Social media - is it helping or harming us?
Mentioning the words social media can evoke strong reactions, both positive and negative. Last month Maureen Osis explored some of the benefits of this form of communication for non-profit organizations. In this Blog post, Mary Oxendale Spensley describes some positive benefits and potential harms of social media for individuals, communities and societies.
Why Read This Post?
In this blog post guest author Mary Oxendale Spensley will explore some of the best opportunities and some of the worst. Mary wrote:
"Hopefully I will make the point that overall, social media is an important and useful tool when used insightfully."
"If you are concerned about the influence of social media on the younger generation, please see the Resources at the end of the post."
Roxane Gay, an American writer and social commentator, wrote that:
"Social media is something of a double-edged sword. At its best, social media offers unprecedented opportunities for marginalized people to speak and bring much needed attention to the issues they face. At its worst, social media also offers 'everyone' an unprecedented opportunity to share in collective outrage without reflection."
Social Media Definition
Last month, we defined social media.
According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary social media is defined as:
“forms of electronic communication (such as websites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (such as videos).”
Who Uses Social Media?
Apparently, 72% of American adults use some form of social media. This is a dramatic increase from 2005 when that number was 5 percent, according to a Fact Sheet published this year by the Pew Research Center.
In fact, if you are reading this blog post right now, chances are you accessed it through our CALL Facebook page. Many of our new members joined CALL because they saw something on our Facebook page that intrigued them.
A Little History
One of the first examples of chatting with total strangers around the world started to become popular in the early 90s. It was called IRC, or Internet Relay Chat. I had never heard of it but learned about IRC from the Cathy cartoon strip. She was a frazzled young woman sitting down to her computer, expecting to chat on IRC for a few minutes, and then suddenly her alarm clock was blaring, and she was not only late to work, she had no sleep! She never did meet any real friends, much less a potential husband, but she sure wasted a lot of time arguing with strangers!
Salon Magazine, one of the first online magazines, was founded in 1995, and not only could we read great articles, we could actually discuss them in their forums! How exciting was that? Many other forums popped up, including here in Calgary where the Calgary Horticultural Society started a gardening forum through an email listserv. Another method of sharing opinions with the world was often provided in blogs, where hosts could allow an open comment section for people worldwide to offer their opinions on whatever topic was being discussed, be it politics or recipes. But these older forms of world-wide communication have largely dwindled away with the advent of Facebook and X (Twitter), as well numerous other popular platforms like Blue Sky and Reddit.
Facebook remains one of the most used platforms with 3 billion users around the world. Just as one example of how Facebook has grown, the Calgary Raging Grannies have a Facebook page that in the 20 teens was a rarity among progressive political pages. Today it is one of at least twenty, in Alberta alone.
As social media grows, it goes through huge changes. The Smartphone dramatically changed access to the various conversational platforms. Users could access their preferred platform everywhere and access it at any time. Today we see people on public transit, waiting in lines, even couples ignoring each other in restaurants, all tapping away on Facebook, X, or whatever. It has become so widespread that some physiotherapists are warning that the posture of head bent toward the phone is now causing physical problems for too many folks! Go ahead! Search it! You’ll find pages of links offering articles with helpful advice!
Social Media - Helping or Harming?
Back in 2017, I was the Facebook administrator for the Calgary Women’s March. The idea for the march had begun with one American woman telling her friends on Facebook that she thought women should march to remind their country that feminism is still alive and strong. Her friends shared her idea, and suddenly her post went viral. After a few days, it was so widespread that feminist activists and organizers realized its potential. A small group contacted the original poster and asked her permission to nationalize the Women’s March through social media. She said yes, and suddenly Women’s Marches were being planned not just across the United States, but literally across the planet for January 21, 2017. Using social media to spread the word can create an amazing success!
But by January of 2018, opponents to feminism anticipated the next march. The Calgary page became active shortly before that Christmas, and suddenly, in a matter of minutes, it was flooded with disruptors, some from thousands of miles away. It’s likely that “bots” had been programmed to search for and disrupt the march by leaving disparaging remarks. Bots are computer programs that hunt for certain key words and then send out thousands of messages that are highly biased either for or against the message in an article or post. As the administrator, encouraging engagement for the Calgary march was my top priority, and discouraging disruptors turned into an onerous task, but that march and future marches were successful in attracting thousands of people, in Calgary alone. Even with the pitfalls of social media, we had a significant turnout in the thousands, which wouldn’t have happened without social media to publicize the event.
Today, many organizations spread their word through social media, as most of it is free, and available to anyone who has the internet and wants to join. Individuals can connect with family members, friends, old neighbours, even those who are miles away. We have Facetime type platforms that are straight out of the old Jetson’s Cartoon that allow us to see the smiles and hear the laughter of our beloveds. Just the other day, I used one of these programs to chat with my daughter and sister who were on a safari in Botswana, so I got to see the gigantic elephants sloshing in a pond just a few metres away from their wine glasses!
But there is a dark side to social media as well. There are disruptors who are hired by agitators to cause chaos, evidenced by some foreign influencers who use “bots” as mentioned earlier, as well as “trolls” --- actual people paid to spread biased messages that are often not true. Bots can be programmed to leave cheerfully positive remarks or sinister and upsetting ones. In addition to bots and trolls who generally do what they do for profit, there are certain people who psychologists describe as people with Dark Triad Personalities. Psychologists describe these people as having three interconnected personality traits – narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. They purposely cause lots of hurt feelings and outrage on social media platforms just because they can.
