I teach a course in regards to the relationship between Social media and society At Durham College. As a part of your assessments, I ask my students to take into consideration their commitment on social media.
A recurring topic is that you just can’t be separated out of your smartphones. Many admit to spend plenty of time on social media every single day on the subject of short videos with no clear purpose and more productive activities.
There is a term for one of these behavior and its effects on mental health, which has recently been named Oxford word of 2024: “Brain rot” the deterioration within the mental or mental state of an individual, particularly consequently of over-consuming trivial or undisputed online content.
For many adults, a diffuse is searching for the Internet or what clinical psychologists call Digital drugs (Such as online shopping, games, gambling, pornography) has turn into a widespread problem, especially because the locking of the Covid 19 pandemic.
As a social media platforms firstly of this century, they were greeted for his or her potential Authorize peoplePresent Facilitating storytelling And Connect communities.
While you enable these options, you furthermore mght represent considerable challenges for our relationship with truth and trust – two pillars of a functioning democracy. By spreading misinformation and Create echo chambers that communities, social media platforms, have “turn into” to a reason for the rise of “”Hate and extremism. “”
As a sociologist, I study popular culture. My colleagues and I at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) and the University of Ottawa have recently published a report on How cultural and identity stories develop in the course of quickly developing digital technologies.
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Shortened attention span
Among younger generations within the United States, The average every day consumption is greater than five hours on screens and 237 notifications – About a notification every 4 minutes.
In a culture of constant connectivity, many young people navigate in a digital world of idealized images, of beauty influencers that subject them to unrealistic comparisons that always result in feelings Inadequacy and reduced self -esteem To a web based Bro culture That makes a toxic type of masculinity As a solution to success.
For the cultural theorist Byung-chhThis is an indication of the decline in storytelling. Modern readers have lost the flexibility to deal deeply with stories. The “long, slow, persistent look”, which enables daydreaming and the true distraction, was replaced by a hyper -oriented engagement with constant information flows. As a result, The story is in crisis.
Recently, A team of researchers on the TMU Anyone who studies jobs from the attitude of young employees created A Two-minute 40-second video Students include what young staff want from their work.
The students couldn’t follow the whole video and located it too long. As a result, the team needed to edit it in various much shorter clips – some as short as 16 seconds – in order that they might attract the eye of their audience. Should this be surprising?
Modern media and technology continuously remind us of preserving our memory and protecting our history. However, Memory is paradoxical In this reason, it includes forgetting and absence with every act of memory.
Online platforms with their short -lived content risk risks that contribute to A Loss of cultural memory Since a lot of what’s shared on these platforms is temporarily and more focused on superficial commitment than on a meaningful cultural expression.
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When the brain rotted, the reality fades
In his memoirs, the American author and natural scientist Henry David Thoreau complained in regards to the declining ability of society to overcome deep pondering and mental efforts and as an alternative to prefer easy and superficial pondering.
In 1854 he wrote in his book :
“While England is attempting to heal the potato red, it is going to not strive to heal the brain-red, which is a lot further and fatal?”
Thoreau could have seen a future by which the United States could be managed by a president who not only ignores the flexibility to think and self -reflection, but additionally historical facts and moral values.
Despite his repute as Pathological liarDonald Trump illustrates what the philosopher Harry Frankfurt Defined as a bullshitter – A one that doesn’t mislead as a liar does it by deliberately speaking false claims about reality, but quite speaking whatever the truth.
Bullshitters change the principles of dialogue by making questions of truth and falsehood irrelevant. Lies and the reality simply turn into tools that will be used to inform their history – whatever the facts.
The greater picture
Georg Simmel was certainly one of the primary social scientists who, concerned in regards to the effects of contemporary life on mental health. In 1903 he wrote about Berlin, he described Blasé posture As a psychological state that arises when the brain is exposed to an awesome variety of stimuli. In order to take care of it, it develops a defense mechanism: indifferent to its surroundings.
A century later, when our online feeds are flooded with countless digital content, it is frightening to go to Simmel's statement again. We should transcend the standard diagnosis Digital competence and competence framework conditions. The problem lies not only in technology itself, but additionally in the broader socio-economic system by which it really works A consumer capitalist digital complex This undermines our brain and our cultures.
People were all the time fascinated by stories. We need them too understand one another. However, the profit -oriented algorithms in social media homogenize experience and ultimately undermine cultural diversity. We have turn into Storyellers as an alternative of storytellers.
