The Social Dilemma: Insight Into How Social Media Is Affecting Our Lives

Have you ever considered how many hours a day you spend scrolling on apps like Instagram or sending snaps on Snapchat? If you have, you're probably part of the minority in today's generation. A documentary made in 2020, titled The Social Dilemma, addresses how social media has become such a big influence on how we choose to spend our time. 

The documentary showcases former CEOs and presidents of companies such as Facebook, Google, Pinterest, and others. Each of these individuals shared their insight on how their platforms have adapted over the years to reach more people. One key element that they all mentioned is how addicted society has become to these various applications. We have become a world where it is nearly impossible to exist without some form of technology in our presence. A huge concern that arises is that we are exposing children to these platforms at an increasingly younger age. This becomes an issue because, as we all know, early and middle-aged children's brains are still developing in key areas responsible for critical thinking, emotion regulation, and impulse control. In these earlier stages of their lives, they are learning how to navigate socially, intellectually, and emotionally in the big world. Children are making decisions and learning the long-term consequences of their actions. When social media is added to the mix of these for children to navigate, the concern of what they are engaging with arises significantly. Some platforms have age restrictions to try to minimize exposure to younger generations. However, is that really enough to reduce interactions among children and these platforms?

As shown throughout the documentary, social media is not just an issue for the younger generations but for adults as well. Think about it, is there a job out there in which technology and social media platforms are not utilized? As technology has advanced over the past few decades, it has grown to be one of the most effective tools for businesses to advertise their products and services. However, if many are chronically online on these platforms to successfully do their jobs, it makes it significantly easier to become a slave to it. Most individuals can attest that they've become a victim of doom scrolling on these platforms one too many times, but still continue to fall victim to it. Even when putting our screens away, we still have those anxious thoughts regarding whether we've received notifications from these platforms. The documentary goes on to point out that, although social media platforms can be beneficial in staying engaged with peers, promoting businesses, and staying relevant with trends in society, they can be harmful to our social well-being, mental health, and sense of self. To help increase our overall well-being and become more present in the real world, we should aim to minimize our time we choose to spend on social media and technology in general.