Dina Bengelsdorf Week 5 - How Society is Going Downhill, Thanks to Social Media

 How Society is Going Downhill, Thanks to Social Media

Throughout the past few weeks, my TikTok for-you page has been filled with 3 minute film clips broken into parts from TV shows such as Family Guy or Desperate Housewives. I have never watched these shows before, nor do I understand the context, but I find myself compelled by the clips and usually end up going to the account to watch the remainder of the episode. Yet, as I was watching the other day, I understood that the contents of the video were quite irrelevant and I know that I’d never watch it if it didn’t appear on TikTok. I feel that I’m losing parts of my brain as I stare at the screen for so long, and I’m beginning to understand why I wasn’t supposed to watch Spongebob as a child. It is undoubtedly a waste of time, and time is something that all of us need to take advantage of. I start by watching 15-second videos and end up watching 20 minutes worth of an episode even though my intent was to scroll for a couple minutes before I return to my studies. Thankfully I realized this, because I’m much more conscious of its uselessness and usually skip over the videos so as not to waste my precious time.

Now that I am reflecting, I understand now more than ever that we as a society are becoming less intelligent as time goes on. Our whole lives revolve around social media, and it’s very scary when you see how it affects you in real time. We sit mindlessly watching our phones and don’t gain any knowledge at all whatsoever. As a matter of fact, we are compressing our vocabulary because most people (including myself now) hardly read books and gain most of our word usage from social media and the internet. I’ve noticed that recently I look forward to not using my phone, because I am always looking at a screen. My computer is always open to take notes during class and is used to complete my homework. So now I appreciate my outlets, such as sports and the gym, where I can actually put my phone down and take in life around me. I don’t even watch TV anymore, not just because Netflix has a terrible selection of shows but because I just want to get away from my screen. I find it scary that many people have not looked at the world from the same lens that I have, but I hope that as time goes on that will change rather than get worse.