The Social Dilemma: How We’ve Become Products of Social Media
I’ve never been one to care much about the impact social media has on myself, simply because I always believed that I had control over what I saw, but watching the documentary, The Social Dilemma, a Netflix Original that was released in 2020, was very eye-opening in the way that it demonstrated the bigger picture of the influence of social media on society as a whole, rather than looking at things from my a microscopic perspective like I had been doing so since my first Twitter account.
What I resonated most with the film is overall how much time I spent on social media. For the most part, I like to believe that I’ve always been good at not spending too much time on it when I’m working or doing school assignments, but I do have the horrible habit of checking it to take a small “break,” realizing there’s nothing new and that nothing has changed since I last checked, and then going back to doing my work. Like the kids depicted in the backstory of the documentary, I also have the habit of staying up late just scrolling on my phone and being sucked by the YouTube whirlpool until I fall asleep.
One thing that is important to note is that not everything on social media is what it seems. Luckily, as an adult, I am aware of this when scrolling through Instagram pictures on my feed. I do believe a lot of things such as relationships and one’s image is often glamorized online and that nothing is perfect. If I were to see these “perfect” lives be depicted on social media as a young teenager, it scares me to say that I know for a fact I’d constantly be comparing and wishing I’d be those individuals that portray these “perfect” lives. However, photoshop and photo altering have become so common, that one begins to question what even is the reality and what has been altered.
It is definitely clear to see that due to the fact that these huge media companies have been profiting so much off of users, making a change to help individuals not rely on social media as much as they do now is so unlikely to happen. For this reason, I believe it is up to the individuals themselves to focus on developing a healthy relationship with technology, specifically with social media. A key to developing healthy relationships with technology would simply be creating healthier habits when it comes to usage. A feature I like on the iPhone is the tracking of screen time because it allows me to look in detail how long I’ve been on my phone and what apps I’ve using during that time. Sometimes I’ve even had a competition with myself to see if I can get my screen time to be lower than what it was the week before. Another healthy habit I’ve acquired was turning off my social media push notifications so that they don’t pop up and tempt me if I’m not on my phone at all. If I choose to open those apps on my own, it’s because I went out of my way to do so, not because I received a notification saying that my friend just sent me a meme on Instagram.
Same way we’ve created a habit for checking our phones every morning, we can begin creating healthy habits that help us build a healthier relationship with social media apps. The Social Dilemma did a great job at seeing the bigger picture and highlighting how unhealthy relationships with social media now can affect future generations.
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