How Does Social Media Effect Critical Thinking?

Policy Brief

Executive Summary

Technology and its complement of social media have revolutionized the world. Social media platforms and tech companies of Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, to name a few, have taken over the industry by pressuring their positive attributes of connection and relationship building. They have also enabled its negative of harming the physical brain and mind. While the positives can be found on social media, studies have proven that the negatives have been more prominent, leading to greater harm than good as a result of its usage. There are three large problems that have been the result of the effects of social media to the human brain and mind: a decrease in attention span, a distortion of reality, and an increase in depression. Yet, these three large problems of social media have led to the most important: the lack of critical thinking skills of its users. Statistically, most of the world’s population is an account holder of a social media platform. With the lack of critical thinking skills, concentration levels have decreased and a weakness in thinking has occurred, disturbing the process of adequate and rational decision making. With such, tech companies and their CEOs should implement time limits on individual posts and administer mental health surveys after social media use. While both are favorable, the former provides for greater benefits as critical thinking abilities will be increased with a longer time spent for adequate judgement of posts.

Rationale

There are 3.96 billion users of social media as of 2022 (statistica), many to which have experienced a decrease in attention span, a distortion of reality, and an increase in depression. These three major problems are enormously harmful on their own, however, they have ushered to the single most important- failure to critically think and the lack of comprehension, thereof. Most, if not all, of the 3.96 billion users of social media look to the platform for information gathering and sharing to aid in opinion and decision making. The failure to critically think and its lack of comprehension has, however, effected how decisions and opinion are made. With a studied attention span lower than a goldfish at 8 seconds, distortion of reality from unrealistic and incorrect posts, and depression diagnoses because of social isolation and Internet addiction, social media users feel the negative effects more than the positive. These negative effects of social media have caused psychological damage and hurt, aching the ability to critically think with the vulnerable psyche.

Harvard Economist Edward Glaser states that critical thinking is “(1) an attitude of being disposed to consider in a thoughtful way the problems and subjects that come within the range of one’s experience; (2) knowledge of the methods of logical enquiry and reasoning; and (3) some skill in applying those methods” (Ennis). Critical thinking, to which is seemingly instinctive to humans, is a tough cognitive practice to understand and master. Social media, however, is a barrier for users to be doing so. Because of the three large problems and effects, the definition of critical thinking is not satisfied with the productions and goals of social media. Redesign of the web and mobile application such as a time limit on posts and daily mental health surveys should be added to the algorithm to prevent further harm from happening.

Critical Thinking and its Mental Requirements:

What is it?

According to the Foundation of Critical thinking, “Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action. In its exemplary form, it is based on universal intellectual values that transcend subject matter divisions: clarity, accuracy, precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good reasons, depth, breadth, and fairness” (Defining Critical Thinking).

Branches of neurological study have defined critical thinking to be one of the highest cognitive processes in the brain. It requires most of the functions in the psyche to work. Critical thinking is an executive function that is probably one of the only brain functions that a computer or system cannot do. Having such a skill further enhances other measures of productivity such as organizing, abstracting, and focusing.

Brain Activity

The executive functions (i.e., critical thinking) are centered and processed in the pre-frontal cortex of the brain. This major part of the brain, with a volume mass of 20%, “gives us the potential to consider and voluntarily control our thinking, emotional responses, and behavior” (Liu). It is the last part of the brain to ‘mature’ and is recommended to be protected for the youth as maturation continues into the age series of the 20s and is most rapid between 8–16. The process of maturation is a series of connections of networks that “strongly influences the development of the executive functions- the social-emotional control and the highest thinking skillsets that today’s students will carry with them as they leave school and become adults” (Liu).

The Effects of Social Media

Decrease in Attention Span

As of 2015, a study done by Microsoft and reported by Time Magazine suggests that the attention span of the average human being has gone from 12 seconds in 2000 to 8 seconds in 2015. With the advent of more technology apps such as Tik Tok with up to 3 minute long video posts, attention span is assumed to be lower now in 2022. In the article by Time, this conclusion is “highlighting the affects of an increasingly digitalized lifestyle on the brain” as “Microsoft theorized that the changers were a result of the brain’s ability to adapt and change itself over time and a weaker attention span may be a side effect of evolving to a mobile Internet” (McSpadden).The overflow of information that social media curates on a feed leads to the unstoppable scrolling through posts. Because there are masses of information thrown at users, ‘too much’ time spent on observing posts is undesirable with the next post waiting to be read and seen. With the posts of one app not being enough, the banner of notifications from other apps has wired the human brain to hold divided attention on all platforms that are being used. Offline activities such as reading does not wire and, thereafter, does not require such partitioned concentration. Because of this disadvantageous brain wiring from social media apps, too much internet use has bruised various functions of the brain. “Experts speculate that this, in turn, decreases our capacity to maintain concentration on single tasks…The experiments reviewed also showed that individuals who spent more time flipping between short activities on the internet required greater and greater cognitive efforts in order to maintain that same level of focus and concentration.” Not surprisingly, the effects of lowered attention span on the brain have infected the human ability to keep concentration for all other activity, leading one to conclude that tasks take longer to complete and/or are often left undone. There is, therefore, not enough time to critically think and comprehend.

