The official site of the Torch, the student-run newspaper at Glenbrook North High School.

Torch

The official site of the Torch, the student-run newspaper at Glenbrook North High School.

Torch

The official site of the Torch, the student-run newspaper at Glenbrook North High School.

Torch

Social media across the globe

 

Junior Zuzanna Sosnowska (left) chats with friends after school. After studying in the United States for one month, she noted how people here have conversations with each other while focused on their phones. Photo by Gabe Weininger.
Junior Zuzanna Sosnowska (left) chats with friends after school. After studying in the United States for one month, she noted how people here have conversations with each other while focused on their phones. Photo by Gabe Weininger.

Flashback to 2009: current senior Lauren Smeds was deciding whether to make a Facebook. Four thousand six hundred miles away in Warsaw, Poland, junior Zuzanna Sosnowska faced the same dilemma. Six thousand three hundred miles away from Sosnowska, in Mexico City, sophomore Alejandra Manrique struggled with the same predicament.

At the time, all three girls were in junior high and were surrounded by the concept of Facebook, but none of them had one. Once they turned 12 years old, however, Sosnowska, Smeds and Manrique joined millions of other people and created Facebooks.

Smeds said she used to use Facebook more when she first made her account, but now she finds her primary purpose of the site is to communicate with friends from other states or “to get ahold of people for school projects.”

Sosnowska, who is living in Northbrook for 12 months as part of a youth exchange program, said Facebook is becoming increasingly less popular in Poland as well, and she only uses it to keep in touch with her family and friends in Poland.

“I remember when I first got my Facebook I was coming out of the dentist,” said Sosnowska. “I was so excited to make one and I checked it a lot, but now I barely use it.”

Like Sosnowska and Smeds, Manrique, who recently moved to Northbrook from Mexico City, said the popularity of Facebook has greatly decreased in her hometown. Now, Manrique said Facebook only benefits her in keeping in touch with her friends back home.

Although the popularity of Facebook has decreased in Warsaw, Mexico City and Northbrook according to Smeds, Manrique and Sosnowska, the three girls said other social media sites have come into vogue.

Sosnowska, Smeds and Manrique all said Instagram and Snapchat are both very popular in their hometowns.

Manrique and Smeds also said Twitter is popular, but Sosnowska said in Poland, Twitter is not very popular. Smeds said she likes to check her Twitter feed every so often during the day, but Sosnowska, who only has a couple followers, said she hardly ever checks Twitter.

Even though Twitter usage differs among the girls, they all said they love checking Snapchat and sending pictures to their friends.

Manrique and Sosnowska said by having Instagram and Snapchat accounts  it was easier for them to adjust to life in America because they were able to start conversations with American students about these sites, while still keeping in touch with their friends back home.

Even though most of the social media sites are the same across the three countries, the usage of these sites differs.

For Smeds, social media often acts as a distraction to her homework. She said the sites on her phone can be distracting, even when she is with her friends.

“We’re always talking face-to-face but we’ll be on our phones too,” said Smeds. “It’s just something we do. We sit on our phones and check Twitter or something.”

Manrique noted this change in usage as well.

“Here [in Northbrook], people are talking to each other with their phones in their hands,” said Manrique. “They’re in the conversation but on another site at the same time. I didn’t see that before [in Mexico].”

Like Manrique, Sosnowska said the usage of social media on phones was one of the first things she noticed when she came to Northbrook.

Sosnowska said when she first came to the United States she could not use her old phone because of the cost of an international data plan. Her host family gave her an old iPhone with a limited data plan that restricted her access to her favorite social media sites. Sosnowska said that with this limited plan she hardly ever checks social media sites during the day, allowing her to see the differences in social media usage in America compared to Poland.

“Whenever I go out with my friends in Poland, we just decide to turn off our phones and put them in our bags,” said Sosnowska. “We don’t check Snapchat or anything. Whenever we are together we try to have an actual real conversation. It’s actually really sad how here [in Northbrook] when you’re meeting with your friends and instead of talking to each other they’re on their phones doing something else. I see best friends chatting but really they’re snapchatting or texting someone else.”