Goodreads Debate Guild discussion
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not me but my morning newsletter
Utah governor calls social media “evil” and a “cancer.” Yesterday on NBC, Gov. Spencer Cox said, “I believe that social media has played a direct role in every single assassination and assassination attempt that we have seen over the last five, six years. Cancer probably isn’t a strong enough word.” He also called the executives behind social media companies “conflict entrepreneurs” and that it took decades “to realize how evil these algorithms are.” The governor also said that alleged shooter Tyler Robinson had a “leftist ideology,” and spent large amounts of time in the “dark corners of the internet.” The state of Utah passed some social media laws to protect minors, most recently in 2024, but they have not taken effect since a federal judge temporarily blocked them.
now spencer cox is an interesting figure and i don't really mean that in a kind way, but when we blame social media on everything (assassination?? cancer??) we're taking away from the actual honest severity of the issue, what we should be is educating kids instead of being like social media = *insert every possible social/ethical/economical issue ever*
i agree. like, yes, social media can be used in a bad way, and certain aspects of it can be harmful, but that doesn't mean it's inherently bad, and it definitely doesn't mean it's to blame for every single thing that's wrong with our world. which is an agenda a lot of people seem to be pushing.
for some parents (like mine were) once they read some bad news about someone on social media being influenced by this and that and doing horrible things or committing suicide, they banned me from social media (including gr) until i was 16, and even now, I’m not on a lot due to their influence
but can we mention that despite a couple of bad stories coming in every now and then, there are MILLIONS of people using social media and still living their daily lives uninterrupted?
social media itself isn’t the problem. it’s a tool, like any weapon or piece of technology, that depends on how you handle it. mental illness doesn’t come from simply using social media, it’s about what you engage with while on it. for some, it can be life-changing and powerful, exposing them to supportive voices and information they never had access to in households where parents or family were dismissive or even harmful or shared only their viewpoints and not facts. for others, it can be toxic and full of more misinformation or communities that thrive on hate. the real problem isn’t the platform, but how responsibly people use it and how much critical thinking and fact-checking they bring into the space. what hurts mental health most isn’t social media itself, but the stigma fueled by anti-mental-health voices who spread negativity and shame online that everyone is forced to see.
ashh ³³ ᵈᵘ ᵈᵘ ᵈᵘ wrote: "
not me but my morning newsletter
Utah governor calls social media “evil” and a “cancer.” Yesterday on NBC, Gov. Spencer Cox said, “I believe that social media has played a direct role in every..."
if you have a link for this can you share it? i'd be interested in reading this article/newsletter
i'm looking for a full link but i can't quite find it <\3
these are news snapshots from the morning brew (i'm subscribed to their morning brew, retail brew, marketing brew, brew markets, maxinomics and money w katie) i can forward the email or share a copy, or perhaps find a copy online
the newsletter itself did link these two
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articl...
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/u...
I don’t think social media is inherently bad, but I do think it has a lot of negative effects on society.Between cyber bullying, doom scrolling, extremely high beauty standards, it has a lot of users finding a high and crashing down from it in an extremely unhealthy way. For example posting content. Receiving likes gives people a small boost of dopamine, which is good, but the lack of likes results in the drop of dopamine and commonly the drop of self worth. Bad results are worse than good results are good.
https://health.ucdavis.edu/blog/culti...
Outside of the effect social media has on dopamine levels, I think the biggest effect it has on the way we view mental health is the information spread. In recent years things like neurodivergency disorders (adhd, autism, ocd) have risen in the amount of diagnoses. I think social media plays a big part in this because it offers a lot of information about symptoms of these disorders, which young adults previously labeled as ‘gifted’ realize to be signs of neurodivergency. This is probably a good effect, as it allows a lot of people with mental disabilities to get proper help, but it also has its downfalls. A lot of misinformation is commonly spread, and may lead to misdiagnoses. This doesn’t always mean someone just doesn’t have the disability, they might mistake it for something else.
https://www.autismspeaks.org/science-...
Something I’ve noticed personally is because of how common mental health disorders are shown, some people get a vague idea of a disorder and relate to it. For example, ‘I’m so ADHD, I get really hyper’. They aren’t saying they have ADHD but I feel like this can generalize disorders like that. ADHD isn’t being hyper, it’s hyper fixations. And that’s not all, ADHD also comes with extreme memory issues, and not ‘dang I just can’t remember the name of this’ it’s like ‘I completely forgot to eat for the past two days and now I can’t stop binge eating’. I think social media influences people to misrepresent a lot of similar disorders. Depression is not an aesthetic.