How to Tell if a Page or Post is Trustworthy
All in all, social media can do wonders for our society, but with certain caveats. As with all new forms of information coming at us, it is wise to always keep your mind open to discern what is helpful and true, as opposed to harmful and manipulative. If it grabs, thrills, angers or shocks you, you need to be aware of your emotion, and step back.
Ask yourself:
- Is it likely to be true?
- What is the source of the information?
- Who benefits from sharing the particularly shocking idea?
Search when you are in doubt. Make sure you are looking at reliable news sources and not just opinion pieces on social media platforms. The other day someone told me a questionable statement was true, because she searched it, and found “the truth” on social media. If not many usually reliable news sources back up the information, it could well be misinformation. To determine if a news source itself is reliable, search its name, along with the keyword “reliability”. Also ask yourself if the article is factual or opinion based.
Sometimes an article is spurious because of how it was written. Some writers use deliberately manipulative language. There are many websites that give short and easy courses on spotting loaded language and logical fallacies. Studying how logical fallacies manipulate people is helpful to avoid getting duped. If you need to brush up on concepts like “Hasty generalization” or “Ad Hominem” you will find several links in the Resources.
We have to be especially careful on social media in recent days, as one platform has stopped fact checking, claiming that facts lead to bias. Another is owned by the richest man in the world, who says he is a free speech absolutist, but bans people who disagree with his views. Nevertheless, it is still possible to use these platforms, if you are discerning. Keep in mind there are other platforms that can be used for communicating with the world.
What to do if you find yourself being harassed on Social Media
Social media is not always a safe place. Politically biased sites can be especially ruthless, but even non-political sites can have trouble makers. I was once tormented by someone on a local insect identification page who insulted me upside down and sideways for asking the name of a type of an unusual insect I had seen. (Apparently I was “on drugs” and hallucinating! Someone else stepped in and calmly gave me the name of the bee.)
Just recently I was on what I thought was a fascinating and benign site, but was actually told by a participant that he looked forward to my death for mentioning that a certain building had poor wiring and plumbing, while he also made racist comments. Although I reported the unpleasant remarks, I didn’t feel safe afterwards. The administrator eventually removed some of the person’s insults, but also removed mine. I had a bad feeling the administrator of the page sided with the insulting and threatening guy! Just stay away from pages that seem benign yet contain overt or covert remarks that are disturbing.
It is also absolutely necessary to check your Facebook account to make sure it is private, and your friend list is hidden from everyone but you. But even that doesn’t protect you if you post on public sites. Anyone can see your posts or comments on a public site, and say what they will. If you feel their comments are inappropriate, you can right click on them and report to the administrator. (This is different from reporting to Facebook, which has new policies around free speech.)
An administrator of a Facebook account who values manners, safety and intelligent discussion can block and delete participants and their comments if they are seen as inappropriate. If you are insulted and the administrator doesn’t act on that, stay off that page! There are plenty of safe ones to read. You can also block unpleasant participants with a right click on most platforms. Use that feature if you’re uncomfortable with someone’s remarks.
Conclusion
Using social media, you can communicate your interests and values to a much larger population than ever before, and you can even have a good influence on society! You just need to be careful in discerning what you see. Recognize what may be harmful or untrue. Don’t participate in conversations that are ugly. Use your favourite browser and search engine to research a subject before believing a statement that strikes you as strange. Block bad apples and stay off unsafe pages.
You can find good people and learn from them if you keep your wits about you. You can even make new friends, but make sure if you go to meet them in person, you are in a public place. I once drove to Idaho to meet a new gardening friend. (I made sure to go with someone who had quick access to 911.) But guess what? She was a cheerful gardener, just like myself. We visited each other for years, up until COVID happened. I have many local “friends” I communicate with often, yet might not actually recognize them in the grocery store. Nevertheless, we support one another. You can too.
Resources
Risks of Social Media
The Use of Social Media in Children and Adolescents: Scoping Review on the Potential Risks.
Social media risks: Safeguarding children's online experience. Mayo Clinic, January 5, 2024
Pros & cons: impacts of social media on mental health. BMC Psychology
Dark Triad Personality Traits - Simply Psychology
Manipulative Writing Style
Logical fallacies: Seven ways to spot a bad argument
18 Common Logical Fallacies and Persuasion Techniques
Logical Fallacies
News Literacy Matters. All Information is not Created Equal
Lakehead University Media Literacy
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Authors
Maureen Osis
Maureen retired from her career -- first as a Gerontological Nurse and then as a Marriage/Family Therapist in private practice working with mid-life and older adults. Maureen has published numerous articles and books related to both professions. She is a member of CALL because she is passionate about learning. She is a volunteer with CALL, doing social media and the primary author of the blog because she likes to face new challenges.
Mary Oxendale Spensley
Mary was born in Calgary and has lived here for all but nine years of her life. She became acquainted with CALL through a friend who insisted she should join, and she did about seven years ago. Constantly impressed with the people and groups, she’s glad she did. For almost thirty years she taught high school English classes, mostly to adults but also taught in other areas in typical schools. She enjoys learning about new technologies and puts those skills to use as a Calgary Raging Granny, where she creates videos for the group.
Mary is Chair, CALL Communications Committee.
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