We’ve Been Sneaking into Your Brain by: Max Stossel & Before the Internet by: Emma Rathbone
By watching this speech and reading the article, I learned a lot about social media and how we are starting to be controlled by it. Every social media site wants our attention and they want it to last for as long as it can. By having notifications, these social media sites know that they can trap us and before we know it, an hour as gone by. Before the internet, companies couldn’t advertise to younger people and now the can. The internet has added some complications to the world, but it has also allowed us to grow and learn new things.
After listening to Max Stossel’s talk and reading Emma Rathbone’s article, I realize just how much social media plays people and how we all pay attention to each other’s lives. Social media influences my daily life in many ways. Growing up, I learned a lot about myself, since my parents didn’t allow us kids to use the computer too much. I had to be creative, coloring playing with toys and learning about the world were all things that I did, just like Emma talks in her article. I did write letters to people in order to stay in touch with them and I do agree with Emma, this was a simpler and easier time. I didn’t get my first iPod touch until I was thirteen and I didn’t get my first phone until I was almost sixteen. Learning about who I am and who I want to be came from my family and friends, not the media. However, as I got older the more, I do realize that I look at social media. Today, I know that social media affects more of my life then I would like it to. My fiancé and I will be talking to each other and looking at our phones, we are usually both on some type of social media, whether it be Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or something else. Social media is a time filler for me, looking at it is a way to take up time and maybe have a laugh or two. I know I compare things with what other people are doing or making, such as vacations or food. However, I know that comparing your life to someone else’s is not smart, so I try not to. Which is why I try not to get on my social media accounts too often.
Internet Constantly available:
Having Internet constantly available affects my life in positive ways and negative ways. If I don’t have the answer to something that my mom asks me, I will usually look it up. This has saved time because we aren’t going to a book or map to figure out where we are and where we need to be or what hours a certain store is opened. However, I think having the internet at the tip of our fingers if very dangerous, as people are becoming addicted to their phones, social media accounts, and having the Internet whenever they want. Knowing what I do, I will start looking up one thing and then get distracted by something else and then end up spending an hour on my phone without even meaning to. This is why having internet at the tip of our fingers is dangerous, it can lead us down the rabbit hole. Â
No Internet for an Extended amount of time:
Max Stossel’s talk mentioned that 50% of teens say that they are addicted to their mobile devices and I can believe it. If something would happen to my phone, I would be lost, my phone has a lot of information about me and others on it. It has my social media accounts, email accounts, and it has all of my contacts in it. Not having that constant connection is very hard just like it’s hard not to have internet. First off, I should say that I need the internet to do my internship at Auto-Owners, so not having internet for a long period of time means I can’t work. Other than that, not having internet is annoying and I get bored. I will usually watch Netflix, Hulu, or stream tv at night with my fiancĂ©, so when we lose internet or don’t have it for a while, we both get bored and we want to find something to do. The only time that I don’t have internet is when the power goes out, and its only for a couple of hours so I usually can just wait it out. However, sometimes my fiancĂ© and I get really board and we end up finding a board game, card game, or even sometimes cleaning. However, I have learned that not having internet is not a bad thing, sometimes you need a brake and having the power go out for a couple of hours to let yourself unplug is the best thing.Â
One thing that I would really like to be more intentional about is how much I use my social media accounts. Even though I feel like I don’t use them that much, I know I actually use them more then I think I do. I also want to learn how to become less dependent on the internet and my phone. Like I said, I use my phone for everything, and that’s not always the best thing to do. I also want to get my screen time down to 3 hours per day for my phone, which does seems like a lot still, but having a high screen time is hard for me because I usually like to have something playing the in the background when I’m falling asleep. So, stopping that habit and learning how to sleep in my quite room is one thing I should do. I should also limit the amount of time that I text, I feel like I’m texting quite a bit and it’s to [people that I can see in person and if fact its people that I see on a daily basis. If I could just want until I see them later on that day, instead of texting them, I could save a lot of screen time. I’m not really a fan of just watching tv, I like to have it on for the noise again but most of the time I’m not actually watching it.
In conclusion, we all need to be more intentional about what we spend our time on, whether it is the internet, social media, or whatever else it might be. Life is simpler without internet but it’s hard to live without it. Even companies today really watch job candidates and will look up social media accounts before hiring. Every student and person looking for a job must be careful of what they post on their media sites, no matter what site it is.
