With All This Data and All This Information, Now What?

With All This Data and All This Information, Now What?

As the use of social media increases, naturally people and researchers investigate and question how these apps affect our lives. We know they can help us connect to people close and far and share hobbies or dislikes.

But what else?

Lately in the media, specifically in the news, there has been a constant conversation about how social media affects people’s self confidence.

The journal, Associations Between Adolescent Depression and Self-Harm Behaviors and Screen Media Use and journal, Do you “like” my photo Facebook use maintains eating disorder risk, both are quantitative research about how people use social media apps and observe how their self confidence before and after a specific time period,

as you can tell from their titles.

A lot time and data analysis went into the research and both journals discovered the same thing, that social media app are influencing users self confidence and body image.

So what now?

We know this is becoming an increase issues for some users. But is there anything you, or I can do to change this?

Well because of the journal Do you “like” my photo? Facebook use maintains eating disorder risk, DOVE the company decided to launch a Positive body confidence campaign. This campaign involved using social media by changing the narrative for its users. DOVE developed a Confidence Kit for parents by giving them tools on how to uplift their kids while using social media to be honest it can help anyone, not just kids.

This DOVE campaign is proof of how data research can contribute to the media and the mass communication field. These two journals influence a company as large as DOVE to look into what they practice of having soft skin and expand their message to that of loving the skin you’re in through a social media campaign. It is because of research like the ones mentioned earlier, that can help those in the communication field look into what they are producing/publishing and ask tough, deeper questions like,

how will this affect people, kids, adults? Can this affect someone’s self confidence and self worth? Will this message be received in the way we indented it too?

It is a fact that we can’t know everything for sure. But what we can do is make sure we are able to do our due diligence in the content we publish, and make sure it aligns with the message we want to send. Lastly, to acknowledge and do better when it doesn’t go as planned.