Analysis Of 'Virtual Popularity Isn T Cool, It's Pathetic'

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My first experience with Facebook was back in high school. I associated it with regular mobile phone chatting applications. Most of my real life friends were members of Facebook, and they encouraged me to join the social website and make a “friend request” so that we could get connected. It was an intriguing experience because I had just heard rumors that it was an awesome chatting platform. The article by Ian Daly “Virtual Popularity Isn 't Cool—It 's Pathetic” (Daly) presents arguments and situations that have been closely connected to my experience with social media over the past several years that I have been an active member of several social media sites. This personal essay will show the link between the arguments from the article and my experience as a user of social media. In my opinion, these experiences likely relate to those of many other social media users.
Just like many of the active Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Myspace users, joining a social media site …show more content…

Social networking and gaining many friends became a very integral part for users because of the notion that the more followers or friends you have on social media, the famous you become. Addiction to social media is exhibited soon after joining because of the sudden urge to become popular in the social media site. Daly (2007) says that, “The hosts, once infected, exhibit a tendency to "superpoke" each other, hyperventilate over friend counts, and share their thoughts about the latest episode of The Hills with hundreds of near strangers—behavior normally associated with teenage girls, not men in the middle of their fourth decade.” In this quote, the “Hosts” refers to the people who have joined social media recently. Daly describes social media sites as “infections” because of their nature to take over the lives of many users around the

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