John Ray Week 9 - The Dangerous Power of Social Media
There is an abundant amount of content on social media. Someone casually scrolling through their feed can consume tons of information that trumps the amount that can be consumed through watching the news. With this, people can be more up to date with events that happen worldwide, and be more knowledgeable about the social issues going on in society.
However, this does have many drawbacks. A lot of the content seen on social media platforms is largely unfiltered and unchecked. This can lead to people leaving out crucial details in their posts that can make certain topics or situations be seen in a bad light. An example I can think of is when news sources covered the protests going on after George Floyd’s death, they only covered the riots, like the one in Minneapolis, while leaving out how there were way more peaceful protests. With the lack of fact checking on social media platforms, many people believed that the protests were really just riots.
I think this perfectly displays an often not talked about enough dangerous power of social media. People often believe anything they see on social media as long as it sounds at least a little plausible. And more often than not, people won’t do extended research to confirm whether what is being claimed is true. In my own personal experience, I have stumbled across many TikToks in which people would be making claims about the government or as a society as a whole. Like, I remember watching a video on some dude claiming that white people are slowly being given less job opportunities and are being accepted into universities less because the universities want more diversity. And the people in the comments were agreeing with him and praising him for bringing this topic to light because of the sources he used. But as it turns out, he was cherry picking certain parts from his sources to make his points look better when in actuality his sources were going against him.
To conclude what I’ve been rambling about, take everything you see on social media with a grain of salt. The power to spread false information through social media is a dangerous one.
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| Taken from https://www.moxeemarketing.com/social-media-squatters/ |
Hi John Ray! I completely agree with you when it comes to your opinions about the powers or social media. Especially as technology continues to progress, I feel like we are only going to become more reliant on social media and desensitized to underlying bias, especially in nonprofessional media like TikTok, Instagram, and Youtube (which is ironically the type of media that we interact with the most). While it is hard to say what the exact results may be, I fear that it may have disastrous effects on the youth to be constantly engaging with misinformation and heavily biased media because it really does have a major effect on how people view the world. It is especially dangerous because the first impression is usually the strongest one that is retained in a person’s memory. Growing up, I was not personally allowed a lot of forms of common social media platforms until around the time I entered high school. Due to this I never really developed strong habits of checking Instagram which other kids who grew up with complete access may have developed. These kids who develop these habits very early on are especially susceptible and impressionable. This could lead to certain agendas being pushed or outrageous misinformation being taken as fact which may be detrimental to a child’s ability to think for itself. Thus, it is truly unfortunate how deeply social media has dung its claws into society.
ReplyDeleteJohn, I know exactly what you're talking about. Social media is a blessing and a curse. There are positive things like GoFundMe's that gain thousands of dollars. However, there are also negative things like cyberbullying that take place. Social media, like you said, is powerful. It can change lives for the better or the worse. I feel that the one consistency social media has is that it will always cover the piece of news that more people will click on. It may not be completely accurate, it may be dramatized, it may not even be beneficial for the people watching, but as long as it gets the media attention it desires, these outlets will keep posting them. Overall, your blog went over a very broad topic that is very insightful.
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ReplyDeleteYou're completely right John, social media is powerful in its influence on us. Another idea I think you should have covered is the average amount of screen time used globally. According to The Independent, the global average amount of screen time used is 6 hours and 58 minutes. Out of the 16 hours a person is awake, they spend around 7 hours on their screen, which is 43.75% of their time. This falls under the power of social media notion and encapsulates its negative influence on society. I am a victim of high screen time hours. Recently, I downloaded an app that would lock the apps on my phone for me during work hours. That's how bad it was for me. My screen time hours went down from 5-6 to 1-2 hours daily. High screentime use is a digital pandemic affecting all of us, and I completely agree with your blog.
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