Blog One

Gratification of Social Networking.
 Samantha Cruz 

This week in class we talked about gratifications of CMC and what exactly we’re doing online. we talked about four different types of gratifications, the first one is diversion which is basically escaping from your normal life or emotional release. The second one is to establish or maintain social bonds and companionship's. Thirdly, personal identity which is self-reference, or reality or exploration. Last but not least, surveillance which means seeking some sort of information. There’s a lot of people who go online for different types of reasons weather it’s for professional or personal use. Let’s talk about why some people might use social networking to escape from their personal issues.
Most Americans are constantly on the internet for various reasons and one of the most important reason is to escape from reality (their normal life). You’ll see many people online especially on Facebook venting or talking about how shitty their day was or how bad their life is. Sometimes people feel that putting their problems out their will make people feel bad for them, I mean some do but then some really don’t care. They’re looking for that comfort from strangers so maybe that’s why people vent their problems out to the world like it’s nothing serious. Another reason why people might use social networking as an escape is because some Americans might have a fancy life like making pretend their someone else when they’re not; nothing like their actual life which is the reality.
Another reason why people use the social network is to establish some sort of relationship or social bond with other people. Many young teenagers are either “Facebook” famous or “Instagram” famous which means that they have a lot of active followers following them. Usually when you have so many followers that mean that you’re a very social person and you know a lot of people so you end up establishing relationships with then even with people you don’t even know.  Then it all comes down to personal identity. Honestly, on the internet you can be whoever you want to be, you can portray a person that you’re not but more like a person you’ll want to be. So basically on the internet your social personal identity can be whatever you want because the strangers on there don’t really know you.
Last but not least, there’s surveillance which means information seeking. 98% of Americans do a lot of surfing through the internet whether it’s for personal use or business. You can find out ANYTHING in the internet if you actually know what you’re doing or what you’re looking for. The internet is public and anything you do or say is unfortunately recorded or saved. There’s a lot of reasons why people use the internet whether it’s for good things or bad. Even though it has its flaws, the main thing the internet has is an open global communication; you can talk to anyone around the world and even stay in touch with family members who live far away.