Social media and technology is a great and powerful tool, however, it has positives and negatives that come with it. In class we watched and talked about the black mirror episode 15 Million Merits and we then read and discussed the two articles called Technologies of the Self and Ciceros Twitter:Tom Standage On The Forgotten History of Social Media. In the Black Mirror episode ,15 Million Merits, everyone is in a kind of facility where they live and are constantly surrounded by screens and tv. Everyday they get on cycles and watch the screen at the same time and they receive points for how much and how long they cycle. The cycles also power the screens.The main character, he sparks a connection with a girl and he gives her his points in order for her to get a chance to sing in front of judges and have a better life. The judges end up making her a porn star and he got extremely upset and decided to work hard to get to that stage in order to speak up and try to make a change but instead he got sucked into the corruption of the system.

This episode really shows how zoned in on technology everyone is and how they avoid surrounding people.They can’t even exercise without a screen in their face and it really shows how people society today actually are but in a more dramatic way. With all of this technology, it creates a lack of communication and people skills and even makes people lack empathy towards each other as though they are a machine and not a human being. So in a sense they dehumanize people. The shows they watched in the movie with the judges and fame is much like our reality as well… They prioritize fame and attention instead of health, relationships, and good values. They enforced watching the screens by penalizing points for not viewing or by skipping and in much like our reality, we are in a sense “penalized” for not being on our screens by experiencing fomo, missing a text or call, or missing out on the latest news and things like that. When he tried to stand up for what he believed in and tried to change things, he got caught up with the fame and attention that he got sucked into the corruption of the system and became what he stood against. 

We then reviewed 1 article and a short video called Ciceros Twitter:Tom Standage On The Forgotten History of Social Media, and are teens addicted to technology. In the article, Tom Standage sheds light on the fact that sharing information is nothing new but instead has been around as long as we could remember. “What it says to me is that technologies come and go, but they still press the same buttons in our Stone-Age brains. Modern social media is so compelling because it’s the most convenient and efficient means we have invented so far to scratch a prehistoric itch: the desire to share and network with other people. Previous incarnations of social media were popular for the same reason. They just didn’t work as quickly.” Humans are social beings and we share things all the time with one another, whether it was through the news paper, word of mouth or letters, sharing and being connected was always there but now it’s there in a faster stream. With the video we watched, it shows that children are indeed addicted to posting and sharing and having people comment on their pictures. Its a device that never sleeps so of course it is going to have their attention. It has many positive reinforcements on there such as followers, positivities comments, a likes as well so it reinforces them to continue those actions. Are you guilty of being addicted to your phone and the apps that they carry ?

This link is a research done about how simply talking on the phone creates a stronger bond than text based communication. I found it interesting and its a good read especially with social distancing going on.. maybe call instead of text through this time were living in.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200911141713.htm