Digital Media Affecting American Culture

Today’s world is growing increasingly dependent on the use of digital media, broadening the horizons for possibility and innovation like never before. Look around; mobs of people everywhere are roaming their way through life, noses buried in their phones, eyes focused on their iPads and tablets. It is not complicated to perceive the apparent commonality among these individuals, being their growing obsession with divulging themselves in the addictive actions of digital media in a technologically advanced world. Digital media can take many forms, whether it be social media, like Instagram or Twitter, Facetime video chatting, or mild texting. Essentially, all of these sources are starting to both positively and negatively affect our culture as …show more content…
As observed and analyzed by various studies in the sociological world, the ways in which people are engaging in communication with each other is slowly shifting from traditional direct methodology to a newly non-confrontational style, allowing people to hide behind the screens of their phones to accomplish tasks that would have originally required person-to-person contact. Minneapolis writer and editor, Maura Keller, is just one individual beginning to see the concerns in this shift from face-to-face interaction to more mediated methods of communication; she claims that “We’d rather e-mail than meet; we’d rather text than talk on the phone,” (Keller). Such an assumption is entirely true, and it is affecting even more than just physical communication. Ties that are developed over text message or e-mail, like those formed on dating sites, like e-Harmony or Match.com, are proving to be weaker than those formed with more orthodox styles of relationship initiation; even though digital media may be making communication easier in these situations, we may not be building relationships as strongly (Keller). Issues in situations like these only tend to escalate in severity, as we eventually trust individuals on the other end of a screen with dangerously open conversation and topics; the misfortune will only continue to grow if digital media is not integrated into interpersonal …show more content…
Especially showcased in scenarios of the workplace and job field, digital and social media is becoming a mere weapon in the arsenal of employers everywhere; using today’s technology, business employers are able to track down and extract personal information posted on social media websites by the simple signature of an employee contract. Nowadays, companies looking to hire new positions first weed out possible candidates by doing a simple Google search or Facebook look-up prior to the initial pursuit process; even with extensive personal settings supposedly guaranteeing privacy to unwelcome followers, there are all kinds of hacks that still make such a feat possible. Even beyond the hiring process, employers are also using social media to track their workers. Highly ranked bosses are now realizing that social media has “struck fear into some employers about decreased productivity, unwanted publicity, and an increase in exposure for various work-related claims” (Handman). For example, workers for a certain beverage company can suffer severe consequences if they post a picture promoting a beverage of another type, eventually causing unwanted publicity for rivaling corporations. As a result of instances like these, most workers are temporarily suspended or permanently released from