“Social Media Corrupts Human Interactions”
Summary:
In Jack Symonds’ speech “Social Media Corrupts Human Interactions” (Oxford Union), posted to Youtube on February 21, 2017, he explains how virtual relationships are replacing our real human relationships. Throughout the speech, Symonds makes the point that social media affects every social media user on a personal, individual level. He begins his analysis by stating that he is not averse to social media, since it benefits him and many others greatly, although he finds corruption of human interaction by way of social media to be inevitable. Symonds then explains ways in which we are individually impacted by social media, consequently resulting in a shift of how we interact with others. Continuing his argument, Symonds explains how social media gives users a feeling of envy and dissatisfaction in our lives as a result of unrealistic standards provided by constant highly idealized social media posts. Following this point, he explains that social media users users often follow and trust the beliefs of popular people over professional and trustworthy sources. In this way, unbiased journalism becomes more difficult to find, causing our outlooks on many topics to be altered in real life. All of the points that Symonds made results in a decline of real human relationships, as he stated in the end of his speech.
Analysis:
Listening to this speech has given me a far greater insight into the negative outcomes that result from social media use among humans. I find it very interesting that the speaker chose to begin his speech with the counter-argument, as well as discussing the opposing points throughout it. Typically the speaker or author will choose to focus on their side of a debate without giving much credit to the opposing side, but not in this case. I used to think that this was a completely two-sided debate, although Jack Symonds’ proved me wrong and made me realize that we do not need to entirely shut out social media, but simply be aware that it is “corrupting human interactions”, as stated in the title of the video.
As I previously mentioned, the speaker introduces the point that social media is extremely beneficial as it, “gives a voice to the people, it allows us to fight for what we believe in, it keeps people safe, and it allows us to create a movement in the name of what we think is right” (Symonds, 00:01:35–00:01:47). This statement proves not only a sense of credibility from the speaker to the audience, but also a deeper understanding to the idea that social media has both strong negatives and positives.
Symonds also makes the point that most social media users will follow popular people rather than professional people and platforms. Social media users around the world can agree with this statement, as the most culturally relevant celebrity figures possess the largest social media platforms. If you take a step back from the sponsored posts given by the “popular” people, you will see that many of the professional and educated social media platforms are not acknowledged nearly as much.
Following Symonds’ previous point, he makes it clear that honest and unbiased journalism is extremely difficult to easily find these days. Social media users are constantly shown images, videos, and posts that are not necessarily accurate, but rather entertaining and easy to come by. Symonds explains this idea as honesty being replaced with “speed and access”.
Conclusion:
Analyzing Jack Symonds’ speech has given me a much clearer and logical understanding as of why social media can be extremely beneficial, yet also provide a lot of negativity between human interactions. Symonds provided the positive affects of social media between humans, such as creating a safe space for many people to use their platforms for awareness and positivity. Symonds also explained the problems of social media as following celebrities over professionals and believing easy-access news over truthful journalism. After analyzing this speech, I believe that applying the points he made to your social media platform will create stronger human interactions.
References:
OxfordUnion. “Social Media Corrupts Human Interactions | Jack Symonds | Part 1 of 6.” YouTube, YouTube, 21 Feb. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hCq0V_edbY.
“The Oxford Union.” Home, www.oxford-union.org/.
