4th Learning Journal

“I think that digital detox will become more prevalent this year, with many people trying to limit the amount of time they spend on social media.” (Lilach Bullock 2020, p183) Social media is a fairly new technology but I think humans are starting to understand how it is affecting us. I agree with the quote and I think we will start to see the trend of people who use or abstain from social media increase. We see the emergence of all sorts of apps and technologies to track the time we spend on it as well as blocking us from having access to the apps. Personally I try to be mindful of how much time on social media because the apps have gotten so good at capturing my attention. I think the fact that innovation has trended in this direction at all is concerning. Humans have never been connected to each other at this level and we see all sorts of reports about kids not having as many friends as they did in the past or less people in committed relationships. The vision that Meta has so far has failed and I think that is because they have yet to find a way to create a virtual space that feels as tangible as reality, but I believe with technologies like neuro link which create an interface for our bodies to connect with technology we will see more of a dystopian society. Movies like the matrix seemed absurd when they first came out and unrealistic to boot, but I believe a reality where people spend more of their life in a computer system that interfacing with the real world is not too far off. I also think this reality is unhealthy and I think a lot of information out there supports how too much time online is bad for you. As time passes I think there will be a lot more regulation on social media from absolute free speech being either enforced or taken away to limits in how much time you can spend on social media. I will say that I enjoy social media and there are many benefits to using this new medium of communication. Software like chat gpt is so interesting to me I’ve used it to see if it would help me do research for a work project but it’s not quite there. Programs like this are a little scary to me because I have seen all sorts of movies and read books about robots taking over. I just think we as the human race need to be careful about how dependent and connected we get with technology because it could end up changing us for the worst or maybe if we are mindful about it for the better. Lipschultz, J. H. (2020). Chapter 7. In Social Media Communication third edition. essay, Routledge.

Comments

  1. Brooke MeadowsMarch 13, 2023 at 4:00 PM

    Hey Mikey! I enjoyed reading your post. I find it very interesting how the internet is so new in the grand scheme of things yet, as a society, we are already making efforts to limit its presence in our lives. I too feel myself getting distracted easily by the internet and social media and sometimes find myself unable to remove myself. I think it is important that we recognize the advantages and disadvantages of social media in our society.

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