Social Media
This week I watched "Why you should quit social media", which is a Ted talk that focuses on social media. The main idea of this talk is that we should quit social media to make our lives more peaceful and to show younger generations that life is better without it. Yes, having social media is fun and all “But I’d go even farther and say not only I am OK without social media but I think I’m actually better off. I think I’m happier, I think I find more sustainability in my life, and I think I’ve been more successful” (Newport). One idea I found interesting was how social media is dangerous, I will go into more detail about the dangers and how to save yourself from those dangers.The Dangers of Social Media
Social media such as Facebook collects your data and uses it to find videos and images that will keep you on the site longer. They do this because the longer you are on the more information they can collect and sell. One piece of evidence that supports my claim is “The way that technologist Jaron Lanier puts it is that these companies offer you shiny treats in exchange for minutes of your attention and bites of your personal data which can then be packaged up and sold” (Newport). Another danger of using social media is the fact that when you constantly check your phone for that Instagram like or that snap every five minutes, you lose concentration in the real world. Cal Newport states “That is the desired use case of these products: is that you use it in an addictive fashion because that maximizes the profit that can be extracted from your attention and data. So it's not a fundamental technology, it’s just a source of entertainment, one among many, and it’s somewhat unsavory if you look a little bit closer”.Why I Quit Social Media
Over the years I have had social media, I used to be that basic white girl, I had Instagram, snapchat, house party, vsco, and Facebook. But over time I started to base myself on the likes and comments, and I hated whom I had turned into. So, I made my own decision to delete Instagram, house party, and vsco. I choose to do this because I was done with viewing myself as I was, and I have loved that decision. Now, I kept snapchat to stay in contact with my lacrosse and field hockey team, but then I started to turn into that girl again and when I watched this video, right after I deleted it. So now I am left with Facebook, I am keeping this because I like to stay in contact with my extended family, and with Facebook, I can see what they are doing and make sure everything is okay with them. I hope after reading this you’ll consider quitting social media or least trying it for a week to see how you feel.
Works Cited:
June 2016, www.ted.com/talks/cal_newport_why_you_should_quit_social_media/
transcript. Accessed 23 Nov. 2019.
Hi Ana!,
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job on this blog. I agree that having social media is dangerous and addicting. My mom does not let my sister and I have social media because she knows that kids get bullied on there. How can we stop social media from being so dangerous and addicting?
I appreciate your self-reflection about the possible dangers of social media. Is there a reason why you think some of the forms of social media are more dangerous than others?
ReplyDeleteI think that some forms of social media have more danger based on who is controlling them, and who decides to look at the website.
DeleteDo you think that parents need to control more of what their child has access to on social media?
ReplyDelete