Social Media Theory and Schema.
Social media provides people with a platform to connect, foster relationships, spread knowledge, and, more importantly, stay updated with the world’s current affairs. Social media theories seek to help explain what people usually say and do while online. On the other hand, Vinney (2019) states that schema is a ” cognitive structure that serves as a framework for knowledge about people, places, objects, and events.” Schema helps people compose their insight into the world and understand new data about the world. I choose to focus on Jay Shetty in this paper.
Jay Shetty is a British Indian video blogger, a former monk, a motivational speaker, and an author. This is the type of person who can be well described as an internet personality. He attended school in Barnet, where he joined Queen Elizabeth’s School and later graduated from the University of London. After this, he went to India, where he trained and lived the life of a Vedic monk with the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (DeSantis and Triggs, 2019). He majorly uses Facebook and Instagram to pass his message to the world. Taking a deep dive into these social accounts, Jay Shetty has slightly over 26 million followers. On his Facebook page, he says that he is all about making wisdom go viral; this is evident with the videos he posts, arranged in playlists such as Short stories, XOXO series, Viral Wisdom with Shetty and many others. This has been successful, for instance, his video titled Before You Break Up Watch This, has received a viewership of over 54 million, a Numbers almost double his followers. He uses Instagram in tandem with Facebook to build on his brand of spreading knowledge. In his Instagram page, he posts inspirational video aimed at helping people through rough times; an example of this is a video named If You’ve Lost Someone. Besides, he uses the page for advertising his podcast, On Purpose with Jay Shetty, which is an arena for him to spread wisdom to the world.
Schema is script theory, as defined by Srambeau (2010) is a ” mental template of a person’s knowledge about people, situations and objects.” This theory is based on the knowledge that has been obtained from previous experience and is useful because it helps in organizing information and also helps in predicting how the situation will turn out to be. This is a theory that has been utilized by most people in media; for example, many movies and shows follow a script that introduces the characters, a conflict, and finally a resolution to the conflict. Jay Shetty utilizes this where he uses his knowledge as a monk and one that he has acquired over time from the internet to advise people going through rough times.
Cultivation theory, on the other hand, proposes that constant exposure to media over time leads to a changed perception of social reality. The theory further suggests that media has an influence on people’s views of society and the most influenced are the people who are more exposed to more media. Jay Shetty, just like any other media personality, likes to give his opinions about what is happening in the world. In the recent event, strikes have emerged all over America over the suffering of black people at the hands of the police, and he was not left behind in expressing his frustrations. He also utilizes the agenda-setting theory, which states that the more attention that is given to a media piece, the more it will be labeled as crucial by the public. Jay Shetty always repeats his topic on mental health as a ploy to make it more known to the people.
Social learning theory states that people learn by observing others. Through his constant online presence, he has influenced people through social learning, where many strive to emulate him in their daily lives. This is one way that he has utilized media to spread wisdom to the world. Finally, there is the uses and gratifications theory that asserts that people use media to satisfy specific wants and needs (Vinney, 2019). We can view this from Jay Shetty in two ways. The first one is from himself, where he uses social media to pass on wisdom to the world. On the other hand, is his target audience who follow him to satisfy their needs of being lifted at the times when they hit rock bottom or have very low moments in life.
To sum this up, Since communication is indispensable, and for sure a central piece of the naming of the field of crucial communication, and because understanding the purposiveness of communication is basic, information on communication can be viewed as the column on which the field rests. Jay Shetty has applied all the communication and learning theories that there are to pass his mental well-being message, emotional support, and criticize the society where it fails.
References.
DeSantis, R., & Triggs, C. (2019). Meet Jay Shetty, the Motivational Vlogger and Ex-Monk Who Has Fans in the Kardashians & Ellen DeGeneres. Retrieved from https://people.com/human-interest/meet-jay-shetty-motivational-vlogger-ex-monk/.
Srambeau, V. (2010). Script (Schema) Theory. Retrieved from https://srambeau.wordpress.com/2010/09/24/script-schema-theory/.
Vinney, C. (2019). What Is a Schema in Psychology? Definition and Examples . Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/schema-definition-4691768.
Vinney, C. (2019). What Is Uses and Gratifications Theory? Definition and Examples. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/uses-and-gratifications-theory-4628333.
