Media Mayhem: A Quick Rant

Here's just what I wrote off the top of my head, let me know if there's some aspect or complaint of media you have that would add to this discussion- Or let me know if I'm totally out of line!

Before recently I didn't truly understand why people would drop all social media out of the blue unless they were being bullied or like sometimes you just need a break or it strains your eyes or you're bored and you actually don't care that much aboht what is going on in the mediocre lives of the people around you and you just want to take the time to focus on yourself or the fact that you have to study for a big exam with out having every person's snapchat story you have ever met at the palm of your hands, but now I realized that there are real reasons to reconsider picking up your phone outside of those.

Not only has it been shown that the area of your brain associated with empathy that is typically active throughout the day shows no activity when you are on social media. It is highly addictive. An addiction to social media and your phone grows the same way as a any other drug addiction. When you are on social media or whatever app you are, it has been shown your body releases dopamine AKA the happiness hormone and the same thing that allows addictions to anything grow. It feels good to be on your iphone. "Why not just spend more time on your iPhone. Why not just scroll a little longer. Your brain already shut off empathy why not send a snap instead of saying hi to the person in front of u. cool cool cool."

Also on top of that, the whole beauty of social media and Internet was supposed to be largely from a pro globalization perspective. The reality though is that it is not fulfilling the promise of interconnectedness that we believed. Everything (the information in particular about the world/our surroundings) is filtered. (Recommend you watch the Ted talk about "filter bubbles" because credit for this concept is from that) I'm sure we all already knew our Instagram and Facebook feed posts were filtered because we see ads for things that we recently looked up on Amazon or purchased the otherday. BUT Google, our quickest and go-to source for fact checking for access to information and support for the idea that we can have an increased understanding about the world and different cultures and facts, filters the results we get from person to person. We go to it for facts, but the reality is that fact should not vary from person to person. While you may be okay that we could all be living in realities we have composed in our minds, we should be aware that someone else is living in a different reality. In the ted talk an arab & white man each google Egypt. The Arab man's Google results immediately showed tourist/travel options and beautiful views while the white mans search results showed political articles and dangers of the country. Although what the real danger is that there is no easy way of knowing, realizing, or accepting that someone is filtering and hand picking what truth to create for you. The real danger is that with out a source for facts, everything from the value of a citizens vote to our understanding of who we are is threatened.