Social media - lifeline or lost cause?
Mar 23, 2022 13:25:13 GMT
Post by Piltover on Mar 23, 2022 13:25:13 GMT
Hey everyone,
Today I thought it would be interesting to talk about social media and how we interact with it and how it makes us feel. I've recently removed a bunch of apps from my own phone after realising that prolonged contact with Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and the like were affecting my own mental health. I've not removed myself from those spheres entirely, but I can only check them via my computer and only do it a couple of times a day.
There's a lot of contradictory evidence out there and studies which seem to suggest that socials can benefit or degrade our mental health. Take this one for example:www.news-medical.net/news/20200723/Frequent-social-media-use-can-impact-mental-health-of-LGBTQ-youth.aspx
I also remember watching this interesting interview with Jaron Lanier, the Silicone Valley ‘computer philosopher' a few years ago who raised some quite disturbing points about how the way in which social media is currently structured might be affecting our behaviour:
That said, there are lots of communities who find the ability to connect online of great comfort, especially for minority communities like ourselves. Maybe we talked with the first other people like us via social media. Maybe we encountered our first queer icons and idols that way that gave us hope and comfort.
I'd like to know how you feel about it. How do you manage your social use, if at all? Have you had any great experiences or was there a time when you decided to take yourself a little further off the grid?
Today I thought it would be interesting to talk about social media and how we interact with it and how it makes us feel. I've recently removed a bunch of apps from my own phone after realising that prolonged contact with Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and the like were affecting my own mental health. I've not removed myself from those spheres entirely, but I can only check them via my computer and only do it a couple of times a day.
There's a lot of contradictory evidence out there and studies which seem to suggest that socials can benefit or degrade our mental health. Take this one for example:www.news-medical.net/news/20200723/Frequent-social-media-use-can-impact-mental-health-of-LGBTQ-youth.aspx
"Traci Gillig, an assistant professor in the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University, found that when LGBTQ adolescents attended a social media-free summer camp, they experienced a reduction in depressive symptoms, as outlined in her 2020 research "Longitudinal analysis of depressive symptoms among LGBTQ youth at a social media-free camp"."
I also remember watching this interesting interview with Jaron Lanier, the Silicone Valley ‘computer philosopher' a few years ago who raised some quite disturbing points about how the way in which social media is currently structured might be affecting our behaviour:
That said, there are lots of communities who find the ability to connect online of great comfort, especially for minority communities like ourselves. Maybe we talked with the first other people like us via social media. Maybe we encountered our first queer icons and idols that way that gave us hope and comfort.
I'd like to know how you feel about it. How do you manage your social use, if at all? Have you had any great experiences or was there a time when you decided to take yourself a little further off the grid?