User:Sbucket77/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Social Media and Identity

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I chose this article because it has a connection to communication so it will be helpful in the long run for this class. I also chose the article it because social media plays a big role in our identity as it has become much more prevalent in our society today. This specific topic matters because of the overall affect social media has on us, both positive and negative, and how that can affect relationships with others and ourselves. My first impression of this article was that it was interesting and organized. I also thought it could either use a few more sources or just a little more information on the topic in general.

Evaluate the article
Lead Section:

The lead section immediately states what the article will be talking about in the first sentence. This makes it easy for readers to know exactly what information they have found without having to search through the entirety of the article in order to discover what the main idea is. The lead section discussed important key concepts of social identity and the affects it can have on different age groups. This lead section does lack important information such as what sub sections it will talk about; in other words there is no thesis. It just says it will discuss social identity but then doesn't mention any of these related topics to social identity and also the impact it has on things like body image and our self presentation. I would say the lead is somewhat concise but lacks a lot of detail because it gives no general overview of the full article and rather discusses different information that is still relevant but is never truly elaborated on. I think this lead section is okay but could have a better introduction and overview in order to make this a more organized article as a whole.

Content:

I feel as if this article is lacking a lot of important content and focuses too much on one thing while neglecting other topics. All of the subheading that were chosen for the article were relevant to social media and identity but it didn't provide as much detail as I would have expected. The majority of the article discusses body image and barely touches on the other subjects including, young adults, self presentation, and also explains media literacy. I feel as if there could have been different sub heading and topics more focused on identity related to social media rather than one major paragraph about body image and then the other slightly relevant topics that didn't even provide very useful information as a whole. The information is fairly relevant, there is sources from 2011 to as recent as 2021. I think this is helpful as there is a broad range of when identity in social media first became more relevant versus now it being a normalized part of society. Like I had mentioned before, some content is definitely missing from this article and content that barely relates to topic. I think this could be resolved by adding more information and subheadings to connect all of the ideas and create an article that the information will flow better. I don't feel as if there is a whole lot of contact gaps in this article which is surprising. I feel like any topics related to social media tend to gear only towards women but this article included both men and women and how they could be affected similarly. It also briefly mentioned feminism which was interesting. There is still a few content gaps but not as prevalent in this article as I would have expected. I think there is room for improvement in including men in body image and mentioning underrepresented ideas and people but this article was generally fairly equal.

Tone and Balance:

To me, this article seems pretty neutral. There is no obvious opinions and a lot of the information is based off of particular studies or other resources. Many of the statements made are a direct correlation of what psychologists have said and the article mentions both the positive and negative affects social media can have on our identity, especially on young adults. The article mainly discussed body image and doesn't dive into too much detail about self presentation and there is only two small paragraphs written about how social media affects young adults by influencing their thoughts and who they are as people. When it discusses body image it over presents the influence social media has on body image. I know this is an important topic and is greatly related to the affects of social media but this leaves a large gap on the other affects social media has on our identity. By over representing this, it makes it seem as if this particular aspect of social media is much more important than any of the others which isn't the case in my opinion. This article doesn't have any parts that would be considered a fringe point of view. Social media and identity is just described as social media affecting people in a positive or negative why and gives a few reasons why. Although the article doesn't dig deep into multiple parts of social media and identity, it does remain neutral and unbiased.

Sources and References:

Though this article does have 13 different sources, some of them are not the most reliable. As I looked further in to each specific source I found that they were not all reliable sources that should be used especially when discussing certain topics that require evidence and data. One source was a blog post where multiple people had commented reacting to the original idea and sharing their specific opinion. There were references on the blog post but that really doesn't mean anything when you are just talking about your opinion and how you view the topic of social media and identity. This was just one obviously unreliable one out of the 13 but when finding sources it is important to use peer reviewed or some sort of academic/scholarly source. The sources that were chosen were appropriate to the topic and some of them did offer better insight and helped tie all of the information together. The sources range from 2011 up to 2021 so there is a mix of older sources and then newer ones but a majority were from older dates. I think this can affect the reliability as it is not as current and up to date so information and other things have most likely changed by now which leaves room for mistake in the current article. Each of the sources were taken from men, women, and different doctors and psychologists so this does extend the articles chances of not being only one opinion. I think there are better sources available especially better than a blog or a regular google search. Sources from academic journals or scholarly articles. Not many were used in this article and having sources from professionals and reliable books, articles, and websites can improve the quality of an article. The links under the references heading do work which is good because that was helpful in reading more about the topic and utilizing the more reliable resources.

Organization and Writing Quality:

This article is well written in the sense that the point is made, you know what the article will be about, and you get information on topics that directly relate to social media and identity. It is easy to read and there is no obvious grammatical errors, typos, or misspelled words. I don't feel as if the organization is the best in this article. Sure, it is split up into an intro, a few sub sections, and then has references but it has no clear pattern. It introduces the topic but doesn't mention many of the things that relate to social media and identity that are later discussed in the rest of the article. Instead, it just jumps from topic to topic with little elaboration on that specific topic and then body image is talked about in depth so the article feels weighted unevenly. It makes it a little bit confusing as to "why did I just read about media literacy and now I am learning how social media can affect the way I view myself and my body?" I feel as if this article could be re organized to flow better.

Images and Media:

This article has one picture. This image shows a keyboard with different forms of social media such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. So while this image is related to the topic, it doesn't add any quality to the article or the information provided within the text. The picture is captioned but it reads, "Social media platforms are represented as keys on a keyboard" which again isn't very helpful or beneficial. This article could use more images or forms of media especially ones that will add to the article and give a better understanding of the information. I think there are plenty of places some form of media would fit into it all but this page really lacks in this department.

Talk Page Discussion:

On the article Social Media and Identity there is no discussions in the talk page. It is a part of three projects which include Articles for creation, Internet, and Psychology. They are all rated start-class so it is just beginning but it hasn't been edited since April of 2021. I think that this shows they are looking for improvement and eventually this article could be much better it just takes some time and effort. All of the projects are related to providing more information on the internet and psychology that goes with it.

Overall Impressions:

This article needs a lot of work and a lot more information. It lacks flow, media, and is extremely unbalanced in what information has been delivered. I think this article has potential but it needs more organization and connectivity. I think the intro is straight to the point and immediately identities the topic of social media and identity but then ends up not giving as much information on the main topic as it should. The article is slightly underdeveloped but I don't think it would take too much in order to beef it up a little. It still wouldn't be well developed but would at least meet more standards.