Why can’t I put my phone down?
We live in the digital age. We have access to amounts of information that were unimaginable just a few years ago. Computers that were the size of entire rooms fit in our hands. But sometimes, too much equals nothing. The fact that we have access to this much information does not directly mean that we are more informed. Since its apparition in 2007, and the appearance of social media platforms that have become more engaging daily, smartphones have drastically changed everyone’s life, for good and bad. Together, we explored our smartphone and social media usage, how teens have been using social media and the trends in their usage in recent years, where we get out news and how Americans are using more TikTok to get their news, and how social media usage works like a slot machine, “ rewarding” us for its use, affecting our brains and mental health. We also explored and built a physical visualization of social media usage across different groups of ages. All the group members shared their takeaways on smartphone usage’s effects on their lives and shared recommendations on how to mitigate these effects. Ultimately, we asked, why can’t I put my phone down?
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