My critique on social media:

Fun fact, when I was an undergrad at UCLA (senior year, in 2010) I taught a USIE [UCLA Undergraduate Student Initiated Education 1-unit seminar) course titled “Sociology of Facebook and Online Social Networks“. You can download the PDF syllabus I made here.

A quick spiel:

Sociology 88S: Sociology of Facebook and Online Social Networks. Student Facilitator: Eric Kim – Faculty Mentor: Terri Anderson. Online social networking websites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter have dramatically altered the ways in which individuals in society interact with one another. No longer do we give each other phone calls, but instead we simply write on each other’s “Facebook walls.” No longer are our diaries private and kept to ourselves, but instead they are now public and available for all to see on blogs. Although the Internet is overcoming the distance gap in terms of communication, how authentic are these cyber‐relationships? Can relationships now be defined by quantity instead of quality? Is the Internet ultimately bringing us closer together, or further apart?.

My bio:

Eric Kim is a senior majoring in Sociology and grew up in the Bay Area in Northern California. Ever since the advent of Myspace, Facebook, and now Twitter, he has become fascinated in how online social networks affect interpersonal relationships. One of the biggest epiphanies he had was when on his 21st birthday when he received hundreds of posts on his Facebook wall saying “happy birthday!” but only one phone call from his mother.

My main critique of social media

The big problem of social media … the perversion of reality. For example if you are on Instagram and you see all these uber-jacked guys… how do you know if they are taking testosterone, human growth hormone, or anabolic steroids, or ‘gear’ or ‘on a cycle’?

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What happens when your view of reality is perverted?

You are more miserable, less productive, and you are hateful and spiteful of society and humanity.