1. English B50
How is Social Media Affecting our Relationship with the World Around Us?

2. Your Experiences
Think about the different types of social media you interact with on a daily basis. Take a few minutes to jot down all of the social media sites you participate on.
What are some of the social media outlets you use?
Now think about the amount of time you spend on social media as a whole. How much time do you devote to it each day?
Finally, think about when and how you use social media.
When are you most likely to log on?
What do you use it for? What are you likely to post and/or read about?

3. The Myths of Multitasking
If you regularly partake in multiple activities at a time, you are not alone.
The trend of multitasking has been popular for some time now. In an effort to be more productive, we attempt to take on more than one task at a time.
In reality, when our attention is divided, we typically perform worse on all activities than if we gave each our undivided attention.
Similarly, we tend to become LESS rather than more efficient—the distractions make each activity take longer than it would if we were focused on one at a time.

4. Attention Span
How many of you have difficulty focusing on anything lengthy—a long movie or book—without finding yourself drawn to the distraction of social media?
Some researchers argue that our attention spans have been decreasing over time due to the overwhelming amount of sensory input we are exposed to daily.
Single tasks are no longer able to hold our attention, and we often feel anxious without multiple distractions.
Some even argue that we are addicted to social media—despite it’s negative consequences, we continue to seek it out.

5. Not so “Social” Media
Ironically, social media is supposed to provide an avenue for people to interact with each other.
What are some of the ways you use social media to interact with others?
In what ways do you imagine social media might actually cause strain in people’s relationships?
Inattention due to multitasking makes family and friends who are physically present feel slighted.
Feeling stretched too thin can cause you to interact seldom with any one person, neglecting true friendships.
Is our social media presence a true reflection of ourselves? Or are we connecting via an idealized persona?
The anonymity of the internet makes us cruel, more so than we would be in face to face interactions.
Our social media interactions are shallow and driven by our need to be in control—of our time, of how others see us, etc.
We cannot read non-verbal cues such as body language and thus increase the likelihood of misunderstandings.

6. Points to Consider
When reading the articles in this unit, consider the ways in which social media may potentially cause harm—to our self esteem, to our relationships with others, to our intellect.
Consider ways in which these problems can be combated. Is abstention from social media the only way to improve the situation? What other solutions can you come up with?