Social Media is No Longer Connecting Essay Example

The year is 2022, and the world is evolving at a rapid pace. Every second humans are finding new facts or creating new products that help advance the human kind. An advancement that once revolutionized the world, and still does, is technology. The creation of the internet and social media opened a major door for humans on a variety of levels. It started off small with making communication easier, and soon turned into a vital part of life most cannot live without. Technology weaved its way through this world, not only for assistance, but as a lifestyle as well. It has appeared in transportation, homes, and medical devices; the list could go on forever. With all the benefits technology has given us, we tend to forget that it too has downsides; this may be because of the way it has evolved. Like mentioned earlier, technology quickly shifted from a form of assistance to a lifestyle. Users live through their phones and computers so much so that technology knows them inside and out. Have you ever noticed how much more addicting your phone has gotten in the past decade? If you answered yes, it is because our phones display what we want to see based on the data they collect from our habits; keeping our eyes locked to the screens. Although technology has its benefits, this advancement is starting to become the opposite of good given that it has the ability to block certain information from everyone’s personalized feeds. This control has the ability to create deeply divided arguments that will tear apart the population. 

Every human preaches and believes only what they know; therefore, having no knowledge of something cannot affect what they believe. Critical thinking is a process that thoroughly runs through everyone’s brains. Defined differently for everyone, we are going to look at the process as a deep evaluation and analysis of different situations before acting upon something. In Maria Konnikova’s book Mastermind, she emphasizes how critical thinking is different for everyone based on their “brain attic”. In her description, one's brain attic is a storage place for anything a person has found important in their life. While making herself clear, she states “we have to choose wisely” when it comes to what we store in our attics (Konnikova 64). This is because whatever is placed inside changes the atmosphere. Similar to a real life room, however it is decorated will change how you feel and what you do when you walk into that said room. Translating over to our thought patterns; whatever you have chosen to store in your brain attic will affect how you approach life. Everyone grows up differently and will act as they were taught. With unfortunately only being able to have a limited amount of storage, humans are not able to act in ways they were not exposed to. To reiterate, we know only what we know and nothing more. This ideology never used to hurt us until technology surfaced.

Luckily enough, the human mind has kept up with technology just enough in order to recognize the dangers it threatens us with. In Jeff Orlowski’s recent documentary, The Social Dilemma, ex-technology workers go into great depth about the unseen actions going on behind the screen. They are directly related to why social media becomes seemingly more addicting every day. Throughout the documentary, it is emphasized that everything you do is tracked: how long you look at a picture, what you talk about, what you like or do not like. All of this data is stored over time, compiling into a virtual person, otherwise known as you. The data is used to create your feed. By learning how your brain works, technology knows what to put next on your feed to keep you scrolling. Not only does it take us away from the real world, it alters how we see it. With the amount of information online today, not everything gets filtered from our eyes. Fake news is something we see everyday, and with the power social media has reigned on humans, it is also something we start to believe. In short, what technology has planned for our eyes is what gets put into our brain attics. What we see on social media is starting to take control of how we think and furthermore act. Social media’s strong grip on humans is starting to tear apart the population. It is almost as if social media is starting to control the world; slowly picking people to believe in certain things, pick specific sides, and act in certain ways. 

The phrase: don’t believe it until you see it, has become a major factor in the division of humans. We are living in a post-truth era, meaning everyone grasps on to what they know even when presented with countering information; humans are staying loyal to what is in their brain attics. In Lee McIntyre’s book, Post-Truth, he touched on this idea when he stated, “at some point scientists must admit that even their strongest explanations cannot be offered as truth” (McIntyre 19). Sounding a bit extreme at first, the claim is made more clear with his context. When theories are created, they go through an extensive amount of testing in order to be proven. All the available data and evidence are collected in order to find enough footing to prove whether or not a theory is true. One important point McIntyre made revolves around the future. Whatever the future holds is unknown until it actually happens. Therefore, there are many chances that the future holds certain pieces of evidence that will eventually shut down a theory. Taking in this information brought me back to my high school psychology class where we learned about correlations. Correlations illustrate the relationship between two variables; they are unable to prove a cause. Relating this to McIntyre’s statement, all theories are based on correlations; with the future being forever untold, everything is a correlation until proven otherwise. 

This idea relates right back to our brain attics and the dangers social media have imposed on our actions. Humans are stubborn; whatever we see on social media translates into what we believe. Since the media has control over what we see, each person usually only sees one side of the story. This specific side circulates so much that even seeing one counter argument will not change what they have chosen to store in their brain attics. This process can be seen through the modern day debate about climate change. Some either believe it is real while others do not. The divide between the two sides has grown concerningly deep due the media. Users tend to forget that they do not control what they see. Technology is able to sway beliefs based on actions. People could believe something and never know that it was proven false due to the media controlling who sees what. 

In the final analysis, extra caution should be used when it comes to social media. Converting itself from an assistant into a lifestyle, social media has an overwhelmingly strong hold on the beliefs and actions of every technology user. Already presenting itself in some modern day global issues, the presence will become stronger as time goes on. Technology will continue to advance, allowing it to become more powerful. The world is in danger of facing potential wars, protests, violence, and more as a result of the deep divides social media has been imposing, and will continue to impose, on our population.