Is Social Media Making you Dumb?

By: Gigi

I spend most if not all of my days in and out of Facebook, SnapChat and Instagram, so much so that when I open up a browser my fingers start typing fb.com and I have to remind myself of the original reason I was opening a browser/tab. Sadly looking at my feed over the last couple of days I've noticed that all of them are updating me about new diets, celebrity gossips, and maybe ten Donald Trump memes. I had to ask myself where is the stuff that matters? 

Sure I'm guilty of indulging in some nonsensical reads, but what happened to the political updates, Syrian News, South African maybe? Why am I seeing Zigi (Zain Malik and Gigi Hadid) on my timeline? SCREAM, I AM GETTING DUMBER! Here's why:

The algorithm search engines employ condense information. 

The danger of having a browser that remembers your search history, is that it starts attempt to optimize your experience. That means showing more, and more about less and less.  This results in you only getting information that agrees to your view and nothing to challenge it. No information that forces you to deeply evaluate what you believe is right. This is problematic as you start seeing a narrow lens and forget theirs more to life. 

Social Media has been proven to hurt your short term memory. 

Erik Fransen a world renowned expert on short-term memory at Stockholm's Kungliga Tekniska Hogskolan argues that "The fire hose stream of information that you subject your brain to during a typical session on Twitter or Facebook overloads your brain's ability to process data and file away the important elements. " In essence Fransen is saying because we have so much information coming at us our brains takes it in but never has enough to store it into the right places. This leave us reading information but never storing it for future use. How sad! 

In light of both these assessments,  I must admit things do look bleak. However, I do have faith. It takes a little work but I think we ought to all take some time to follow a few reputable news papers online, one that's in our country and another that isn't. This way we get a dose of what's happening beyond American borders. This is just one step for a story lover like myself, but if you aren't like me google a list of other cool things to follow and keep to date with. Material that you would not normally think of and make sure to try and be critical of all that you know, even if you've been told its true. Critical thinking is a muscle make sure you keep it well trained. 

Work Cited: 

By Choosing the Ideal Sales Channels, a Company Can Convert Leads into Actual Sales. Some Types of Common Sales Channels Include:Licensing and FranchisingE-commerceIndirect (representatives, Agents, Distributors)Direct (employees, Representative Office, S. "4 Ways Social Media Is Making You Dumber." OPEN Forum. Open Forum, 02 Dec. 2013. Web. 12 Oct. 2016.