Social Media The Modern Virus

For my FMP, I am going to explore the subject of mental health and ethics, in the context of social media, and the impact it has on the mental health of young people. The addiction to social media, seem's to be linked 'gratification' and the dopamine hit, that is gained when they have a positive experience from social media, but with a negative experience they are driven to continually refresh their social media feeds to get the gratification hit. There is also the concept of 'Fear of Missing Out' FMO, this is when a social media user will see pictures of friends together on a night out or some other socail event which they were unaware of or weren't invited to and therefore they feel left out. There is also the issue of friends editing their pictures to make their facial features different, which can leave others feeling inadequate and can imact body image and self-esteem. Many artists have used their work to portray the impact both positive and negative of social media on people. Some of the examples that I personally like are; Hannah Hill, her instagram handle (Hanecdote), in which she uses needle work to convey messages. Also; Jiyeon Kim's Tinder Project Piece, the artists paints portaits based on people's tinder profiles, as she paints them based on how she percieves them from their profiles, rather than how they choose to portray themselves. For my final piece, I am exploring different ways of producing a poster or leaflet using photoshop to send a message to young people that I identify with how social media may make them feel and that they are not alone and isloated as everyone using social media can experience the same negative feelings. I'm very intrigued and drawn to Roy Lichtenstein work and would like to explore using a popart look for my final piece. 

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