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Susan Sontag Regarding The Harm Of Social Media

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“All of our exalted technological progress, civilization for that matter, is comparable to an axe in the hand of a pathological criminal.” - Albert Einstein. When Albert Einstein proclaimed this in 1917, he could have never imagined the extent to which the technological progression of social media would assert itself in contemporary humanity. A staple of the technological age engulfing society as we know it has been social media; blurring the lines between reality and technology. In Susan Sontag’s Regarding the Pain of Others she explains the influence photography has imparted upon humankind which, compared to it’s tremendous benefits upon society, can oftentimes do just as much harm. Studies by both Bucknell and Nottingham Trent University …show more content…

The Holy Trinity of modern social media. All content shared on any contemporary social networking site flows through these conduits, and especially through photographs. Recent studies show that Instagram, a social media built around the sharing of images, bolsters nearly 500 million users and exhibits no signs of slowly down. This shift of images becoming an integral tool in the realm of social media places an inherent importance on the nature of the pictures being shared. Susan Sontag emphasizes the gravity of photos by writing, “Photographs lay down routes of reference, and serve as totems of causes: Sentiment is more likely to crystallize around a photograph than around a verbal slogan.” As more and more young people flock to this social network, a phenomenon known as FOMO takes place. The fear of missing out has been described by scholars to be an “apprehension that others might be having rewarding experiences from which one is absent.” For example, others are far more likely to experience this feeling when their social medias are bombarded with updates about vacations, weddings, and numerous other events of genuine happiness, creating an anxiety within users taking in these posts that something must be wrong within their own life if their life does not match the ones on their …show more content…

How can this be true? Is it not social media’s very nature to include rather than exclude? Yet, studies recorded by Nottingham Trent University, a direct correlation exists between those with high social media use and low self-esteem, loneliness, and various other mental health issues. These findings allow many seemingly casual social media users to realize that their involvement with these networks are slowly shackling their mind. Various students polled by Bucknell University often find the most relief when they are away from social media, and feel more active in their own lives. This relief coincides with the belief held by Sontag that these images that people are constantly subject to “bleach out a moral response to what is shown,” fortifying feelings that these enumerated aspects of social media perpetuate negative health for all

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