Artist Statement

Facebook, a social media site designed to connect people, is definitely a setting that can bring family, friends, and loved ones together, but it is also a setting associated with negative emotional effects. Those emotional effects are low self-esteem, jealousy, and envy. Research confirms that the “Net Generation”, individuals between the ages of thirteen and twenty-five years old, are feeling these effects and may not even realize that Facebook is the cause. Finding a way to reach this audience and educate them on these effects can be challenging. One approach involves having the “Net Generation” user preview a typical Facebook vacation photo and status update that conveys envy. The example will help the user identify those specific words purposely used to evoke those emotions and the comments posted reinforce the intent. The second approach is a magazine cover which displays a catchy title and the picture of a depressed high school girl with thought bubbles that express her feelings. Most teenagers and young adults can identify with the emotions expressed, whether they themselves have felt them or have been there for a friend who has needed support. The third approach is a poem that begins with a new Facebook user and it describes her journey from a place of happiness to sadness, lack of self-worth, and jealousy, to self realization. All three of these approaches expose that link between negative emotional effects and Facebook. These approaches will start discussions which will lead to self awareness and hopefully bring about change.