In the bracket, the original winner was the topic of, “We use social media so we won’t be forgotten”
I came up with the new question through conversations with my initial table partner, Isabel. The quote was actually the one quote I took from our discussion. I thought it was interesting because sometimes people do not realize the impact social media has on our reputation and an outsider’s view of us. After really thinking about it, I realized that it is, in fact, true, we do use social media so we won’t be lost in the sea of insignificant people when we are long gone. Maybe that is why so many people do crazy antics and post videos and pictures of them for the sake of gaining popularity online. I came up with my question from own personal experience, I only really got an Instagram account about 1-2 years ago, and before that, whenever someone found out I did not have this social media platform they would gasp and wonder why on earth I would not make an account. A popular question would be, “How can you survive without it?”. They may have felt this way because it seems as though I did not care whether I was recognized on social media platforms and in such did not care if I was popular or seen as cool. Such an opinion seems abnormal in a day and age where social media plays such a big part in our society.
In order to fully consider the question, people do have to think about the initial question I was faced with, “Do we use social media so we won’t be forgotten?”
Some other questions that can be considered as well are, “Why does a person’s following on social media platforms matter so much?” and “How does having social media affect one’s reputation”
A logical fallacy we should avoid is personal incredulity, just because we may not understand why it is abnormal does not mean it does not happen. Another one to avoid is to keep things black-and-white, social media is very diverse and therefore full of different opinions, it is not just two possibilities. There should also not be a middle-ground like I previously said, social media is full of different opinions, it would be difficult to reach a compromise of all of them.
I feel that this question is relevant for people in grade 9. This is because many of us may feel like we do not know where we stand in the social hierarchy, especially with us moving into high school. Most grade 9s have social media and it is seen as totally unusual when someone happens to not have various social media accounts so this would be a good question to ask as there would be a variety of answers.