I want to focus my digital literacy narrative on social media platforms that I often use, such as Tiktok and Instagram, and how I progressively felt about these apps throughout the years. I want to compare the evolvement of these apps and how each is different in its own way, including some of the features that either enforce privacy or limit our privacy.
There used to be a period when we were able to view the activities of our followers and friends on Instagram. We were able to track who they recently followed, in addition to what posts they liked. This was around when I was in middle school, and at first, I didn’t know better and thought it was a cool feature because I got to see what my friends liked and coincidentally find interests we had in common. However, I later realized how toxic it was because I felt watched and hesitant to like the posts I liked, to not be judged for my interests.
In addition, I want to talk about how social media, especially Tiktok and Instagram, can be both a stress reliever and something that can be toxic, especially to our self-esteem. The statistics involved throughout the apps, such as the number of followers, likes, engagements, can impact the way we view ourselves and our worth, which is something important to touch upon in my essay. I feel that Instagram noticed the toxicity around engagement statistics, which is why they eventually gave users the option to keep the number of likes hidden and disable the comment sections, which helps with all the negativity.