English B50

1. English B50 How is Social Media Affecting our Relationship with the World Around Us?

2. Your Experiences • Think about the different types of social media you interact with on a daily basis. Take a few minutes to jot down all of the social media sites you participate on. • What are some of the social media outlets you use? • Now think about the amount of time you spend on social media as a whole. How much time do you devote to it each day? • Finally, think about when and how you use social media. • When are you most likely to log on? • What do you use it for? What are you likely to post and/or read about?

3. The Myths of Multitasking • If you regularly partake in multiple activities at a time, you are not alone. • The trend of multitasking has been popular for some time now. In an effort to be more productive, we attempt to take on more than one task at a time. • In reality, when our attention is divided, we typically perform worse on all activities than if we gave each our undivided attention. • Similarly, we tend to become LESS rather than more efficient—the distractions make each activity take longer than it would if we were focused on one at a time.

4. Attention Span • How many of you have difficulty focusing on anything lengthy—a long movie or book—without finding yourself drawn to the distraction of social media? • Some researchers argue that our attention spans have been decreasing over time due to the overwhelming amount of sensory input we are exposed to daily. • Single tasks are no longer able to hold our attention, and we often feel anxious without multiple distractions. • Some even argue that we are addicted to social media—despite it’s negative consequences, we continue to seek it out.

5. Not so “Social” Media • Ironically, social media is supposed to provide an avenue for people to interact with each other. • What are some of the ways you use social media to interact with others? • In what ways do you imagine social media might actually cause strain in people’s relationships? • Inattention due to multitasking makes family and friends who are physically present feel slighted. • Feeling stretched too thin can cause you to interact seldom with any one person, neglecting true friendships. • Is our social media presence a true reflection of ourselves? Or are we connecting via an idealized persona? • The anonymity of the internet makes us cruel, more so than we would be in face to face interactions. • Our social media interactions are shallow and driven by our need to be in control—of our time, of how others see us, etc. • We cannot read non-verbal cues such as body language and thus increase the likelihood of misunderstandings.

6. Points to Consider • When reading the articles in this unit, consider the ways in which social media may potentially cause harm—to our self esteem, to our relationships with others, to our intellect. • Consider ways in which these problems can be combated. Is abstention from social media the only way to improve the situation? What other solutions can you come up with?