Social media, our new default setting

   I can confidently say most of the students in our school use TikTok and/or instagram, some more than  others. Depending on who you are and how hectic your scheudal is, your screen time on those app’s can vary from 10 minutes to 10 hours, hopefully, not much of the time is spent mindlessly scrolling, but if it is, have you asked your self why? We rarely stop to ask why we’re scrolling. These social media apps have become our “default setting” similar to what Wallace has explained in his commencement speech “this is water”, the unconscious belief that life revolves around us, just like how social media encourages us to scroll, post, and compare without ever questioning what we’re actually paying attention it - Psychologist Jean Twenge’s research on teen screen time supports Wallace’s warning in This Is Water: when we stop choosing how to think, we let technology shape how we feel. She states that “If we don’t pay attention to how technology is shaping our thoughts, we won’t notice that it’s hijacking our minds.” i feel that many of us students at Troy need to understand and be more mindful of this. Wallace's message isn’t just based around thinking differently, it’s also about noticing the moment when our minds go into autopilot and too choose something better. Overall this kind of freedom that Wallace talks about is not just about escaping responsibility ( like mindlessly scrolling through social media or reacting without reflection ) , but choosing how we respond to the world and especially the media around us. And in a time when our attention is constantly pulled in every direction, that choice is more important than ever.

Twenge, Jean M. iGen: Why Today’s Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy—and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood. Atria Books, 2017. 

Wallace, David Foster. “This Is Water.” Kenyon College Commencement Address, 21 May 2005.