My Relationship With Technology

 My relationship with technology is not as healthy as I would like it to be. I feel as though I spend too much time on social media and let it consume a lot of my mental space. Although I try to make an active effort to be aware of the content that I am consuming online, I find myself falling into the same rabbit holes. Whether celebrity gossip, beauty and fitness videos, or random viral clips here and there, I am consuming content that has little to no value to my life long term. Although I attempt to shift my feed to be more informative rather than entertainment focused, I always seem to end up right back where I started and get sucked into a spiral of unimportant and sometimes even damaging content. 

Even when I am feeling self aware of the content I am consuming, it has become such a social norm to be chronically online. It becomes so easy to justify spending hours on Instagram, Tiktok, or Twitter when everyone else is doing it too. Pointing out those harmful patterns has become more and more difficult with time as the increased use of technology has become more socially accepted and normalized. 

My family hasn't seemed to have hopped on the social media bandwagon. They still consume media through facebook, but have not really expanded beyond that into other social platforms. I think that while this may seem healthy or like a good example of minimal technology use, I argue that it could still have damaging effects on the formation of opinions and personal beliefs. Although I wouldn't say that spending more time on social media would be that beneficial, I do think that adding variety to the type of content and the source of your information could help enforce your ideas and opinions. When you are receiving information from one source and relying on the same people to like and comment on your posts, you could fall victim to confirmation bias. When sharing ideas you could be more inclined to believe that they are correct just because someone else is affirming you at that moment. 

My online footprint is probably in need of some work. While at first glance my social media platforms are tame and mostly personal, I understand that in today's age of technology, nothing disappears and there is always going to be a trail of everything you have ever posted online. With that in mind, I do worry about things I may have posted in my younger years without thought and that I have forgotten about to this day. However, I trust who I am now and have learned technological responsibility when sharing who I am online. I hope to only grow more wise in this area and be more conscious of what I choose to share in the future. 

The Spiral Of Silence

Something interesting that I learned while watching my peers present their topics was the concept of the spiral of silence. This concept is when people's willingness to express their opinion is affected by other people's perceptions of the idea and whether it is socially accepted by the majority. When people don't think that their opinion will be accepted by most of the people they are with, they are more likely to remain silent and not share their thoughts on a subject. 

This concept is rooted in a fear of social isolation. The concept arose from research on the 1965 German federal election campaign. Surveys were launched by Noelle Neumann and her staff in order to track and collect data on the public's political opinions throughout the campaign. The shocking part of Neumann’s findings was that throughout the study, it was difficult to gauge public opinion and make assumptions about the winner of the election. It wasn't until the end when there was a major swing in the results that a winner became apparent. This is interesting, as voters' opinions were unlikely to be shifted so drastically in such a short period of time. This raised the question of why people were so hesitant to share their voting intent prior to the election. This reinforced the idea of the spiral of silence. When people have an unspoken fear of their opinion being unpopular, they remain silent and refrain from voicing their opinion out of fear of social isolation or criticism. 

The idea has over time been revealed to be more of a mental game than a reality. People are more afraid of the idea of isolation that they generated in their mind and that fear is what contributes to the silence. This concept is also interesting from the other perspective, however. When people remain silent from one viewpoint, the other opposing opinion gains this false sense of confidence. With no one speaking out in opposition of their opinion, their ideas grow and increasingly gain support. The silent majority has been seen before. The spiral of silence is rooted in shame and a lack of confidence. In today's society, where we all have freedom to speak freely, we should be more open to thought-inducing conversation with people who may share opposing views. Confidence in your beliefs is the first step.