Social Media: What I Learned in College, and What it Means for the Future

This past semester, I enrolled in two very different social media classes that I did not suspect would have such drastic differences. One of which is an art class, Design for Social Media, taught by Brit Rowe and held in the art building. The other is Principles of Social Media, taught by Alisa Agozzino and held in the theatre building. With only one word difference in the classes, I thought that it would be a breeze, using concepts I learned in one class to help support what I learned in the other one, but this would not be the case.

Design for Social Media teaches us about how social media grabs the attention of the user, while also matching the energy that the company wants to portray. We learn how companies design their campaigns and posts to best portray their personality, and how that is done in different circumstances. For instance, one of our projects was redesigning Nike's campaign for their "Remember The King" shoe that was supposed to commemorate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We analyzed what the brand portrayed, how it was received, and then we each created, perfected, printed and displayed our new campaign for all the art students to see. It was very hands-on, and I learned a lot about how to be a social media manager or artist for a company.

Principles of Social Media taught us about each platform of social media and how to understand the metrics of how much profit a social media post provides a company. We also had weekly tests to ensure that we knew APA grammar, and social media simulations to experience what mass posting would look like with different forms of social media management. It focused on the business side of social media, more than what I think of when I think of "social media." It was majority run by AI and prewritten lesson plans, but I still learned a lot about the business of social media. 

All in all, I learned that social media is an art form that is quickly being swallowed by efficiency and numbers, just as many other art forms are. The survival-of-the-fittest law that everything follows in capitalism destines all art forms to become a shallow husk of itself to cater to lucrative-ness, and if you or I choose to pursue social media in the future, we must build the muscle to stay true to the purpose of art, and not fall victim to systematic bribery.