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