Social media has a huge impact on the lives of every user. Whether you use Instagram for leisure, business purposes, or connecting with others; we have caught ourselves virtually involved with the lives of others. We turn to social media to see what other people are doing, compare ourselves to others, or post fun pictures and videos that capture a glimpse of our lives. I have had a positive experience with social media in the past, I am not a consistent user but I decided to step out of my comfort zone for a day and let my Instagram followers control my life for a day.
Essentially, I would post polls on my Instagram story with two possible responses and let my followers pick what I should do. The option with the most votes would be the task I complete. I posted a total of six poll questions and I would give my followers about one to two hours between each question to decide. Afterward, around the time I was ready to complete a set task, I would check which option had the most votes and choose that option. The polls I posted consisted of the following questions: what should I eat for breakfast, what should I wear today, should I go to class or study, which color iPhone to purchase, what muscle group to target for my workout, and what I should eat as my post-workout snack.
At the end of the day, I reflected on how I felt doing this small experiment. Overall, this day was fun because I loved seeing people sharing their opinion and people interacting with my story. My followers were stepping into a more personal aspect of my life that I don’t normally share on social media. The negative side to this experiment was that I constantly had to be checking my phone to see what people were voting on. I do not like the idea of being glued to my phone 24/7 and that is something I had to do for this experiment because I wasn’t in control of my decisions that day.
By the end of the day, I felt mentally drained from being on my phone the whole day, but I was also happy with the way my day was spent. It’s fascinating the amount of control social media has on our emotions. If we use social media the right way to spread positivity then it can build us up. While using social media negatively can cause our emotions to dampen; this experiment was exciting and I highly recommend others to try it out!
Let us know if you try this experiment by tagging us @HerCampusSJSU!