Distortion in Reality

The addiction to social media has many users having difficulty in distinguishing the real world from the online. There is so much information that the many users do not know how to determine what is right and what is wrong, what is true and what is false. With anyone and everyone with a smart phone having accessibility to opening a social media account, posts are constantly incoming and ultimately reshared. It is a human tendency and tech companies exploit its users by designing their products for this continuous cycle of information re-sharing. Tech companies and hired advertisers have also taken advantage of users through the manipulation and curation of news feeds. As the creators of algorithms, it is up to the procedure of the tech company leaders and their employees to determine what is to be disseminated and shared. Misinformation (commonly known as “fake news”) is easily spread and reworded. Social media is, after all, the source to which users get their information, not mainstream media. According to research conducted at MIT Sloan School of Management, Professors Sinan Aral, Deb Roy, and Soroush Vosoughi found that “falsehoods are 70% more likely to be retweeted on Twitter than the truth, and reach their first 1,500 people six times faster” (Brown). Without having the correct and/or complete information, opinion and decision making is not well accomplished. MIT Professor David Rand and his co-author Gordon Pennycook have found that on Facebook, “people who engage in more analytical thinking are more likely to discern true from false, regardless of their political views” (Brown). However, profit driven motivations have become of top priority for networks over being a provider of credible information. Moreover, with any smart-phone user being able to join, there is a curation to what they want to see, creating their own personal culture with their desired followers and following. Because of the intelligent and highly sophisticated algorithm, what is shown is what the user’s personal culture has directed: nothing out of the ordinary and nothing that is out of the user’s realm of understanding. New information is either not presented and/or lacks credibility and accuracy. The algorithm, as well, continues to show posts like what had been seen before, not allowing in information that had not been seen before. This is a barrier to learning and studying new information. In addition, algorithm manipulation and data collection have been abused to target audiences with specific ads. For example, Cambridge Analytica has been accused of taking data from Facebook users (friends, status updates, private messages, etc.). Information of hundreds of thousands became millions, friends of friends of friends. Cambridge Analytica targeted users based on their information with campaign ads during elections, swaying and persuading many in their voting preferences. (“What is the Cambridge Analytica Scandal?”).

Because there is too much information, manipulation of information, and personalized curation of information, critical thinking is not achieved. Analysis of the large quantity of information cannot be performed in the short time online. Falsehoods spread cannot be adequately observed. The close-mindedness to personally liked content leads to the disengagement of new ideas. Such prospects of the distortion of reality serve to be reasons why critical thinking is difficult to accomplish from the virtual world of social media.

Increase in Depression

Depression is one of the most common mental health issues of humans worldwide. Depression was already at high levels pre the social media era and the damaging issues to the psyche has increased astronomically post the era. Mainstream news, that was the predecessor to social media as the leading information sharing medium, has been superseded by social media as the main medium and supplier to depression. Alarmingly, social media caused depression has led to an increase of 150% in child suicide rates. The etactics.com summary of Pew Research statistics further states that there is a 52% increase from 2005 to 2017 in depression for adolescents, a conclusion made from the 92% who own smartphones (Clark). The causes of social media led depression have harmful causes and detrimental effects. According to Thapa and Subedi, members of the Psychiatrists Association of Nepal, social media use causes depression by reducing investment in activities and detracting from in-person relationships (Thapa). Feelings of social isolation and addiction to the Internet have followed. Instead of engaging in activity that stimulates the realms to critical thinking and creativity, social media users are spending much of their leisure and work time to scroll through the virtual and unreal world. Adding to the causes of social media driven depression, other leading causes include social comparisons, pressure for “perfection,” and the fear of missing out (FOMO). Because social media is an unreal and virtual world, it is easy for a user to manufacture a life they want others to believe they are living. Thereafter, comparisons infect the belief of the self as determination about who we are and/or who we should be is based on who others are or who others say they are. Users feel pressured to establish a life that is perfect to the eye of the camera and lens of the social media platform. Because of this “perfect” life, there is a fear of missing out on what life can and should look like. In summary of personal research, of the young women interviewed (ages 17–33), most had admitted to editing their photos to create a new life for themselves. Simultaneously, they had reported to have been effected by FOMO and are struggling with ‘accepting their own life and hope to create a new one.’ Social media detoxes often followed, in efforts of relieving signs of depression.

