New media practices cause moral fears. Critics say they threaten brainpower and moral character of its users. Search engines such as Google are said to lessen our level of intelligence because we glide through the surface of knowledge and do not bother to go in depth. When we search for something in Google the search engine provides numerous suggestions to our queries, therefore, we do not have to rack our brains as what information we seek. Science requires much research and brain activity in order to measure discoveries and targets. However, scientists these days are too much attached to their gadgets, and check their emails frequently. They also lecture using Power Point, which is said to decrease communication to only bullet points. This paper outlines the effects of technology in our lives paying particular attention to Twitter.
Social media platforms such as Twitter are said to reduce our attention spans. If you are tweeting while working, the brain is unable to focus solely on one task. It hampers productivity and reduces quality and accuracy of work. Twitter focuses on trivial things like what celebrities are doing, which are distracts from real life. However, some tweets are informative or momentous. All the same, such social media distracts a person from participating in their own real life. With Twitter, we construct identities of who we are, or wherever we are, whatever we are doing, and many more. According to Orenstein, we do not imply our real lives but create identities of what we want others to think and react to them (645). Because of this we become externally developed and not internally. We come up with a sequence of profiles that are refined according to public response in social media. We play to our audiences tune, and this is referred to as a performance culture. Social media may not have initiated the trend, but it surely encourages the self-promotion rather than self-awareness.
To curb the negative mental effects of social media, we can either completely do away with it or come up with ways to control ourselves while using social media. When someone re-tweets what we post on Twitter, what prize do we get from it? The social media thrill we get is false as compared to face to face gratification. Is it the same when we post something funny, and someone likes it or when we make someone laugh by having a face to face conversation? We should not care what people think. If what they post does not affect our lives, why should we care what their status is? Social media makes us addicted to knowing what other people’s goals are and in the process forget about our own goals. We lose prospect of what is important; our real personal life. It alienates us from our families, lessens our physical interactions, and reduces our attention span. Therefore, deleting and completely doing away with our social media profiles eliminates unimportant people in our lives. A Twitter addiction can be overcome by slowly withdrawing from the Twitter account; tweet less, reduce the login occurrences, avoid re-tweeting, and stop following people especially those who have no positive impact to our life. Finally, completely delete the Twitter account. With this final step, you begin to lead a life outside social media. Less usage of the internet, allows you to realize your life’s goals and focus on them (Scheid and Horwitz 255). If you think about it, we do not exactly need social media profiles in our lives. We need real life profiles to remain focused, and goal oriented.
Critics argue on the concept that ‘what you eat is what you are’, therefore, what our brains take in through social media is what shapes us. For example, using Twitter makes one to communicate as if they are tweeting which is short and sometimes non-communicative. New forms of media may distract us but eliminating it is not the ultimate solution. The solution is to cultivate strategies of self-control. Turn off Twitter, Facebook, and all other accounts when working, and keep away our gadgets when spending time with family as at dinner time. Such small practices will help us take great strides in curbing social media addiction. On the other hand, the internet and sources of media help us grow our intellectual depth. Therefore, we cannot completely withdraw from using the internet because it greatly contributes to learning processes throughout our lives. For example, science discoveries are increasing, history, philosophy, and cultural criticism are flourishing due to technological advancements. Reducing social media interactions is the most effective solution. By doing so, we are controlling our addiction while at the same time facing reality of what is happening in our lives. Companies, organizations, governments and many other avenues also use Twitter to communicate important information. It’s also utilized as a platform to interact on life changing situations, or to mobilize people towards a certain worthy cause. If we limit our Twitter interactions to such platforms then we will build our lives positively. Even how we set our goals and how we interrelate will reflect the level of intellect gained from such tweets. For example, if I follow a newspaper media on Twitter I have the opportunity to remain up to date with present events and news as they unfold. Such information can protect me, or help me make a personal life changing decision. However, such Twitter interactions need to be kept real and important. They need to be meaningful and can be used to alter people’s lives in a positive manner.
- Orenstein, Peggy. “I Tweet Therefore I Am.” 2010. Back to the Lake. Ed. Thomas Cooley. 2nd ed. New York: Norton, 2012. 644- 46. Print.
- Scheid, Teresa, and Allan Horwitz. Social contexts, theories and systems. University of Cambridge: Cambridge U.P., 2000. Print.
