In Your Feed: Social Media - Lab 082
About the Episode
How should we approach social media?
Social media is everywhere, but we can control our mindset about it
The agency mindset: Do you feel like you're in control of your social media and it’s working for you? Or do you feel like social media is in charge of you and you have no agency over it?
Dr. Hancock says we should encourage social media users to embrace this mindset of being in control
We can push back on this idea of social media as a waste of time; It can be entertainment, just like a football game or a movie, so long as we don’t let it get out of control
What about misinformation?
“Misinformation is a really small amount of our diet for most people, most of the time.” - Jeff Hancock
Deliberate misinformation is targeted towards making money or persuading people
Incidental misinformation can be spread by people just reading the headlines and not the full articles. So we have to ask, is social media affecting our attention span?
Is social media affecting our attention span?
Right now, we see conflicting studies: “We need more research that takes place over decades in order for us to track attention span over time.” - Titi
Most likely our attention spans are changing, but it is not necessarily a good thing or a bad thing. People always worry about this any time there are advancements in technology (radio,television, etc.). Our brains have always adapted to new technology and media environments.
The number one question Dr. Hancock gets is: Is social media addicting?
“I don't believe that social media is necessarily addictive. I think that for some people, some of the time, they use social media in a way that is not healthy for them. On the other extreme, there are people that find it to be incredibly invaluable. I think for most people, most of the time, social media doesn't have that big of an effect on their well-being. Sometimes it's fun, sometimes it's boring. Sometimes we have interesting things happen, but it's relatively fine.”
What’s next in social media?
Short form video is continuing to grow as more platforms model off of TikTok
The Metaverse will not just be about virtual reality; it will be very social as well
We have to wonder if social media can remain optional to navigate our world, which raises questions of access and the digital divide
This Week’s One Thing
Zakiya uses Discord to keep in touch with a couple communities, Anne Helen Petersen’s newsletter community, Moon Lists, and ATL Friends
Guest Expert
Jeff Hancock, Professor and Founding Director of the Stanford Social Media Lab
Transcript
You can find the transcript for this lab and every other Dope Labs Podcast episode here.