@cougar_sean
“Media use changes the user” (Coleman) in more and more obvious ways as our access to social media becomes further integrated into our daily lives. TV commercials and products bought in stores all give a shout out to social media and ask that consumers “like” their page on Facebook and/or follow them on Twitter. Many TV personalities and celebrities have public accounts on social networking sites so that fans who just can’t get enough, are able to become “personally” connected in ways beyond the television screen. I place quotations around the word “personally” because the digital world has created a false sense of human contact. As Coleman suggested in her article, an avatar is a “representation [used] to interact in real-time.” With sites like Facebook and Twitter, an ever-growing gap has been created between emotional stimulation and physical contact. More and more, society uses digital interfaces to communicate with one another and in fact prefer to do so because of the platform and sense of security a computer can provide. This kind of psychological bond to electronic devices has caused the development of “hypersocial behavior” and a reduction of face-to-face interaction. Now, society can simply click a few buttons on a screen and talk to their neighbor, or their friend from across the world, instantly. It is that feeling of immediacy that has truly changed the user. Due to the prevalence of social media on mobile digital devices, one can talk to virtually anyone, anywhere, anytime. That kind of freedom is what has destroyed our personal human community, yet has created a digital global network.