Psychology of Social Media

 Remember Kony 2012? Some might not, and others might act like they do to avoid the embarrassment. There is so much information online, so many tales of desperation and helplessness shared over and over by people who don't actually care enough to look into the real problem. Maybe with a simple retweet you can get someone's cry for help to a person with the right resources for the job. You may be sending them to the wrong people too. There's a chance the people aren't who they say they are, such as people filing a missing persons post to find their abuse victims who finally managed to get away. At least click the link and read a bit before blindly sharing. If it is a genuine plea from someone who needs help, don't discount yourself immediately. You could be the one resource they end up needing afterall. 

 There is one person that has been the most documented civilian of all time. Christian Weston Chandler AKA Chris-chan is an autistic adult that has spent most of their life being subjected to the terrors of the internet. He has fallen victim to numerous scams and there are even "eras" to his trolling history. Each era is specified by different villains and love interests that are all varying levels of devoted trolls spanning the entirety of Chris-chan's adult life. The ammunition begins from videos and tales of his childhood as well as content created by himself that made him infamous. It's not for the feint of heart and there is a question legality and definite ethical issues when going through his life, so if it's something you intend to look up, this should serve as a warning.

 Social media and the digital revolution has warped our brains and made them weaker. There is a dependency on the internet for information retrieval and even chemically balancing the brain. Dopamine is now directly tied in to how we use the internet. We require instant responses now due to the nature of handheld technology- instant gratification, instant knowledge, instant validation. Some children are even being raised by technology in place of hands-on interaction from their parents. This fact alone is leading us towards a de-evolutionary misstep we severely underestimated. Our attention spans are literally shrinking as technology becomes more readily available and more integrated into our day to day lives. People have been talking about the decline of the human race if this technology were to fail us, though the current pandemic is only strengthening our dependence on these technologies, thus further setting us back in the event that it all goes offline.

 In the early ages, people were very limited in their communication resources. Through time we've seen smoke signals, the telegraph, the pneumatic post, telephone, radio, and television. These are all one-way forms of communication built around the concept of simply delivering news to either one person or multiple people depending on the format and slipping into the peer-to-peer communication. With the advent of email and blogging, virtual networking between people expanded. The need for open communication between all people on all topics eventually brought about social media. Now, for the first time in history, instantaneous communication exists globally at the fingertips of many, which is a boon for information exchange and interconnectivity. Opinions, informed or not, are delivered and expanded upon in a matter of seconds. Today, there are so many people blowing smoke from all over that the fire is rarely ever seen.

 Social media provides the modern day link between receiving and creating media content. It allows people to reconnect and keep in touch with one another and provides variety in news sources. Social media has evolved from humble beginnings in forums to diverse platforms with specific functions in purpose, allowing for global networking in mere seconds. Sometimes viewed as a dependence, access to these platforms has changed the landscape in such a way that makes it almost impossible to get by without using it. People rely on it to reconnect and keep in touch with friends, family, and businesses through various interactive applications. Marketing and e-commerce are a staple due to the convenience that the internet has provided for countless industries. It's pushed activism to a level previously unthought of and allows for crowdfunding between many countries. Social media is ever-expanding and will continuously impact society as it grows.

The ideal society would be one where people would be able to put blind faith into everything. There are so many facets to life that have been added as humankind expands that were meant as safeguards of exploitation, whether it be exploitation of innocent people or exploitation of the government from their point of view. These safeguards are inherently convoluted and almost immediately worked around. It is in our nature to adapt and evolve any way we know how. The dependency on technology is both a testament to the technological advancements we've made and a fault that we have grown accustomed to. It is imperative that we recognize the faults in this dependence and adapt beyond them. News effects our daily lives as an inescapable force. There will never be a day where nothing happens. In that way, we must be well equipped in evaluating the information we receive. It's not enough anymore to simply choose a herald to trust as the ultimate source of obtaining information. We must l...