Social media is great, social media is fun, but what are the long term effects going to be on society?
Is it ruining our minds?
Scientists are researching how social media impacts cognitive functions and development, like multitasking skills, our ability (or inability) to focus, how our brains are getting rewired, to name a few. All of which appear to be drastically affected by social media participation.
Check this out:
[Editor’s Note: There is an error in this infographic. The average attention span is 5 minutes, not 5 seconds (source). It’s been found to take 6 minutes to proof read an infographic of this size, so it stands to reason why such an error was made.]
If social media is ruining our minds because it is re-wiring us to have shorter attention spans, you have successfully contributed to the effect by “reading” an infographic.
How ironic.
😛
[via AssistedLivingToday]
Jonathan Simmons says
Fantastic piece! Another impact of social media on today’s American society is our transition away from high-context communication to low-context communication. Knowledge becomes about transference vs. incorporation. Thinking becomes inductive rather than deductive. Social media forces us to stretch our personal identity beyond our own recognition.
Eric Dye says
Very true.
Our communication spectrum is narrowing as we use our hashtags and abbreviations. The ability to comprehend BIG ideas becomes more difficult.
blessing mpofu says
A wake up call! This implies social media is negatively affecting us…the queation then would be: how do we manage social media in a healthy way?
Eric Dye says
Balance and don’t over consume.
Pastor Ian says
Sorry, I couldn’t get through this article. I had to check my email, Facebook, and Twitter accounts.
Seriously, I see this in our young adults frequently. They operate in snippets and have difficulty focusing for even short periods of time. Many people are tired more often than not and it can easily be attributed to time spent online.
Social media is here to stay, but like many things in life, the proper approach should be balance. At our church, we have a high involvement with young adults. We use social media to stay connected and informed. The message of hope that Jesus Christ offers has not, and will not change, but our methods of delivering that message needs to keep pace with our culture. If the Apostle Paul were here today, I believe he’d have a blog, would regularly tweet and would post pictures and videos of his work on Facebook. The big difference between him and today’s people? His life would not be defined by how many Facebook friends he has or how many followers he has on Twitter.
Eric Dye says
Sorry. You’re comment was too long.