Author: Kat

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Social Media Filters: Yay or nay?

We’ve all seen them on social media. Super filtered pictures of people that make them look unnaturally pretty. The animal filters where people look like gorgeous dogs or cats. Now, this might help our self-esteem when we are feeling like we are having an off day and make us feel pretty. But is there a negative side to all these filters? I think so. Today, I’m going to go over a few examples of why I find these filters so disturbing and why I think that you shouldn’t allow young kids and teenagers to use them.

Snapchat filter surgery?

Imagine this scenario, you’re a parent of a 16-year-old teenage girl who uses Instagram and Snapchat regularly. She becomes so used to the way she looks with filters that she begins to think that she needs surgery to be more beautiful and look like that all the time. A 16-year-old girl asking for plastic surgery. Does that not seem surreal to you? Well, it is happening. It is actually called selfie/Snapchat dysmorphia, and it is a real issue in our current culture of photo editing for more likes.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CCeSaMmnjP6/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

We also cannot forget that teenagers are impressionable and when the people they look up to consistently post edited and/or filtered photos they start to believe that people really do look like that and that they should look like that too. One of the most notorious celebrities to constantly post altered and filters photos and videos is Kylie Jenner. As a young mother, with millions of young fans, she should be more mindful of the impact she has on her following.

Body positivity?

The body positivity and body acceptance movement has been running wild on social media in the last few years. And yet, people are still editing their photos, adding filters, hiding what they actually look like and refusing to accept who they really are.  

How do we move away from filters and embrace our authentic selves? I don’t have an answer. What I would like to see is a push from celebrities to embrace the #nofilter movement and the #bodypositivity movement while forgoing the overly edited photos and filtered posts. We need more people to show real nice instead of an unrealistic, unattainable standard of beauty.

Do you use filters? Do you let your kids use filters? Tell us in the comments!

Facebook: Examining the negative effects of filters in social media. Should kids be allowed to use them? Let us know in the comments!
#filters #instagram #beauty
https://algonquincollegesocialmedia.wordpress.com/?p=98757

Twitter: Filters in social media: great tool or dangerous enemy? #beauty #filters #reallife https://tinyurl.com/y2n46pgs

Reference List:

Snapchat dysmorphia: Depression, cosmetic surgery and addiction. (2019, January 27). Retrieved October 17, 2020, from https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/2183589/are-photo-filters-harmful-how-snapchat-dysmorphia-drives

Teenagers are getting plastic surgery to look like their Snapchat selfies. (2018, August 06). Retrieved October 17, 2020, from https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/plastic-surgery-cosmetic-snapchat-teenagers-millennials-dysmorphia-bdd-a8474881.html

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Influencers: Great tool or slippery slope?

If you spend any time on social media, you’ve seen them: Influencers. They have beautiful curated feeds, they have thousands if not millions of likes on their posts, they seem to have the perfect lives. If you pay closer attention to their feed or their stories you might notice that influencers are also recommending a lot of products that they “use every day”. But are they actually using these products? Are they even testing them before showcasing them to their impressionable fans? Today, I’ll look at influencers, how they can be a great tool for advertisers but also a huge risk to consumers.

If you think of social media influencers, who comes to mind? Answers will vary drastically depending on your interests but one of the most known social media influencers right now would be Kylie Jenner. She has 197 million followers on Instagram which puts her in the top 5 accounts on the platform.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CFvIfMNHAdX/

As a business looking to advertise a product, an account like Jenner’s with almost 200 million followers is very enticing. With one post she can reach millions of potential buyers. You spend a certain amount of money and Kylie will share a story on her Instagram feed about how she loves your product and recommends it to everyone. This is amazing for businesses who don’t want to waste money on billboards or TV/Radio ads.

The downside

A few months ago, Kylie and her sister Kendall were seen promoting knock-off Apple AirPods to their fans on Instagram. This brings up many questions about intellectual property, advertising known copies, encouraging people to purchase knockoffs and more. These practices are where it becomes a slippery slope. What if these influencers approached about “health” products that they don’t even test out themselves?

DETOX TEAS

Odds are you have seen the posts on social media about detox teas and influencers swearing by them. Imagine recommending a product and making claims that are not proven scientifically to thousands or million of followers. Imagine endorsing a product that turns out to have negative health effects? Seems crazy right? But that is exactly what happened. A certain detox tea company was accused of not putting warnings on its products and having ingredients that lowered the effectiveness of birth control.

I mentioned at the beginning of this post that these influencers have perfect curated feeds (mainly Instagram here). This is another big issue in social media when it comes to influencers. They portrait a perfect life with clean houses, perfect bodies and skin, perfect kids, and the list keeps going. Imagine your teenage child seeing these edited, filter heavy pictures and believing that this is what they should be striving to look like or be. It is completely unrealistic and could potentially have some pretty negative effects on young impressionable kids (or adults really).

