Rutgers University, College Avenue Campus New Brunswick, NJ
Alexander Library, Teleconference Conference Lecture Hall
10am-6pm
The forms and effects of social media are regularly discussed in contemporary public forums. From the concerns with online bullying to self-reported “facebook fatigue,” from issues connected to a generation of cognitive laborers to affective overload, from the tenuous status of friendships to the felt pressures to display, update, even hide oneself, the rise of social technologies has profoundly reshaped the conditions under which individual and collective selves operate. More recently, we have also witnessed the emergence of responses to these conditions, such as collective unplugging, media fasts, and digital diets. In other words, some have put social media use into a nutritional context (diet, balance, a healthy regimen) and others have discussed it in a framework of mind/body/spirit restoration (a retreat, self-discipline, and exercise). How do different cultures and populations respond to the social and interpersonal challenges of social media? What different forms of online violence exist? What are the different cultural responses to the social spread of these technologies?
In addition, the symposium asks, “how can social media become a remedy for the ills that it also contains?” Here the symposium will bring in activists who have initiated self-organized actions around health and wellbeing, relying on social media platforms to organize and communicate. This will range from groups like The Icarus Project to individuals involved in public awareness and interventions about sexism and sexual harassment to figures involved in the growing online feminism movement. How do offline interactions continue online modes of being, which themselves draw on already-existing customs and ideologies? These individuals and groups are engaging their communities via collective intelligence and collective affectivity to imagine a healthier world, especially healthier social relationships. The symposium, then, will expand our notions of both social media and psychosocial wellbeing as a way of directly addressing key social health issues today.
Social Media and Psychosocial Wellbeing 