My Relationship with Technology - Final Media Law & Literacy Blog Post

 My relationship with technology is different from many of my friends. My relationship with technology seems to be healthy in terms of my mental health but not in terms of how long I am on it for. I have never felt the urge to delete social media over what I may see someone or something post. However, I have had friends who have different social media apps deleted for numerous reasons. 

People post on social media all the time, resulting in many mixed emotions. Most people never find any concerns with what people post on social media. However, one post could change everything. Someone may not like that a friend posted a picture with a former friend and so the person looking at the most's mental health may be a little "shaky" at that moment.

I do think I spend too much time on different social media apps like Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok every day. My screen time has gone down over a short period of time recently, but I still find it to be too much. 

When my parents were my age, they were not on social media. They did not have smartphones like everyone does now. They were able to get outside more. They were not addicted to their phones.

My five and a half hours of screentime last week is not nearly as much as it used to be, but I believe a truly healthy relationship with technology is even less than mine.

YouTube may be the healthiest social media platform that I use compared to the other ones. Videos on the app/website can range from anything someone can think about. Therefore one can somewhat censor what they want to see on the video platform. The only aspect of YouTube that would contradict this would be the recommended page. However, if one watches enough, the recommended page will adjust to what the platform thinks you want to watch yourself. 

I think technology does make me smarter because I can read an unlimited amount of articles on Google and the internet. If we were stuck to just newspapers, than I still would be smart but I would not be as up-to-date with current events around the world as I am now. Technology can be misleading due to how many articles and different types of information are posted online. I could read one article on a topic, then read another one and it contains completely different information.

I worry about misinformation because I do not want to go up to someone and speak confidently on a subject and it all be completely false just based on one article I read. People can post an article online with completely false information just to receive clicks and views. I do think, however, people have accepted this and it is a normal thing to expect at this point in society.  

My online footprint is seen on all different kinds of social media apps like Instagram and Snapchat. I have had many conversations with people over these platforms and I believe everything that I have posted will not hurt me in the future when it comes to my professional career. If someone were to look me up online they would just find my social media accounts and some of the work I have done through podcasts and written articles.

I think I have a healthy relationship with technology, despite being on electronics a lot. I think technology does overtake some people and cause mental health problems, but despite this, I think it is just an "accepted part of society" at this point in time.