It’s easy to dream of offline days. The desire to stop scrolling for precious time on your own has led to the district banning mobile phones. This is a viral hashtag about the recent rise in flip phone sales and the temporary giving up on Instagram for lending.
There are many reasons to impulsively remove the existence of the Internet. Maybe you’re tired of the algorithm that spoon-feeds your worldview and opinions into you. Maybe your screen time is more than you spend with family and friends. Maybe if a constant ad targeting, FOMO, and blue light headaches are finally too big, then we decide that the fateful day will be over.
But is it possible to log off social media completely today? Or was it fundamentally too connected to the social dynamics of these platforms? Tiktok, Instagram and X have become an integral source of culture, ranging from politics to fashion trends to new vocabulary. Is chronically online a requirement to stay in the loop?
Advanced Toshi Smith, a business administration student, said Instagram is so addictive that he had to take a break. “When I deleted the app, it was unconscious, but I’ll find myself looking for it [on my phone] And for a moment. ”
Smith eventually drove Instagram into the cave and re-downloaded it. “I’ve tried those timers and app limiters, but I don’t listen to them, always tapping ‘5 more minutes’ and then ‘ignoring’,” Smith said.
Science supports this feeling of craving instant gratification content on social media. Professor Rita Barakat, who teaches cell and molecular neuroscience at USC, says social media affects the brain’s regions involved in emotions, motivations and rewards.
“It is likely that there will be a sudden increase in dopamine release in certain parts of the brain that underlie habits, particularly the ventral basal ganglion,” Baracat said. This area of the brain is a fundamental component deep within the brain. “Interestingly, dopamine is more closely related to the expected reward, not the actual reward itself.”
So, every time you open a social media app, dopamine spikes that predict the next viral video make the release really appealing and encourage long-term scrolling. “It could develop resistance to certain levels of use for social media use that may be used over time to replicate the same dopamine effect,” Baracat said.
Barakat shows how recent research shows that social media can cause structural and functional changes in the whole brain, as well as in the orbitofrontal and prefrontal cortex.
Lauren Woolley, a senior studying public relations and advertising, expressed her dissatisfaction on social media, forcing her to compare herself to thousands of people.
“I think a lot of trend cycles will be faster online. You’ll see a trend in and out very quickly what you should look like,” Woolly said. “It’s very easy and accessible. The magazine was growing and had an unrealistic beauty standard to achieve.
Woolly then presented another dilemma. If she deletes social media, she will feel left out of the conversation. In her defense, friends say, “Where did I see Tiktok…” or “Did they post on Instagram…” Social media references and “Brainrot” seem to dominate modern conversation. Is there a Bechdel test for catchy online jargon?
According to an article in The New Yorker about a very offline author downloading Tiktok, he was instantly submerged into a vocabulary that he couldn’t understand. His main conclusion was that the app is “a form of concentrated escapism sold to the tired generation now reaching adulthood.”
Social media not only permeates our daily conversations, but can also bleed in professional decisions as well.
Actress Maya Hawk’s recent video went viral as she discussed how Instagram followers influence the casting of the film. “I don’t care about Instagram, Instagram sucks!” Hawk said. “Yes, but you know, so if you’re outweighing this many followers, you can fund the film.”
Even Jesse Eisenberg, who played Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg himself in the 2010 critically enchanting film The Social Network, spoke about not having social media. He told the Smartless Podcast this January that he doubted it, “This film portrays this person who makes something that doesn’t take into account healthy social relationships. So if this product is an extension of this person’s social behavior, this isn’t great.”
Beyond Hollywood, social media has permeated the rise of influencers, content creators and online businesses, making it difficult to go offline. But even people who rely on social media want to get off it.
Influencer Victoria Vesce told Forbes last year, “Social media is overwhelming and there’s always pressure to post and become relevant,” and she has to take multiple breaks for happiness. She takes a deliberate break to manage her happiness.
One of the most exhausting aspects of the internet for content creators is that virals hang like money on strings. With another video, another trend, your life will change overnight and you can land on a red carpet like Brittany Broski.
Jackie Michelle, co-director of outreach for USC Reach’s student social media organization, also had to take a break from social media, particularly to stay at the pinnacle of academics. However, there are drawbacks. “I’ll say what I miss most [when off social media] Michelle says. But then, when I stop posting, my followers fall a lot. ”
Another Forbes article describes the recent tictock blackout as a “wake-up call” for influencers and social media-based businesses. This asks the same question: is it possible to solve all the code?
Many people feel that career success is entrenched in social media. This fear has solidified over the years. An old 2016 New York Times article argues that removing social media can ruin your career.
Social media has changed dramatically over the past decade, but fear continues. For example, LinkedIn is gradually becoming more and more creepy on social media, with users posting updates of their personal lives rather than just career development.
Sean Smith, a freshman studying computer science, has a LinkedIn account, but will not post about it. “It’s very interesting because it’s a market that affects me in terms of work, because social media is pretty advantageous,” Smith said.
Smith mentioned how to receive a lot of news from social media. “This may be my fault, but I don’t read or watch the news much, so I think the good part comes from Twitter, Instagram, etc,” he said. “It naturally shapes your opinion. It’s accessible, but there are a lot of bias and toxicity. You can pretty easily lower some strange rabbit holes. Something like that is dangerous.”
When it comes to news and politics, social media reduces everything to bites of content that needs to be consumed. Does social media actually spread important information that is useful? Or will it blur the line between what is newsworthy and what desensitizes the public to digital bytes of clickable headlines?
Barakat explains how social media platforms can leverage their emotional responses. This surge in “fighting or flying” neurotransmitters overturn the brain’s cortex,” Baracat said. Essentially, a scientific explanation of the brain’s response to the widespread “anger bait” of social media.
Professor Elisa Warford, who teaches the ethical issues of artificial intelligence at USC, mentions how Facebook research leaked. [hate speech and misinformation] Prosper on the platform. ”
This influx of personalized content can lead to polarization algorithm echo chambers on social media. “Studies have shown that when groups interact only with equally hearted individuals, their views become stiffer and more extreme,” Warford said. “And that’s the extreme view we hear the most because they post the most content.”
But is it still possible to take part in this generation’s discourse, political, cultural, social, etc., if you remove social media and run away?
“It’s not a coincidence that just as social media use continues to rise globally across the board, former US surgeon generals also have extensive reports of loneliness that require them to declare a health emergency surrounding loneliness,” Barakat said. She mentions how superficial online can make the difficulty of forming a genuine relationship.
With all this information and discourse on social media, it’s easy to sweep everything easily. After all, in a city like Los Angeles, everything is Instagrammable… Even casual photos are thrown away with extreme care so that the effort appears low.
However, while posts can tag hundreds of friends, social media is just a reel of the best moments of life. The easiest way to distance yourself from the stress of social media is to reframe my ideas. You don’t have to document, capture, consume, post or perceive everything.
There’s nothing wrong with being active online, but it requires a balance. We need to remind ourselves from time to time that it is possible to unplug and that social media is not as vital to our livelihood as we believe.
