Opinion Piece
Opinion: Social media is deteriorating our minds one tap at a time
Raegan Frenette
There are plenty of great things social media has granted us. Our world today is more connected than ever before with our social lives at a mere finger’s reach. Social media platforms keep us informed on current events, they open the gate to new opportunities and help us feel connected to people near and far. So, what is the problem? Well, social media is getting out of hand.
Take out your phone and check your screen time. How much of your day is spent on your phone? What apps are used the most on average? If you are anything like me, the answer is quite frankly disturbing. The average adult spends approximately three hours and 15 minutes on their phone every single day. What is even more disturbing, a recent study showed that teens spend an average of seven hours and 22 minutes on their phone, while tweens spend an average of four hours and 44 minutes.
On social media, time disappears. We’ve all been there: you open Facebook for a quick scroll and next thing you know a half-hour has come and gone. Why does this happen? The answer, although unsettling, is that social media platforms are designed to keep us addicted. Large-scale companies such as Facebook, Instagram, Google and Twitter use your time and attention to make their billions. The designers of these apps do not have the intention of benefitting us as a society, but rather to make a quick buck at the expense of our lives.
Many studies have shown a correlation between time spent on social media and depression in adolescents. Face-to-face interactions play a huge role in mental health; interacting with people is a necessity for a healthy mind and social media has been proven a hindrance in this regard. In the United States alone, 73 per cent of gen Z and millennials communicate more digitally than in-person. In addition, it is only going to get worse as we introduce new technology to future generations.
With the majority of us communicating through social media, there arises another problem — algorithms. To put it simply, algorithms sort a user’s feed based on relevancy and the likelihood that the user will want to see it. You may be wondering, how is that a problem? Algorithms will present you with different information based on your location, previous searches and beliefs; meaning everyone is reading different information. We can no longer tell what is factual and what is biased.
Not only is information biased on the internet, but a lot of it may not be true. The emergence of fake news has caused a great deal of disruption, particularly in economics and politics. Studies have shown that people are often less likely to critically evaluate news that aligns with their existing beliefs, making it easy for false stories to spread. At this point, we have no way of knowing the absolute truth about anything.
It is clear that social media has an array of negative impacts on adults, and even more prominently affects adolescents and children. If we are not careful, social media will continue to deteriorate our minds to a point where we lose touch with reality.
I wish I could tell you to just throw away your phone, but that is not realistic. Instead, here are a few things you can do to reduce screen time and focus on your health: Firstly, you can schedule phone time into your day. Pick a set time to scroll through social media and then put your phone down and keep it down. Secondly, delete any social media apps that do not serve a specific purpose. Maybe you need Facebook to message a coworker, or maybe you are promoting your business on Instagram, but ultimately there is no need for every single social media platform. Thirdly, you can set time limits on your apps to prevent you from losing track of time. Limit yourself to a certain amount of social media every day, this will leave more room for meaningful moments.
Raegan Frenette is a public relations student at Mount Royal University.
