Digital Natives’ Lifestyles and Social Media Validations: A Critique of a False Reality
By Princewell Achor
Lifestyles are not static, but are influenced by a change in the trend of events, that shape socio-cultural and political activities, and the use of technology by a particular generation.
Past and present generation are known, to be associated with certain trends in consumption pattern, attitudes towards life, and cultural and behavioural ideologies. Prensky (2001), coined the phrase, ‘digital natives,’ to describe today’s generation whose life are shaped by technology ( computer, and other smart digital devices), and how it’s been used.
Simply put, digital natives, are those who grew up with technology, comfortable with multi-tasking, rely on graphics to communicate, and have a sense of desire to be appreciated, or seek immediate gratification and rewards ( Teo, 2013; Teo et al, 2016).
Literature is replete with the use of descriptors such as: “Technology Savvy, Generation Y, Google Generation , i-Generation, and New Millennium Learners etc,” to describe the digital natives. These descriptors are used interchangeably in this article.
Today’s technology-savvy youths, have carved out a pattern of lifestyle, that tends to deviate from traditional ways of getting social Validations. This, in essence, has been viewed as a disruptive socio-cultural way of life, solely dependent on the internet, which paradoxically leads to a ‘false reality.’ False reality depicts living, leading, or exhibiting a false or deceptive lifestyle, which seems to be erroneously accepted as reality by the society or a section of it.
The concept of false-reality can be explored, from a standpoint of attention-seeking, or social validation on the internet/social media. Based on the above notion, the ‘false reality’ construct, or phenomenon is embedded in the content or nature of social media posts, tweets, comments, likes and dislikes. These attributes are seen by digital natives as yardstick, for measuring social acceptance, or validations in the social media domain.
Lifestyles are not static, and could be influenced by a number of (hashtags), trending issues, fashion, events, and other social-cultural disruptive activities, and innovations. These factors help to fan the embers of fake based lifestyles, that some of the digital natives are living, compared to digital immigrants that are slow in adopting new ways of social behaviour, facilitated by proliferation of ICTs.
Moreover, it’s important to note, that digital natives’ attention seeking/social validation via the social media, could be based on subjective peer influence and sentiments, and desire to fit in as members of a group.
Social (Media) Validation: What it is and How it Operates
Social validation can be discussed from different perspectives. The common denominator to the perspectives is that, “social validation is largely based on ‘groupism’ and conformity.” However, one perspective that has remained dominant in the literature, and also relevant to this article is the psychological perspective. The psychological perspective, views social validation as, “conforming to a group, and following the actions set by the said group, in order to gain their trust and fit in, or be regarded as a part of an inclusive group.” It’s this perspective that I have adapted to define social media validation.
In the social media domain, there are two categories of users: the active and the passive users. One unique characteristic that binds them together is, their conformity to conventions in the use of a particular ( social media) platform. Social validation within the social media domain, is defined, as a psychological phenomenon, or trend in which a member, or members of both categories of users follow, or conform to the actions of others within that group. It’s a psychological feeling that one’s actions, behaviour, or activities are being ratified, or accepted by a group within a social media environment. Unfortunately, some members of a social media group, do not seem to interrogate the behaviours, actions, and activities of their members before accepting, or validating them.
The process of social media validation, begins with the convention of ‘liking, or commenting’ on a social media user’s post. Such post could be a text/graphic opinion, a commentary on current/ trending issue, event, personal issue, selfie, or a status update on Facebook, Twitter accounts, etc. Posters regard positive comments or likes as a validation of the content of their post; they derive joy from such reactions.
Contrarily, a poster may feel emotionally disturbed, if the post generates negative comments or dislikes. Social media user’s see comments, or likes as a review of their posts, and invariably validate their personality and opinion in the public domain, or within the group they belong to.
Social validations in social media, have positive and negative aspects. Each aspect has implications for managing credibility, image and reputational engagements. One key advantage of social media validation, is largely on gaining visibility and acceptance for the person being validated, among peers, or members of a group. This is because, good reviews on a social media post are strong validation for the poster.
However, the scope of this article is centered on the negative aspects, which can be evaluated using the false reality construct or lens.
