Internet Zombies!


 I feel like it should go without questioning that social media is zombifying the public. Nearly everyone has a phone nowadays, even kids! Social media has become so widely used that it is becoming normal to see kids on these social apps and not think much of it. In fact, people are thinking much at all when they are carelessly scrolling down their timeline. I see all the time in public how glued people will be to their phones and will have their heads down while walking, not realizing they are about to bump into something or someone. As stated in the article ‘Learn from These Bugs. Don’t Let Social Media Zombify You,” the chemical dopamine spikes in our brains at the sight of likes coming in. Scientists have afflicted the brain response to social media to the response of drug/alcohol addiction. That is why many people have developed phantom vibration syndrome where they believe that their phone is vibrating when it is not. 

Additionally, because social media has become such a normal part of our lives it has become a main news source for much of the public. According to Forbes, 50 percent of internet users hear or get their news from social media first before hearing it from another source. A majority of people do not question the source of where they get their information, and this can be a real problem. Forbes found that most people are not even reading full articles to get the full story and most just scroll through articles reading headlines or watching a short video. The public does not realize the affect that social media has on our attention span. Everyone now is so used to receiving short bursts of information and finds it more difficult to focus on longer tasks.

 

Moreover, social media being the main source can be a problem because social platforms have control over what news and information we see. Not only are the platforms controlling what we see but the friends we follow also control what we see on our explore page. Since these social platforms are able to control what news we see, they also control what we don’t see. I believe that social media is used to distract the public from the more important news and events happening in the world. As for the news that we are allowed to see may be false or oftentimes exaggerated for socials. According to Amy Mitchell, author of article, “Americans Who Mainly Get Their News on Social Media Are Less Engaged, Less Knowledgeable,” 23 percent of adults followed the coronavirus outbreak news on social applications. My personal experience with obtaining information about coronavirus from social media was that I received false information and when I informed everyone that it was false, they immediately questioned where I got that source of information from. They were so quick to question whether or not my information was true or not, but they do not question the shade room, because they have already become internet zombies. 


 




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