Social media and its impact on politics, religion, social policies and current affairs has been under the microscope for some time now. Many believe the voyeuristic use of social media and the armchair critic syndrome is unhealthy and addictive. The Scholarly Kitchen brought this interesting topic to our attention in their article, “Technology as the New Tobacco.”
Bill Maher recently ranted about social media as an non-regulated drug and compared its ill effects to those of cigarettes. The author of the referenced article compares Facebook’s evasions around the role they played in recent elections to those of the tobacco company lawyers talking about the effects of their products. How many years before the truth comes out on the social media effects on our behaviors and lifestyles, not to mention our health?
A recent Paula Poundstone comedy show highlighted this topic as well. At the end of her set she took a serious moment to remind folks about the dangers of those “screens”. Video games, social media, texting, etc. were all comedic references throughout her show, but she took some personal privilege to get real about the dangers lurking in technology with respect to our youth.
The evolution of this process will have to be watched in real time. At least until they develop time travel.
Melody K. Smith
Sponsored by Access Innovations, the world leader in thesaurus, ontology, and taxonomy creation and metadata application.
