Are We Disconnecting From Life?

ARE WE DISCONNECTING FROM LIFE?

With the rise of technology, places like social media can be a type of safe haven, downtime, or even a career for people. This brings both benefits and downsides to the table... Things like mental health and views of sensitive topics may be influenced by the peer pressures everyday people experience, and addictions can easily stem.

What is the influence of social media on our generation? Our generation hasn’t seen a day without technology… Literally. When we were born, we had access to computers-- even if they weren’t pocket-sized. The large Windows desktops with the mice and keyboards, Microsoft Paint, the viruses we’d download accidentally - you remember those! Today, however, we can’t live without looking at someone else’s life updates, or the newest game updates. We don’t stop to look at our mental health, or how our devices are conflicting with it. This can lead to technology addictions, and declining health.

According to the US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health, “Social media is a relatively new phenomenon that has swept the world during the past decade… Social media fuses technology with social interaction via Internet-based applications that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content… Social media has become fundamental in the way many people and organizations communicate and share opinions, ideas, and information.”

And it does. These results can be good, such as charity or fundraising/advertising; or bad, as in things such as a rising crime rate-- while some sites are able to help stop crime as well.

In one article published by FindLaw, five types of social media crime are discussed. Including but not limited to, stalking, cyberbullying, hacking, fraud, illegal purchases, etc.

Obviously, every person on social media won’t somehow find the Dark Web and purchase some type of hitman, but these aforementioned issues aren’t ones to take lightly.

So... Just how big of an impact does social media have on everyday people?

According to this graph depicting the growth of social media usage in 2016 and 2017, sites and apps such as Facebook and YouTube have grown and are growing rapidly. With more and more access to phones, tablets, and laptops, there’s no denial that people are going to begin drifting on social media.

When we think about it, these resources are truly taking over our outside media sources. To find the latest celebrity drama, people don’t necessarily turn on TMZ and watch for thirty minutes… They usually go onto apps like Instagram or Twitter and look at what’s Trending. However, there are differences in opinion of this, as stated in the above interviews, as well as multiple sources.

In a 2014 study conducted by ING, journalists and professionals concluded that more people are gaining their news knowledge through “crowd-checking,” rather than fact-checking from reliable sources. Now, whether our citywide news outlets could be considered reliable or not is up to the person watching them.

• Adaya Head, Student at Carver, fellow journalist-- frequent social media user, has internet friends, etc.
• Tonya Bah… Educator, Parent, Activist. Not so much of a social media user, shies away from becoming ‘addicted.’

Do you go on social media a lot?

Adaya: Yes, not every day but a few times per week.

Tonya: Unfortunately, yes. At least twice per day.

How has social media impacted your life?

Adaya: I’m on it everyday… It’s like another life. It’s nice because when I’m online, you get to connect to people faster, and they come out in large groups, and you get to talk to people who have the same interests as you.

Tonya: It has reduced the human contact I would prefer to have by at least 70%. It has also been allowed to violate and create havoc without accountability in the lives of many. It is the source of threats and bullying in public.

Do you have any problems when you’re on social media?

Adaya: Well, there’s a few benefits to that. When you’re online and having a disagreement of some sort, you can just literally block or report them, and you won’t have to deal with that person ever again. If you’re not the type of person who wants to get into arguments and debates, you don’t have to interact with that person ever again. You can have control over what you can see.

Tonya: Yes; I find myself not writing complete sentences, my attention span becomes shorter, and I lose a lot of my day if I’m not careful.

Consider things like Facebook. This is your average social media site, and if you look up cat food online, not even through Facebook-- moments later an ad for cat food may pop up! You don’t find that odd, and totally unrelated to what you were looking for?

Adaya: Don’t they purposely do that, though? It’s geared towards your interests and that’s the company’s way to make money. They can use your information and stuff, if you allow them.

Tonya: I know about the surveillance and data mining that this country thrives from. The events of 9/11 opened the privacy rights of average citizens that the government had been trying to pry open for decades.

Are you addicted to social media? Adaya, you go on Tumblr a lot-- is it something that you could live without at this point?

Adaya: Well, Tumblr is a really toxic community, I wouldn’t say with Tumblr, no.

Tonya: Yes… But I work hard to fight back against it.

Do you find yourself on it everyday?

Adaya: Not for a few hours, no. I may be looking at memes, but not interacting with people. You have to be careful with that.