academic standpoint. The unit on media literacy, in particular, was instrumental in shaping my project, as it highlighted the importance of critically evaluating the content we consume and recognizing the broader mechanisms at play. This was especially poignant during an election season, where understanding rhetoric and persuasion proved invaluable.

Ultimately, this project was heavily informed by the course readings (especially those of rayne fisher-quann) and discussions, which provided both theoretical and practical foundations. The ideas of digital nativeness, the connection between social media and mental health, and the mechanics of virality all shaped my approach. These insights enabled me to construct arguments that were not only personal but also supported by evidence and academic research. This project has allowed me to better understand and articulate the ways social media affects both individuals and society, and it has pushed me to engage with these platforms more critically and intentionally.

-Arden