Reading reflections, Apr. 13th

Some people are concerned that advances in information technology and the increasing ubiquity of social media will eventually harm our own cognitive functions and face-to-face interactions with other people. But the author of How the World Changed Social Media argues that there is no need for such concern, just as there is no need to be concerned that writing would create forgetfulness. Furthermore, they argue that from an anthropological point of view, all communications are “intrinsically mediated by cultural and social rules,” and hence no way of communication is more mediated or less authentic than any other.

Nonetheless, back to the first point, I do think it is a possibility that cognitive functions could be harmed by the use of technology. I don’t know if anyone has actually studied the relationship between writing and forgetfulness, but I remember learning that certain nomadic people are much better than us in deciding directions, a skill we have relied less on and become worse at with the inventions of maps, compasses, and most recently, Google Map. Hence, it is a psychological and biological question that can be studied scientifically whether social media use can harm human cognitive functions.

I do agree that there is no absolute difference in authenticity between online and offline relationships. I think it only makes sense to say that, for someone used to face-to-face communications in the old time, online communications may feel inauthentic and hard to get used to. But for someone born in the digital age, online communication may feel very natural and as authentic as any communication can be.