However, how exactly does depression effect critical thinking, scientifically? The answer comes from the barrier depression holds on the skill of thinking, even the most basic thoughts. In the state of depression, there is a disruption and reduction in neurotransmitters, including the hormones of serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine. Thus, “depression can actually change your ability to think. It can impair your attention and memory, as well as your information processing and decision-making skills. It can also lower your cognitive flexibility and executive functioning” (James Cartreine). Depression has wildly changed the chemistry and brain capacity of the human. According to the National Library of Medicine: National Center for Biotechnology Information, “Numerous studies that focused on gray and white matter have found significant brain region alterations in major depressive disorder patients, such as in the frontal lobe, hippocampus, temporal lobe, thalamus, striatum, and amygdala.” Of example, “Dysfunction and structural disruptions in the thalamus can lead to an amnestic syndrome due to impairments in recall and recognition…. Disruptions in striatal output may lead to impulsive and suicidal behavior" (Zhang).

How can this ongoing problem be fixed?

Time Limits on Posts: Videos and Pictures Included

The time limit gadget has been updated by Apple to notify users when they are using an app for too long. Users can exit the app, ignore the notification, or set another reminder. “Apple’s Screen Time aims to address growing concerns around increasing device usage, smartphone addiction and social media impacting on mental health. The idea is to help you regain control, or at least make you aware of the amount of time you are spending on your devices and what you are doing on them” (Pocket-lint). While such an addition helps users log out of apps, the apps themselves do not have time limits, allowing users to do whatever they want for as long as they want. Tech companies should implement a time limit on posts, videos, and pictures with setting of showing each one at a time. The time should be more than the attention span of humans (i.e., greater than 8 seconds). This will allow for typed posts, videos, and pictures to be observed, analyzed, and evaluated before proceeding to the next. Because attention span has decreased, time limits on posts, videos, and pictures will force users to spend a certain amount of time observing and digesting information given to them. Thereafter, users can make judgements, decisions, and opinions. Critical thinking with a longer time spent on posts will also help users think through the information they have been provided with as mitigating misinformation is hard and censorship is controversial. Because the time limits implemented by Apple are used to reduce smartphone and social media addiction, time limits on posts can reinforce spending less time online. A limitation of time on posts and, therefore, a voluntary limitation on the number of posts viewed in a single setting, depression rates will likely decrease with the shortened amount of social media use.

Daily Surveys of Mental Health Checks: Post-Social Media Usage

With a correlation of social media and depression, apps should ask users series of a few questions in a mental health check after they use the application. Such questions should include how the user feels after using the application, how long did the user intend on using the app today, and how the user will use the information observed. Of concerning answers should prompt the application recommendations on how they can improve their mental health and avoid any roads to greater depression. Users will then be able to clearly understand how they feel and realize how social media may be affecting them. Because depression effects the psyche and, thereafter, critical thinking, such an addition will help improve mental health and brain function. Mental health check-ins are a sustainable way to making sure progressions don’t get deeper. According to Mount Sinai Medical Center, “your emotional well-being is just as important as your physical health, and by identifying early signs of such conditions as depression or anxiety, the most serious versions of these can usually be avoided. Early identification and treatment is especially helpful, because later stages often trigger some kind of personal crisis…” (msmc.com).

Policy Recommendation

Time Limits on Posts: Videos and Pictures Included

The implementation of time limits on posts, videos, and pictures are an effective way to restore critical thinking and comprehension abilities of social media users. Although dissatisfaction of users with the social media platform may occur, it is more beneficial to maintain a customer base of mentally healthy users, which is of more importance than profit and brand recognition. In the long run, there will be a usage of social media and social culture that is more sustainable in promising strong mental health and brain function. This will likely have a positive effect such as a more instinctive exercise of critical thinking and rational decision making. Like the implementation of newly introduced initiatives, tech companies should begin with a testing round of various participants. This will provide information on how to improve the new program. After improvement, tech companies should introduce the initiative to all users. While there will be an adjustment phase for the users and tech companies, there should be increased emphasis and publicity of the new program to begin the stimulation of a new culture surrounding social media. The implementation of time limits can correct the effects of decreased attention span, distorted reality, and depression.

References:

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