Media Law & Literacy - Final Post

 Ryan Smith

Technology in Today's Time

If someone were to ask me "Do you think your relationship with technology is healthy?", I would say yes. If we are judging the question by how I am right now, I would say my relationship with technology is healthy (although using that word in this sentence does seem a bit weird since I've never used it in that way before). I have absolutely no social media, and I only use technology for school, work, or hobbies which can factor into work like using the Adobe suite of products for video editing and graphic design. Overall, I think the technology we have is a net positive, but I think social media is a net negative, let me explain. The fact that you have a camera, internet browser, compass, navigation system, music player, and phone all inside your smartphone is unbelievable. Also the fact that you no-longer have to travel to a library and possibly spend money to rent out or buy material in order to find information is amazing. The convenience that comes with this accessibility of information is insane, but with that ease of information comes the drawback of the fact that anyone in the world can publish information. This may seem harsh to say, but not everyone should post information on the internet. The accessibility that we have today leads to unreliable information and fake news that people will take as fact. Now this isn't to say that there should be a monopoly on information by anyone, that would be ridiculous, but I feel that the integrity of information has gone down since technology has evolved, but that may just be me. Social media is just awful. With the exception of LinkedIn which has an actual purpose in connecting adults for occupational purposes, social media has transformed from a harmless way to connect with your friends and meet other people, to an extremely unhealthy way to take up your time and take advantage of younger generation's mental health and impressionability. Snapchat gives the illusion that everything is temporary so you can post sensitive content because "snaps go away", and incites addiction with the streak system that forces you to log on and snap every day to keep your streaks. Instagram creates unrealistic expectations of what someone should look like and causes people to measure their self-worth with their follower count or hearts next to their pictures. Twitter is the home of echo chambers and de-platforming, with someone's life being ruined once every week, because you have to be perfect and if you've ever made a single mistake in your life, you're a goner. The technology we have today is incredible, but the fact that it's being used in this way is really sad. I want to reiterate that I don't think the technology we have today is a bad thing at all. In fact, the amount of technology we have that can't use social media extremely outweighs the amount that can. We have cars, stoves and ovens, refrigerators, washers and dryers, ATM's, and so much more. I think we would be much worse off if we didn't have what we have today than if we did, but I'm being completely honest, I think we would be much better off if we didn't have modern social media than how it is today. Social media may have been better in earlier years, but nowadays I think they've made a turn for the worse and are actively harmful to us today.

Sources:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0747563214007626

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0306460316301095

https://www.fastcompany.com/90315706/kids-parents-social-media-sharing

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