By Kendal Bazerman
Talon Staff
“They’re gone. I’ve just deleted Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok from my phone.” I wrote these words in my paper journal on November 15 at 9:39 p.m. as I embarked on a weeklong project for one of my most interesting classes last semester, Media and Cultural Studies.
Unlike other projects that entail basic research and either a paper or presentation, this one took a more personal approach. The goal at hand? To analyze the impact of social media on our lives.
The measure I chose to take was to remove all of my social media apps from my phone.
Prior to the project, we spent class time watching documentaries, TEDTalks, and reading articles on how social media impacts and manipulates its users. Some of the main topics of discussion were how vulnerable teen brains are to social media: It’s literally designed to be addictive and to steal our data in order to filter the content we see.
“It is important to consider the potential of any tool—which social media ultimately is—to help foster human advancement and connection,” English teacher Mrs. Elizabeth Harris who teaches the elective course at Barrington High School, “or, if misused, diminish or destroy it. Social media includes elements of entertainment, social access, graphics, the ability to edit or promote one's image, and a dopamine feed that make it irresistible to young people who have naturally not yet fully formed their identities, and therefore, should not have unlimited access to it.”
In assigning this project, Mrs. Harris said she hoped students would examine how the effects and statistical mental health correlations to social media usage become more relevant to their own lives.
Sophomore Gracie Deschenes, who also participated in the project, turned most of her notifications off and has kept it that way since. She defended the choice with a presentation on Phantom Vibration Syndrome, which is the phenomenon that people will almost hallucinate their phones going off because they use them so much.
“Making the decision to turn off my notifications has positively impacted my mental health, my relationships, and lowered my screen time greatly,” Deschenes explained. “Although social media is highly addictive, when used in moderation it can be a tool to form connections and opportunities.”
I’ve only been on social media for a few years, but it’s become evident what it has done to me. My attention span and ability to focus have really decreased. (I could blame that on virtual learning, but I see the connection being much more to social media.)
Going without it for a week certainly made me more productive, but I still felt the pull of the apps, even though they were not there.
But what I noticed most was the struggle I had going without external stimulation.
“Social media has really become a distraction,” I wrote in my journal. “From school, from activities, and most importantly, from my own thoughts.”
It was almost scary to see how heavily I had subconsciously started relying on these platforms as an escape from my mind, and that’s what I really took away from this project. Yet, after presenting my findings and sharing out strategies to improve these behaviors with my peers, I found myself downloading those same apps and beginning the vicious, harmful cycle once more.
This is not to say there are no benefits to social media. In a time where human interaction must be limited, many have turned to these virtual platforms as a means of connecting with others. Crucial information is communicated online—in fact, newly appointed BHS Social Media Interns will be launching various accounts shortly to share school news to the wider community—and those not on these platforms are bound to feel a very legitimate sense of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out).
As Mrs. Harris explained, social media is a tool, first and foremost. What is important to figure out is the tipping point: when does the tool become harmful and the bad outweigh the good?
This project was enlightening, and truly, there is no perfect answer. A participant in the documentary Childhood 2.0 explains that if everyone got off social media, the world would be a better place.
Still, it is incredibly unlikely this will happen in the near future. So in the meantime, take the time like I did and consider your own usage. Find the root of your scrolling, and see if you can discover your own tipping point.
Your opinion on social media might just change.
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