Social Media Altering the Brain?

I recently read the article “This is your brain on social media” and found it interesting, but I’m not sure I believe most of it. The author claims that social media is rewiring our brains, which is true, but maybe not to the extent that is suggested in this article. Here is my breakdown:

We’re becoming dumber: I spend a lot of time on social media sites, including conducting research on social media use among health care professionals. I do not believe the statement “their brains are more numb than that of a pot smoker.” More research is definitely needed on this. I could see how multitasking and participating/being active in several social media accounts at once could do this, but it seems only temporary at best. Research has suggested that multitasking negatively affects the brain, causing disorientation and lack of focus. Also, citing research from 2005? Please. Let’s get some updated information here because popular sites such Twitter were not even around until 2006. Also, the public was not utilizing social media the same in 2005 as they are today.

We get bored more easily: Well this I believe. I think it is because we as a society are so used to be connected to others that when we are not, we don’t know what to do with our time. Easy enough to consider.  Moving on….

We are less satisfied: I would hope that people are less satisfied by connecting/conversing with people online then they would in real life. Several factors are involved in communication including tone, body language, facial expressions, etc. Most of these factors are missing with online communication which is why it would make sense that people are not as satisfied with an online conversations in comparison to face to face.

We are becoming more partisan: I agree with this to an extent. I think this statement forgets to consider factors such as age, education level, access to internet, and so on. For example, some of my dance students who are around 10 years old believe what they read in online news. They do not question what they read or research opposing viewpoints. They do not understand that sites such as Google and Facebook select content that they think would be of interest to the individual. However, these are kids who are at a lower level of education and a lower level of online freedom/access. Now if adults believe and quote everything they read online without learning about opposing views, well…hmmm…how to word this nicely….that’s just ridiculous.

Social Media in the OR

Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children took a big step yesterday by allowing a social media team into the OR to report on the surgery of a three-year-old girl. This live stream of updates was a first for any hospital in the Orlando Health System. Of course the parents signed consent, but physicians allowing live feeds and updates to be reported from their OR are still rare. It is instead an upcoming trend that most are still VERY uncomfortable with.

The social media team posted updates on Facebook, blogs, Twitter, and live video on YouTube. They will also be covering the little girl’s recovery over the next few weeks. I can only imagine the legal nightmare that the hospital went through to accomplish this task, however, it did seem successful. When handled appropriately, live feeds from the OR can be educational and informative. However, handled poorly, and well……..your just asking for it ha-ha.

Questions are being raised though. Are the images too graphic for social media? Is it fair to the child to show her surgery when she doesn’t fully understand the privacy issues? Has social media gone too far? Etc. The outcome from streaming this surgery has created word of mouth, views and hits on the sites were extremely high, and the story is being covered both nationally and internationally. So I guess the question really is “Was it worth it” and the answer as of right now is “Yes.”