Social Media Validations and False Reality Construct
Validation of an individual or group’s activities, actions, and behaviour traditionally, is not self-seeking or motivated, but has a rigid pattern entrenched in societal values, of what is ethical or morally accepted way if life. One attribute, that has facilitated a disruption to traditional way of validation is, the digital natives’ penchant or desire for instant appreciation and common rewards. The technology savvy people want instant appreciation or accolades, for whatever thing they say, or do, in social media domain, irrespective of whether such actions deserve rewards or appreciation. This pattern of identity seeking, does not give opportunity to properly evaluate actions, to determine their merits or otherwise. It builds a bandwagon effect, or stereotyped evaluation process, that is based on half-truth or wrong perception.
Often, validations are ‘clique-based’ or ‘circle-of-friends-based’ and many give false representation of a reality, or non-reality. False reality construct can only be validated, through a reality check on social media posts, comments or reactions generated by a trending issue, event or personal story/opinion on a topic.
Yes! Internet, or information communication technologies (ICTs) driven world, offers lots of social benefits that young people are cashing in, to define and shape their attitude towards life. In as much as this phenomenon of cyber attuned lifestyle, offers opportunities that add value to their lives, today’s digital natives have failed to come to terms with a false, or fake based social validation which seemingly jeopardizes their individual or common future.
Today, attention seeking citizens, measure their popularity, or acceptance within their social circle by the number of likes, and comments their posts have generated, and the number of times their post or tweet have been shared, or re-tweeted by friends or followers in various social media platforms. For example, young digital natives’are interested in seeing or reading comments their selfies have generated. They tend to be happy to read comments such as: “You’re looking good,” “you look cute,” “beautiful babe or dude,” “you look takeaway,” and other similar expressions. Such validations give them joy that they are being appreciated. Photos or selfies are not necessarily an objective way of validating an individual’s brand personality. It’s true that a picture speaks a thousand words, and evokes multiple perceptions in the mind of people, but it does not necessarily give accurate representation of the individual in the picture.
Again, they are emotionally drained, when or if their posts receive negative comments and dislikes.
Even though the negative comments may be true reflection, or evaluation of their posts or tweets, they seem to be disturbed. Such emotional problem may degenerate to worse situation, and if not properly addressed,leads to a permanent behaviour disorder.
Belongingness, Pretence and False-Reality
Social media validation for young netizens, is a measure of acceptance and test of popularity among groups and peers. Nothing excites young digital natives the more, than showing off that they belong to the right social/political clique whose self-opinionated thoughts seem to attract traffic in the various social media platforms. Such situation encourages peer competition, which negatively affects life satisfaction. However, it has been reported elsewhere that an increase in peer competitiveness, as well as a desire to be accepted by peer leads to “Facebook depression” ( O’ Keefe & Clarke Pearson, 2011). It’s quite disheartening to know that, technology savvy young people subscribed to Apps, that help them generate “fake likes” and comments from their fake friends’ social media accounts. This life of deception, and falsehood gives them false clout to be seen, or celebrated as social media influencers. This act of deception and pretence can be attributed to wrong notion, of conforming to established norms, and conventions in the use of social media.
Conclusion and Matters Arising
Different writers approach the issue of social validation in different ways. In this article, I used a mixed-grill approach in discussing the phenomenon of social media validation, and the false reality construct, that seems to characterise digital natives social validation experiences.
The salient points raised here are that:
(1) Social media validation process is facilitated, by group’s conformity to established conventions, and social norms that guide the use of (technology) Social media platforms.
(2) Digital natives’ attention seeking/ social validation via social media, is based on subjective peer influence and sentiments.
(3) Socio-cultural disruptive activities, and innovations, in the use of online platforms, fans the embers of fake-based or deceptive lifestyle being practised by technology savvy, and young digital natives.
(4) Social media validation has both positive and negative aspects; the positive aspect include: gaining visibility and acceptance among a group, while the negative aspect is cashing in on false comments and reactions to social media post, as a correct/ true validation of one’s personality.
These were illustrated in the article, using subjective comments or reactions to selfies or commentary posted by a digital native.
However, the paradox of ‘false reality’ needs to be further explored by researchers in the context of image and reputation management.
Hence, there is a need to frame or develop a Digital Natives’ Social Media Validation Scale (DNSMVS), that will address the false reality construct within the domains of social validation and character orientation management.
Dr. Achor is a Researcher, Public Relations expert, Consultant, and Political Marketing Communicator.
