How Social Media and the Internet Influence the Interpersonal and the Intrapersonal
During this quarantine, I’ve been reflecting more deeply on my internet and social media usage. I’m not particularly active with posting on social media, but I probably browse and scroll as much as the next person. While social distancing may have increased the pesky urge to reach for our phones in order to recreate feelings of socializing and togetherness, even pre-pandemic I pondered the effects of social media as well as the information age on our relations to others and to ourselves, the interpersonal and the intrapersonal. Thus I’ve synthesized some of my thoughts along with a bit of research on these effects in order to explore how they influence all of us.
Social Media as a Modern Double-Edged Sword
Platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. have provided an unprecedented way to stay in touch with people. With a few simple taps, you can find and message virtual versions of the people you know (or don’t know). Even relatively newer apps with a different focus and more performative aspects, like TikTok for example, provide messaging functions and avenues to connect with others.
On the one hand, it’s a luxury and quite convenient to be able to reach out to people on these platforms, especially for people in different geographical locations. On the other hand, I’ve noticed a trend towards the increasing need to be connected and plugged in to social media almost constantly. I’ve observed this through many conversations that start with “Oh, I posted about it in my story, did you see?” or “Did you see that so-and-so posted about this?” If you don’t keep up, it feels like you’re missing out, which feeds into the desire to go back to the apps frequently, even if subconsciously.
The flurry of activity and posting in this virtual public sphere never stops, but that doesn’t mean this is the case for our mental health. We need breaks and space for our individual thoughts and feelings, and it can be exhausting to fill that space with social entities all the time. Yet many of us are propelled by the aforementioned desire to keep up and not miss out, sometimes at the cost of our mental health. A virtual manifestation of FOMO if you will.
Even as such platforms allow us to connect with others, they can also create the illusion that such virtual interactions are sufficient to sustain our relationships. Actions such as liking photos, commenting on stories, and tagging people in memes do still have meaning and value and are a natural reflection of cultural and technological shifts. And as a friend reminded me recently, even as such social media exchanges differ from more traditional ways of socializing, the sentiment behind both can be the same. The desire to let people know that you’re thinking about them and that you care about them can take place in many different arenas. However, in-person interactions or even texting and calling usually have more substance and depth, and I don’t think that social media interactions can completely replace such forms of communication. With the ease of social media however, we may forget the value of putting more effort into our relationships and become stagnant in our virtual worlds.
The Attention Span Tradeoff
Another hot topic on my mind is the phenomenon of shorter attention spans. I’ve noticed that personally my attention span feels shorter than before, leading me to examine the link between information overload and shortening attention spans.
According to researchers at the Technical University of Denmark, the global attention span is collectively narrowing due to the increasing amount of information presented to the public.¹ Essentially, our minds have a certain capacity for attention, but the number of informational items competing for that space has increased. Thus, we are focusing on more things, but for shorter periods of time.
This makes sense. With increasing information comes an increasing pressure to consume as much as possible in attempts to stay well-informed. The increased pressure has cut our attention short in order to allow us to consume a larger number of things, effectively making our attentions more efficient and intensive.²
The way in which content is produced and consumed reflects this drive towards using our time and attention efficiently. The popular app TikTok is a platform based on short videos that you can scroll through quickly. Make-up tutorials have been popularized on IG TV, moving away somewhat from the longer and more traditional YouTube tutorials. And listicles are extremely popular, as the format is shorter and more visually appealing than a long article with dense blocks of text. The fact that content is bite-sized and snackable has normalized the shortening attention span and made it easy to submit to it, rather than resist.
From an evolutionary perspective, according to researchers at Princeton and UC Berkeley, humans are actually designed to pay attention and focus in short blocks of time.³ This “inability” to focus can thus be seen as an evolutionary advantage, because we are able to switch focus quickly and keep track of multiple stimuli in our environment at once. In this way, attention is a fluid entity, and it appears that our brains have leaned into this adaptation further with the increasing dissemination of information.
There seems to be a trade-off however. While there is evidence of evolutionary benefit, I have felt my narrowing attention span manifest in frequent impulses to reach for my phone or difficulty reading longer articles. Which leads me to believe that the ability to shift our focus is important, but the way in which we use our attention to focus is equally critical. Feelings of restlessness and distractedness appear to be natural side effects of the shrinking attention span and information overload. In response, the use of mindfulness, meditation, and other strategies may help rejuvenate our attention spans while still allowing us the ability to switch focus adeptly.
Why do we do it?
After considering all of this and more, one of the questions I ask myself is, why do I use social media? I’ve had the urge many times to delete my accounts and “go off the grid.” The idea provokes a mix of feelings - relief, discomfort, uncertainty.
There are many easy reasons to stay, like keeping in touch with friends, quick entertainment, and sharing parts of my life on the occasion that I do post something.
On another level, there are reasons that are more difficult to express openly. Seeking external validation from others. The act of cherry picking highlights from your life to create an ideal version of yourself. The mental break and distraction these apps admittedly provide.
I’m not passing judgment on any of these reasons or anyone’s reasons for using social media. Rather, I’m sharing my own thoughts and experiences along with research in the hopes that this will urge people to inform themselves and think more deeply about their own reasons, as well as whether they are satisfied with their relationship to social media. Considering my own experiences and those of the people I have spoken with, many people struggle to foster a healthy relationship with social media and the constant barrage of information online.
It is not necessary of course to partake in social media, but it is a fairly integral part of socializing during these times for many of us. And with the stress and uncertainty brought on by this pandemic, we may find ourselves turning more to social platforms and the online world of information. Thus, I’d say it is an apt time to reevaluate this area of our lives and the way in which our virtual usage shapes our individual and social worlds.