Social and short-form media can cause the end of the free world
Staff Writer
There is almost nothing more important to the average teenager than their smartphone. In fact, teens spend an average of four and a half hours a day according to a study by Common App Media, and some even spend up to sixteen hours. Excessive screen time is of course unhealthy, but the harmful effects of technology, especially social media and video games, goes far beyond a simple waste of time. Short-form media like TikTok is negatively influencing everyone, notably tweens and teens, by greatly reducing attention span, which can result in the collapse of democracy and the rise of a dictatorship in America.
The introduction of social media to the world was done with good intentions, yet it has devolved into an addictive system designed to maximize screen time. The principal problem of such apps is their addictive nature. The willingness of users to spend hours on social media and games has resulted in increased obesity and depression rates, reduced self esteem, and most alarming of all, a shortened attention span. According to The Oxford Blue, “nearly 50% of users surveyed by TikTok said that videos longer than a minute long were ‘stressful’.” If a video longer than a minute causes stress, how can the same people hope to successfully complete a half-hour long assignment or project? This is not to mention real-world jobs requiring extensive study or work.
Yet, the question remains: why should we care? Does it really matter if the average attention span of humans is less than that of a goldfish? It does indeed–in a way that can affect the future of governments, societies, and perhaps mankind itself.
Attention span heavily impacts the ability for individuals to learn. A study performed by Science Direct, a large science and medical database, found that “children who were rated one standard deviation higher on attention span-persistence at age 4 had 48.7% greater odds of completing college by age 25.” Teaching strategies that once worked a decade ago now fail miserably at the hands of impatient 5 year olds. The Silent Generation (1928-1945) had an attention span of 25 seconds, baby boomers (1946-1964) had 20 seconds, and in 2000 was 12 seconds. As a result of the popularity of social media, the attention span in 2015 is now 8 seconds.
The crux of the issue is that education is essential to a functioning democracy. Uneducated citizens are easily swayed by demagogues into believing false information and authoritarian ideology disguised as a more “secure” system. Communist Russia and Fascist Germany both spread propaganda favoring their respective dictators and their ideology, and the brainwashed population fell for it completely. In the book Citizen Soldiers by Stephen Ambrose, Ambrose tells a story of a young Hitler Youth soldier, born, raised and educated by Hitler’s Third Reich and sent into combat in France. The soldier was badly wounded after a skirmish against American soldiers. After the battle, a U.S. medic came to treat him. It became clear that the soldier needed plasma in order to save his life, yet the soldier refused lest there was Jewish blood in the transfusion. The young man, with an entire life ahead of him but corrupted by the education system of his authoritarian government, passed away due to his wounds. This is the danger of a lack of education and critical thinking skills; one will give their life for nonsense ideology.
Although we are not at this point yet, if current trends continue and the attention span of humans continues to decrease as a result of short-form and social media, an American dictatorship can become reality. While almost every other country on Earth has faced or experienced the direct effects of a dictatorship, the U.S. has not, yet right now it is closer to a dictatorship than it has ever been before. Despite obvious signs that a dictatorship is impending and the appalling consequences for citizens a dictatorship comes with, social media has downgraded Americans to the point that they simply don’t care. A country known for freedom and liberty is on the verge of totalitarianism, and for the sake of 300 million Americans let us reduce our consumption of TikToks, Youtube Shorts and Instagram Reels.
Caption: Opening the corporate giant of bite-sized information is Sean Sawan (10), who is about to begin an hour-long TikTok binge. TikTok and other short-form media apps are degrading our attention span, which can and will be exploited by demagogues into creating an American dictatorship. (PC: Royden Liang (9))
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