This project tasked me to explore the impact of social media on both society and individuals, and to take an objective look at how social media has impacted my everyday life through a short quiz. 

According to the social media quiz I have a healthy relationship with social  media itself, which is quite rare. I tend to not use social media much, and when I do it is usually anonymously as I value my privacy. I try to be mindful of how much social media I use on a daily basis, as it's easy to "doomscroll" and all of a sudden your whole day is gone.

I chose this statistic because it resonated with me as a younger person. I don't use tiktok ever,  in my opinion short form content that is common on that website is terrible for your brain and attention span. It also has the issue of being backed by the CCP, which has a vested interest in damaging the United States and its people as much as possible. However, while I don't get my news or politics from tiktok, I do get it from Reddit (a different social media site). So I understand why people would turn to an app like this to get their information, however it is so easy to be fed false information and fake news, and have your psyche manipulated by the algorithm without even realizing it. 

In my opinion, Social Media is both a blessing and a curse for society. There are so many useful things that have come from social media,  including the ability to connect with people globally on a scale that has never been seen before. The nature of social media as a for profit platform has lead to issues with people using them however. Engagement is king, and more outrageous things farm more engagement, which in turn can affect people's mental health negatively.

I learned that social media plays an almost insidious role in the lives of people inhabiting modern society, and manipulates us in ways that we don't even realize. We need to take a step back and look at things with a more holistic approach, and learn to be more skeptical about things that we read or hear on the internet. In the olden days, it was common knowledge to take what you see with a grain of salt, however at some point that sentiment became lost after the web went mainstream. We need to be more wary about the potential agenda of those who present us with content, and consume it appropriately. 

Mcclain, C. (2024, August 20). About half of TikTok users under 30 say they use it to keep up with politics, news. Pew Research Center; Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/08/20/about-half-of-tiktok-users-under-30-say-they-use-it-to-keep-up-with-politics-news