Tag Archives: bad

How Social Media Affects the User

@MyDtcAccount – Jonathan Crabtree

Just like everything in this world, social media can be very advantageous in small amounts, or very dangerous in large amounts. Coleman states that “media use changes the user. With each shift in automation, simulation, and transmission, we discover not only new technologies, but also new facets of ourselves” (page 49 within the text). However, I would argue that, while her statement is true, it doesn’t touch on the whole picture. Social media, with each change, has brought with it an ability to bring surprising facts about ourselves to the surface, but it has also suppressed other truths about ourselves from being discovered. For example, if someone is constantly interacting with others on Facebook instead of in real life, how are they to know and develop the social skills necessary to survive in the work force? If someone becomes so engaged in reading 140-character-or-less tweets that they decide to stop reading books, how then are they expected to maintain an attention span long enough for them to sit down in a classroom or a meeting and be able to learn for an extended lecture/presentation? Social media certainly has the ability to change the user for the better, and it does in some people. I do not believe that social media is inherently evil or anything of the sort. What I do believe is that most people abuse the power that they have to be constantly connected, and it is going to hurt them in the long run. Although it sounds corny in this setting, as technology evolves, I think it is going to be important to remember that “with great power comes great responsibility.”