On Monday I attended one of the most fascinating table talks I’ve been to in a while. It was based on a TED Talk about a Professor who never had social media. His argument for staying off the web was that social media was much like a slot machine: it provides entertainment, but the rewards aren’t valuable to a person’s intellectual development. In addition, an increase in the use of social media has led to an increase in mental illnesses such as anxiety and depression over the last few years. Lastly, he boasted how much work he gets done in a day because he doesn’t have social media to distract him. This is because social media reduces a person’s ability to focus in the long term.
Well, that last point got me. A few hours after I watched the video in preparation for the talk, I checked out an actual book. There was no way social media was going to reduce my ability to focus. Also, I hadn’t remembered the last time I had read for fun; I’ve always had Snapchat, Instagram or Facebook to entertain me.
At the table talk, with my book beside my plate and my fellow Rose Scholars surrounding me, we discussed the validity of his argument: that it’s good to quit social media. Someone brought up the point that as a non-user, the speaker had no idea of how beneficial social media could be. It connects us to our family and friends, provides us with lighthearted entertainment that is not always detrimental (we all like to laugh sometimes) and for our generation might even be necessary. And just because the professor could go hours without working because he doesn’t have a feed to check doesn’t mean that someone who quits social media won’t find something else to distract him or her.
Of course, we can’t ignore the disadvantages. Social media does bring with it anxiety, depression, and a way for anonymous bullies to target and hurt. But social media is not a problem, it’s just a tool that can be used incorrectly. And with every dangerous tool, there should ideally be rules and precautions that come with it. It doesn’t mean one has to quit it.
So I’ll continue using social media. And I’ll finish reading my book too. Regardless, I think I’ll be more aware of how I’ll use my time. I don’t want to pull a slot machine for the rest of my life.
This was an insightful post. I had considered attending this table-talk, but it conflicts with my academic schedule.
I think as someone with a lot of friends who have (or still do) abstained from social media, uses it a fair amount myself, and has seen the extremes other people take in terms of their social media usage and consumption, I really disagree with two particular point you discussed.
The perspective of anyone who claims that social media does not have any intellectual value is likely biased by the people with whom they interact through these platforms. After all, that’s all they are: platforms. The information I consume through them is ultimately up to what I tailor my feeds to be and the people whom I connect with. Sure, an argument could be made to say that ads are not something we personally control, but even those sometimes aim to educate their audiences and are tailored to our data history. I personally have learned plenty about topics I had previously never been exposed to on Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. I also consider Reddit a form of social media, and most other Reddit users would likely vouch that there’s plenty to be learned from posts on this platform.
The second point I’d like to dispute is the correlation of mental health issues and increased social media usage. Anyone who has ever taken a statistics class would caution you not to associate correlation with causation. So many different factors come into play when discussions of mental health arise, and social media is not the only one to consider. Increased social media usage is not the only major change that has occurred in the last few decades. You can see an increase in the proportion of “broken” families; schools that have cut artistic outlets from their curriculums; and even people with increasingly sedentary lifestyles. There may be a correlation with social media, and it may be an influencing factor, but I would not jump to saying this is the issue for the problems we face as individuals in terms of personal development and growth.
I think you bring up a very good argument. I have always blamed my dependency on social media with how distracted I get. However, it is true that without social media, I will probably continue to get distracted by other things. Since I am not from Ithaca, I am really grateful for social media to help me catch up on things my family is doing. This was such an insightful event, I wish I had attended!