Social Media

Social Media, forms of electronic communication through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content, replaced the interaction between people during socialization. For over a decade, the growth of technology has caused huge growth in social media. However the result may not always create positive changes in people’s lives.

 In recent years, debates sprung up about whether mass media is beneficial or not. Writers such as Steven Pinker and Peggy Orenstein, authors of “Mind Over Mass Media,” and “I Tweet, Therefore I am,” respectively. In Pinker’s essay, he claims that we should not place blame on electronic devices for making us dumb but rather, they are the “only thing keeping us smart.” Pinker supports this claim by explaining how scientists are often found with an electronic device nearby and this aided the scientific communities to flourish and led discoveries multiple like “fruit flies.” Technology also benefits philosophers and other various schools of thought. Technology provides us with an abyss of knowledge that is accessible with the touch of a finger and we carry this vast amount of knowledge with us on a daily basis, thus, keeping us smart.

On a different note, Orenstein claims in her essay that social medias (ie. Facebook, twitter, instagram) are encouraging us to hide behind a façade of ourselves. Due to social medias, it is difficult to create a true identity since people can easily manipulate the information they make public and in doing so, deceive themselves and others around them. They are able to create a fake, ideal self yet they neglect their true self.