To answer the question ‘How are our social experiences bound up with social media platforms and their affordances, and how we make use of them?' we must look at what drives us to use or avoid social media and how we can make their affordances work for us.
I personally have a love hate relationship with social media. I don’t live in the same state as my family and living in Melbourne, with now over a year of on and off lockdowns, the few friends that I do have nearby, have been almost impossible to physically meet with. For this reason, I love social media platforms and appreciate the affordances they have given me in being able to maintain a connection with the people I care about but cannot be with.
However, I HATE social media and the way it has become so all-consuming to so many people, in turn pressuring people into feeling they need to be on every single platform. Birthday parties’ invites are sent out as events on Facebook, so you MUST be on Facebook. Pictures of everyone’s weddings and newborns are on Instagram and it would be rude of you to miss congratulating someone, so you must be on Instagram. Then you need to be all over YouTube, Snapchat and TikTok to make sure you know what your kids are up to and why they’re making you listen to the same song for the ten thousandth time, whilst jumping around the place in what is apparently a dance (yes, I am old).
So, what social experiences are bound up by social media platforms? Personally, I get my recommendations for products, places to go and things to do largely from social media. It also enables me to stay in contact with friends and family despite distance and other restrictions. I don’t let it drive my ‘real life’ activities though.
There are currently 3.78 billion users of social media platforms. A large number of which use social media as the highlights reel of their life and it has led to things like restaurants making their interiors and food JUST to be “Instagrammable”. When considering affordances in the context set out by Interaction-Design.org you must truly think about what they have said when they state,
"the value of a well-designed object is when it has such a rich set of affordances that people who use it can do things with it that the designer never imagined."
I cannot imagine the creators of Instagram sat there thinking that restauranteurs would be building their business around the App.
So, are you photographing and sharing every meal? Living through likes? Or are you appreciating that whilst social media can bring us together, it isn’t everything?
References
Interaction-Design.org 2011, Affordances, 15 February, viewed 24 July 2021, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK1Zb_5VxuM>.
Newton, C. 2017, Instagram is pushing restaurants to be kitschy, colorful, and irresistible to photographers, The Verge, viewed 24 July 2021,
Statista 2021, Number of social network users worldwide from 2017 to 2025, viewed 24 July 2021,
Hi Nerissa, I really like your definition of affordances it is super clear and easy to understand, I definitely agree with social media being all consuming to most of the population, it is definitely an ongoing battle of finding a balance between online and real life experiences. A recent experience with an instagram obsessed cafe in my local area, making these pancakes so extravagant that it was almost unpleasant to eat with so sooo much toppings it was sickening and hard to eat, but anything for the gram right? haha
Hi Nerissa! I really enjoyed the contrast between the things you love and the things you hate about social media and how they tie into affordances. I feel the same about social media at times and if we choose to live offline technology makes it difficult! Awesome blog!