This morning, I read the following article recommended by "The Ampersand" of Art & Sci: http://www.rd.com/health/wellness/facebook-addiction. In this article, some researchers including Prof. Tim Bono from WashU share ideas from the perspective of psychology about why social media like Facebook are appealing to us and what negative effects they can have upon us.
The article covered many concerns about social media that have been conveyed quite commonly, such as the tendency for one to think others live better lives than oneself based on social media posts, social media's interference with real-world socializing, the procrastination caused by Facebook-scrolling, and the one-sidedness of news sources on social media. I think parts of the negative effects of social media addiction can be captured by a vicious cycle/feedback loop: 1. We feel bored or unsatisfied with what's happening in the real world and are in need of distractions; 2. We seek information about others' worlds from social media; 3. Those information makes us jealous, depressed and worried; 4. We need some more distractions...
An interesting idea that I haven't heard about before is that social media could erode empathy and sympathy. According to the author and Dr. Sobel Lojeski, empathy relies heavily on face-to-face interactions. On social media, where we express ourselves primarily with a few sentences and photos and short videos, it's probably hard for us to really understand others, and hence to empathize with them. In addition, when a friend complains about something on social media, it is easier for us to ignore him/her than in the case where the friend complains to us in person. Also, I personally feel that it can be much more difficult to express sympathy on social media than in person, since the only thing I can do on social media is to type some words in a very predictable way, while in face-to-face situations voice, silence, eye contact as well as facial and bodily expressions are much more expressive. So although social media has arguably made human communication much easier than before, they are likely eroding the empathy and sympathy that are traditionally crucial to our communications.
This is interesting, I wonder if this is sort of a self-preservation thing, I don't know if I can maintain my emotional capacity if I'm constantly being bombarded by things that require me to be empathetic, if that makes sense. It takes a lot out of a person to engage with social networks since there is so much stimuli being thrown at you at once.
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