Screen Time Reclaiming the Power

[Music]

hi

my name is kennedy and just like any

other 20 year old in the middle of a

global pandemic

i spend an incredible amount of time on

my phone do you ever get those reports

on your phone that show you how many

hours on average you spend in a week

these reports also include the breakdown

by day which apps you used

and even how many times you picked up

your phone without unlocking it

how many of these hours have you had to

guess do you think you spend researching

and understanding things that you were

curious about

comparing to the amount of time we just

spent absorbing the information and

media that’s put in front of us

i know that i personally spend a lot of

time just reposting and liking things

without ever considering how much more

information i’m putting back onto the

internet

i mean that’s what social media is for

these days isn’t it

a way to escape and enjoy other people’s

lives but also to learn and be exposed

to new things

social media is so powerful in that it

connects us to so many people around the

world

and ideas from all over with different

perspectives it

exposes us to concepts and gives us the

ability to empathize in ways that the

generations before us

never could there’s so much power in

social media and with that power comes a

lot of responsibility

to ourselves and to our peers to make

sure that we’re using it correctly

what is social media well the first

network was launched in 1997

and was called six degrees this name is

based on the six degrees of separation

theory that states that every single

person in the world is connected by no

more than six degrees of separation

initially the idea of the network was

all about connecting friends

eventually this website gained 3.5

million users before being bought out

in the fourth year after six degrees

came friendster which led to linkedin

which led to myspace and eventually led

to facebook

all these names are familiar to us but

before facebook they had the tendency to

replace one another rather than coexist

facebook really changed the game because

after that everything seemed to

skyrocket

more apps more accounts more people

connecting with other people from all

over the world

today most people and our generation

specifically

have more than one social media where

their circle of influence is not only

vast

but largely overlapping between each

platform how do these people find one

another

besides adding your friends and the

friends of your friends the algorithm

looks at

every minute detail in the way that we

interact with our devices so that can

cater to us best and keep us coming back

for more

the algorithm through the way that it’s

built categorizes us in ways we don’t

even notice

which leads to us discovering new things

and things that are related to the

things that we like

for instance because my friend sent me a

picture of a frog drawing

that i and i liked the picture the

algorithm will now show me more pictures

of both the specific artists work

as well more frog pictures to really

hone in on what my interest was the

aspect of the post whether it was the

artist themselves

or the frog whichever one gets more

attention will be cultivated more and

more throughout my feed

this seems elementary but the algorithm

takes into account how long we’re

looking at a post

what our actions are right after we see

the post and especially what our actions

are with the post itself

well what’s the issue since we live in

such an awesome world where we’re able

to voice our opinions

to such a wide audience inherently

opinions will clash

clash means discourse and discourse is

the opposite of what the algorithm wants

because it’ll turn users away

in order to keep users interacting with

the media they separate these differing

opinions from one another

the farther one opinion is from another

the more polarizes the topic gets

essentially our platforms become

polarized in ways that we don’t even

realize

due to the fact that about everything we

interact with these days

is political and comes with some type of

bias attached to it

there’s more information for the

algorithm to analyze and separate us by

this isn’t a bad thing until our social

media becomes echo chambers instead of

what they’re really

meant to do which is connect us with

people from all over

even those that don’t agree with us this

means that if we’re not conscious about

the information that we’re taking in

and really researching the new ideas and

concepts that we’re being introduced to

as well as actively seeking opinions

outside of our own

then we’re inevitably being brainwashed

into thinking one way

due to the fact that we can post

virtually anything we want within reason

some of these opinions can be false or

inflated so they get more attention

this eventually leads to an incredibly

limited and high-minded group of people

that exist in a constant circle of their

own influence

and like i said before these circles are

no longer constrained to one app

because we have such an availability to

so many

well what can we do we can be mindful

and inquisitive people that go beyond

social media to build our opinions and

stances on issues that matter and

deserve a well-rounded knowledge

sure use these incredible tools to your

advantage by connecting with creators

and

activists that you may have never been

exposed to before but also

dive into what you may perceive to not

be your opinion understand what it is

that you disagree with

so that you’re an informed person that

can share information on their platform

with

the knowledge to back it up get to know

what you’re interested in and wish to

share on your platform because it’s

worth it

to not spread information or opinions

that are based in nothing

now more than ever we have a

responsibility to be aware of the

content we’re sharing

consuming and using to fuel our minds

let’s make sure that we’re not the

generation whose minds opinions and ways

we interact with one another

are so incredibly polarized because it’s

what the mysterious algorithm told us to

do

essentially we’re all influencers there

are people looking at everything we post

and it’s worth it to have

engaging and informative content as well

as brunch with your besties

so many of us have the extreme privilege

to exist on these platforms

so why not use that to our advantage and

learn about the things that are not only

please our aesthetic eye

but also feed our inquisitive minds with

the power comes responsibility and we

have so much of it

we are the change makers and leaders of

today and tomorrow

and i mean look at all the incredible

things our generation is doing

every single day we owe it to ourselves

to not be mindless robots that consume

and regurgitate every bit of information

we see

be informed be curious and be excited to

spark conversations between yourself

and your peers on the topics that you

care about uses time that we can

we can’t connect with one another in the

ways that we used to be able to

to your advantage clout and trend

following are cool but sometimes

being someone who is consistently

providing information that is beneficial

to everyone

is even cooler that’s it thank you

you