What I find most interesting is analyzing people’s behavior and trying to understand what affects our understanding of society. Human beings act based on their perception of reality, which is certainly influenced by the surrounding environment, thus I started in paying more attention to my friends, colleagues and people that I encounter during my life to investigate what moves their action and thought. There are many factors to consider but, in this text, I will focus on the consequences that daily digital immersion brings in our life. By comparing the approach on the digital world of two people I came to the conclusion that their daily immersion differentiates by content and usage.
Younger generation, the so called “digitally native” engages proficiently to the digital, using it mostly for information gathering and social interaction, while older are more skeptics, more reluctant to the information they encounter and use it mostly for political information and as a tool for specific tasks. This creates a difference in the influence of digital on their daily lives.
A day in the digital of a young girl
I asked my roommate how her day in the digital looks like and her answers allowed me to understand the way in which this affects the perception of herself and the surrounding world. From the moment she wakes up until the evening her digital immersion is consistent and varied, in the morning the main use it to gather information and news updates while in the afternoon and the evening she mostly spends time on social media having social interactions and scrolling. She uses mainly Tik Tok to keep up with the latest trends and to scroll when she feels bored, while Instagram to promote her dance classes and to show her life.
The use of Tik Tok has an influence on the way she dresses and on the construction of her personality, she recognized that the clothes she purchases, and her styling are highly influenced by trends found on Tik Tok. In some cases, it is useful because it allows her to improve her styling skills, however sometimes she obsessively spends money on clothes just to fulfill her necessity of keeping up with the current trends also losing her personality in doing it.
The article “The Impact of Social Media Dressing Standards on Self-Identity and Physical Comfort” points out that self-identification is highly affected by social media and the idealized beauty commercialized in these platforms, resulting in issues of low-self-esteem, anxiety and self-doubt due to the constant exposure to others construct images. Comparing ourselves to society’s expectation idealized in such platforms, results in psychological issues that change the perception of our reality accordingly.
A day in the digital of an old man
I discussed with a 50-year-old colleague of mine about the improvement in technology and how this has changed his daily life. To be more specific I asked him whether he used social media and how and how much time of the day he spends in the digital world. I found that in this specific case, he was quite reluctant with social media, he said: “Spending time on social media is a waste of time and it will affect your ability of thinking, it is rather better going out for a walk and meeting new people”. What he said highlighted that being born in a different social context shaped his perception of such platform. By saying this, he showed his skepticism of social media because, according to him, it affects the ability of real social interactions.
Despite his reluctance, he approaches the digital world for different purposes, in the morning he visits news channels to gather socio-political updates, and, in the evening, he visits platforms that allows him to cultivate the interest in different sport. He does not consider his personality being affected by the digital, on contrast, he uses it as a tool to build and improve the knowledge in terms of his interests.
In this regard, a recent study highlighted that adults over 50 often approach digital as a tool, also engaging with puzzles or memory games, showing positives outcome for the brain health and preventing issues of dementia. In this specific case, digital barely affects the perception of reality, rather helps in improving life and fulfilling knowledge gap.
Conclusion
Moved by my interest in social behavior, psychology and technology, I decided to discuss the use of digital platforms with two people having different ages, interests and perception of technology. Talking with them showed me how age, context, and purpose shape digital behavior.
Younger users often experience social and identity influences from the online world, while older adults tend to engage more instrumentally. A day in the digital world can be a lens to understand how we construct reality and how our perception is affected by the surrounding digital world.
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