My initial thoughts on Carl Newport’s TED Talk… I was brought to attention but not surprised that social media could have such an adverse effect on my attention span. As a college student, this worries me the most out of all of his claims. I know my concentration is extremely terrible but I never considered it could all be because of social media. I will definitely be giving up some of my social media in an effort to regain focus on my studies. (Pinterest not included. (; )
Newport has never experienced social media himself which I admit is unsettling since he advocates so strongly against it. However, he has done extensive research and explains that quitting social media is much like a detox. It usually takes two weeks for a user to not feel anxious about their time and inability to check their pages. I believe this because I’ve experienced it on a small scale. I quit twitter during the weeks and redownload it over the weekend in an effort to help me focus. Mondays and Tuesdays I find myself checking my phone for my Twitter app. Once I remember I’ve deleted it I then am compelled to think about the seriousness of the situation. Usually I’m checking it because I don’t want to focus on something I’m supposed to be focusing on like homework or a lecture. I’ve always believed Twitter is extremely addicting but was even more alarmed when Newport claimed it was designed to be addictive.
In addition to the neurological issues, the commercial and political cons of social media are too numerous. The ways data collectors and companies are able to access and store your personal information and your online trends is scary. We touched a little bit on the political scandals and soon-to-be trials surrounding this at our table talk today with GRF Sara. I think we can’t really trust any of our privacy settings anymore. There’s too much money involved and too many conspiracies out there for me to believe my information is safe.
I agree that social media platforms have become so accustomed to, as GRF Sara mentioned, using us–the users—as the product that it is nearly impossible to know where our posts and/or information about what we “like” or “share” are going. Your point really gets at the concerning point that there seems to be this implicit assumption on the part of social media platforms that because they provide a service to us, they can squeeze as much money out of our online behavior as they want.
The claims about attention span reduction are interesting. That would also be a major motivation for me to try to reduce social media consumption. I am intrigued to learn more about this topic.
Social media definitely has its effects on our lives, but in this day and age, it’s also impractical to cut it out completely. Even traditional media is increasingly trying to engage over social media, and you’ll inevitably find yourself looking at some kind of social media if you’re on the internet. I get the thoughts about withdrawing taking getting used to, but if you want to be connected to others, you’ll probably still be enticed into checking your texts, if not a specific social media site. While privacy issues are definitely concerning, it’s hard to feel connected without also sharing some information.