MSTU 4020: In response to article critique video questions
Question: "Do you feel like the researchers over-simplified the addiction to social media since FoMO seems quite singular?"
First, thanks to Danica's well-phrased question!
Social media has become an inseparable element in every part of human life. From 2010 to 2020, the vast majority has created virtual profiles across multiple social media platforms. While the adults will have an easier time noticing the negative impact of social media and grasp the control of such technologies, the new generation of teenagers are and will keep facing numerous challenges social media creates.
The most addictive platform for teenagers included YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, and we have more on the way at the same time. Researchers have noted that teenagers experience the fear of missing out (FoMO) and emotional symptoms that may be associated with other social media users and social media addiction.
FoMO is perhaps a long-lasting and major concern for a lot of psychologists and professionals in education. In higher education, even when students were trying to acquire academic materials through YouTube, distraction existed. For instance, if a student tried to search the principles of HCI design, advertisements would pop up before and after the video clips. On the other hand, people often checked whether their peers liked their recent posts to confirm their connections in the real world through these types of virtual communication.
However, we should not solely focus on FoMO and other relative emotional dilemmas teenagers had been facing on social media. I believe that technology per se is a neutral subject. For example, Facebook "like" button was designed to bring people joy and laughter. The same thing happened to Instagram. Psychologists often referred to Instagram as the "reverse Facebook," overly-photoshopped images with captions.
On the other hand, I also believe it is too soon to draw conclusions from other resources. For instance, platforms like LinkedIn, Canvas, and GitHub seemed to be providing pure and professional support towards their users. Nevertheless, limiting the user's comment ability might damage the communication aspect.
Social media and its impact on people's mental well-being is a new field in psychology. And we have only been observing its effect for less than a decade. Further research on the business models, cultural background, and age groups are needed.
Hi Tiger,
ReplyDeleteYou bring up some very interesting points about the addiction to social media, especially the point about it being more noticeable to adults than teenagers. I personally have had some friends who have deleted their social media accounts since the pandemic as they feel its draining too much of their time and in some cases even making them depressed.
What do you think adults can do in their own lives to reduce the negative affects of social media platform addiction? Do you think we need to delete the apps from our phones? Would some sort of focused viewing mode potentially be helpful?
Hi Tiger,
ReplyDeleteYou bring up some very interesting points about the addiction to social media, especially the point about it being more noticeable to adults than teenagers. I personally have had some friends who have deleted their social media accounts since the pandemic as they feel its draining too much of their time and in some cases even making them depressed.
What do you think adults can do in their own lives to reduce the negative affects of social media platform addiction? Do you think we need to delete the apps from our phones? Would some sort of focused viewing mode potentially be helpful?
Hi Tiger:
ReplyDeleteReally interesting post! When you talk about how different platforms potentially impact users in different ways, I can relate. I’m not a heavy “classic” social media user – i.e. those platforms that exist at a foundational level to let you share your social life with your friends or followers. I prefer to share those levels of details with a smaller group “offline” – through direct chats and groups on WhatsApp/Messenger/text. However, I’m much more active and engaged in platforms that relate to my professional life, networking, and hobbies/interests. I try to engage in social media use that helps me grow in some way or has a productive end, not just to socialize.
To that end, do you think there are ways the most popular social media platforms (i.e. Facebook/IG/Snapchat/TikTok) can build in features that make using them more productive, goal-oriented, and maybe even educational for their users?
This is an interesting question. As highlighted by the question, FoMO is a singular and nuanced experience as all people who utilize social media may not experience FoMO as a symptom of social media use and addiction.
ReplyDeleteI resonate with your perspective that “technology” is a neutral subject. An example that I would add is that of YouTube which designs the auto and personalized recommendations features to support the viewer’s watch experience. The company’s website https://creatoracademy.youtube.com/page/lesson/discovery?cid=get-discovered&hl=en#strategies-zippy-link-3) the describes the “Suggested Videos” functions as:
“Suggested Videos are a personalized collection of videos that an individual viewer may be interested in watching next, based on prior activity. Studies of YouTube consumption have shown that viewers tend to watch a lot more when they get recommendations from a variety of channels, and suggested videos do just that.”
In this case, the company’s goal is to simply support the viewers watch experience and suggest video content that is relevant to the viewers interests and needs at a given time. The ultimate goal is not to cause addiction, but addition can sometimes become an unintended consequence of such features.
Hi Tiger,
ReplyDelete“FoMO” is a problem that has troubled me for a long time period. From my personal perspective, I have been tried many attempts to get rid of the control of social media such as deliberately choosing my followings, or setting time limits for my Apps. Unfortunately, none of them works. From the business perspective, I totally understand the way that those social media platforms have been designed, they need to show as much as information to keep the users staying longer on their page and increase interaction with users as much as possible to generate more profit. On the other hand, people (not sure about everyone, but myself at least) are both addicted and sicked about those platforms. Sometimes they browser those platforms just because they do not want to do anything else. This is a very sarcastic fact, isn’t it? But from my perspective, if there were not the existence of social media platforms, people will still be addicted and sick of other things, too, right? They just need to find something to kill the time and this tedious life.