Blog #5 - Common Addictive Behaviors

The message that this video is trying convey to the viewers. Is that social media is something that we need to step back from, and limit our obsessive attraction to our devices, and get back to the real things that matter. About how addiction to social media is slowly destroying the fabric of society. One of the speakers in this video, the man in the tux, talks about how the creators of social media design “social media tools to be addictive” he tells us how we rely on it too much. How adults, young adults, teens and even in some cases children have an unhealthy obsession to constantly check their phones. The younger generation is probably thinking that this is just how the older generation fells about kids being on their phones all the time. This statement creates a connection to the main idea of the video by letting us know how they became addicting. Another speaker named Chamath Palihapitiya states that “we created tools that are ripping apart the social fabric of how society works” in this he means that people are spending more time on their devices than actually going out and socially interacting with others.This statement is were we get our main point from, we infer that this will be a strong point of the main idea. All of the speakers share the same mindset and goal in this video, another speaker, Cal Newport states, that “we have a growing amount of research that tells us that if you spend large amounts of your day in a state of fragmented attention it can permanently reduce your capacity for concentration”. This statement relates to the main point by letting us know that it  has a negative effect on our minds ability to hold our concentration. That meaning, people who are always in a state of breaking their concentration on whatever they are doing so that they may check their phone to see if someone has liked or commented on their post is what brings us to this endless loop of breaking our concentration. This creates our minds to not be able to hold our attention to a particular thing, or preventing us from really keeping focus on something. These apps also cause a great deal of tension between people, for instance, if your friend does not like your photo or post you may be upset about it and wonder why she or he did not do so. In this era, people rely on our creation of technology more than they need, yes this is a great convenience to have, but we often take it for granted. People may or may not agree with this video, but in my opinion, I agree to some extent. I would not completely cut out social media, but I do agree on how we need to step away from our devices and start creating more intimate relationships with other people not just behind a screen. We need to meet people in person and get to know them on a more personal base. This video hits those strong and concrete facts about why we should do so, you will also hear some interesting opinions about the subject as well. We need to unplug from our technical world for a little and get back to what really matters in life, the connections we make with other people.