This week topic was social media. I think I might be a little biased when it comes to this as I believe that even though the platforms can be utilized positively, social media has become a problem that effects more than half of the worlds population. Like mentioned before, I understand that the platforms can be used to do positive things and connect people around the world. I want to believe that the intentions of each of these websites, facebook, twitter, instagram, snapchat etc., was meant to be used in a productive and interconnected way as each platform has amazing opportunity to advance how we connect with each other. I believe the freedom people have in social media is the problem; when there are no restrictions on what can be posted or viewed online, there are endless possibilities for inappropriate and negative content on these websites. I know people have their right to free speech and thought, but when there is a 7 year old online reading about, for example, how the earth is flat and that modern scientific discoveries are false, they are being conditioned to believing everything they read online. I know I mentioned a belief that is in a sense is quite ridiculous but the reality is that children are very impressionable. There was a movie that came out on Netflix not too long ago called ‘The Social Dilemma” that I found quite interesting and kind of sent me into a rabbit hole. I know that this documentary might be a little biased against social media but it was interesting to see how creators of certain social media platforms were completely against the idea of allowing their children to use them until they were old enough. The concept of social media itself is very useful (I come from a different country so I use social media to stay in touch with my family and friends over seas), lots of ways it could be used in positive ways but for this to happen, people need to be educated on how to use these platforms properly and also restrictions should be implemented, whether it’s age restrictions or the type of content allowed to be posted.
Here is the trailer to this movie. Let’s think about what we put out into the internet before we do.