The takeaway

I think that social media is a wonderful tool to grow a business and get people involved. But I think that people need to be more alert when browsing social media. They need to question what they are seeing and why they are seeing it; be more analytical of the content put in front of them.  I think that influencers need to be more transparent (they have started as they are supposed to indicated partnerships with businesses now). More transparent about showing their everyday lives, showing that they are normal and not the perfect person they portrait on social media. I also think they need to be more selective and analytical about the businesses they decide to do business with. Don’t recommend products you haven’t tried yourself, and don’t recommend products that could have adverse health risks.

What do you think about influencers in the social media world? Do you think they need to be more transparent? Let me know in the comments below!

FB: Influencers: Great tool or slippery slope? Do influencers need to change the way they do social media? https://algonquincollegesocialmedia.wordpress.com/?p=97500

Twitter: Influencers: Great tool or slippery slope? Check out the story here: https://tinyurl.com/yyqgwndp


Reference list

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Twitch: Everything you need to know.

Have you heard of a platform called Twitch? If you have, are you confused as to what exactly it is? In this post, I will cover what the Twitch platform is, how it works, and how you can start using it.

Twitch: What is it?

Image from Twitch

Twitch is an online streaming platform with over 2 million viewers a day 1. It is the most popular streaming service currently active. Twitch was launched in 2011 is currently owned by Amazon. It initially started as a video game streaming platform. People would play games like Call of Duty and stream their gameplay to viewers. As the service became more and more popular, the categories of games expanded significantly as well as general categories. You can now find cooking streams, art streams, music streams, and even fitness streams! So this means that you can potentially make money to play video games, cook some food, or really whatever else you can think of!

Twitch streamers have exponentially grown as the service has increased in popularity. In August, there were over 7 million 2 streamers active; that’s more people than the population of Alberta! So if you want to succeed as a Twitch streamer, you have to stand out in the crowd (don’t worry – this will be covered in a future blog post from this series).

Photo by Lucie Liz from Pexels

Twitch: How does it work?

So now that you know what Twitch is, would you also like to make some money while streaming something that you enjoy doing to potentially thousands of viewers? Here’s the lowdown on how it all works.

First off, you need an account, some streaming software (streamlabs OBS, streamelemnts, OBS), and at a minimum a microphone (cameras are strongly encouraged).

You don’t start making money until you reach affiliate level. To reach affiliate you need to reach a few requirements 3:

  • At least 500 total minutes broadcast in the last 30 days
  • At least 7 unique broadcast days in the last 30 days
  • An average of 3 concurrent viewers or more over the last 30 days
  • At least 50 followers

Twitch: But what about the money?

So you’ve made an account, you started streaming and you just made the requirements for affiliate. Now what? You can start making money!

Twitch is a subscription-based service. There are three tiers viewers can elect to subscribe to. Every tier has its own benefits and the cost goes up each tier. As an affiliate, you get half of that subscription cost and Twitch keeps the other half. Viewers can also purchase bits which are basically Twitch currency. The viewer pays Twitch a certain amount for a set number of bits, you get once cent per bit. Streamers can also connect their Paypal accounts to their streaming software to receive tips from viewers which do not go through Twitch.

Photo by Karolina Grabowska from Pexels

If you do the math here, you can see that you need a lot of subscriptions and bits to actually make a living out of streaming on Twitch. If you consider the number of streamers for the month of August, you can see that it is extremely saturated. You need to go into this adventure with realistic expectations. Odds are you won’t become the next DrDisrespect but you can have fun, do something you enjoy, and make some extra pocket money while you’re doing it!

Stay tuned for another post in the Twitch: Everything you need to know series!

Have you ever considered streaming on Twitch? If you have, why haven’t you?

Are you a current streamer on Twitch? What would be your #1 advice to someone who’s just starting?

If this was your first time hearing about Twitch, are you interested in knowing more?

Facebook:

So you want to become a streamer? Check out this blog post series to find out everything you need to know. Don’t forget to subscribe to get notified when the next post gets released! https://algonquincollegesocialmedia.wordpress.com/?p=95239

Twitter:

So you want to be a streamer? Check this post to find out everything you need to know about #twitch. https://tinyurl.com/y4m8mwhv

References:

  1. Twitch statistics & charts. (n.d.). TwitchTracker. https://twitchtracker.com/statistics
  2. Twitch statistics & charts. (n.d.). TwitchTracker. https://twitchtracker.com/statistics
  3. Twitch. (n.d.). Joining the Affiliate Program. https://help.twitch.tv/s/article/joining-the-affiliate-program?language=en_US