Facebook Fearless: How social media can be good for you | Tracy Alloway | TEDxJacksonville

Summary

This video challenges common fears about social media, such as its potential to make us narcissistic or decrease our attention spans. The speaker shares personal experiences and research, revealing that social media can foster empathy, improve memory, and enhance multitasking abilities. Through experiments, it is shown that engaging personally on social media increases empathy, and using it may even improve cognitive skills like working memory. The video concludes by encouraging viewers to rethink their approach to social media, promoting connection, memory training, and empathy development.

Takeaways

• 😀 Social media can foster empathy by enabling meaningful connections and interactions with others.
• 😀 Fear about social media making people more narcissistic is challenged by the idea that it helps develop empathy.
• 😀 Social media can allow people to support and offer kindness to others, even complete strangers, as illustrated by the speaker’s experience with receiving warm wishes after an injury.
• 😀 Personal engagement on social media, such as commenting and chatting, is linked to increased empathy.
• 😀 The fear that social media depletes memory and cognitive abilities is addressed by suggesting that it may enhance working memory.
• 😀 Working memory, which is critical for processing and prioritizing information, is developed through activities like filtering content on social media.
• 😀 Social media helps improve working memory, as shown by a study where social media use positively impacted cognitive abilities in high school students.
• 😀 Social media’s constant flow of information challenges our cognitive skills, but it also provides opportunities to practice filtering relevant from irrelevant data.
• 😀 The concept of the 'spotlight brain' (focused attention) is evolving into the 'floodlight brain,' where people are able to juggle multiple streams of information at once, thanks to social media.
• 😀 The 'floodlight brain' is not inherently bad; it can enhance attention and improve accuracy when processing multiple pieces of information simultaneously.
• 😀 The speaker encourages a fearless approach to social media by using it to improve memory, develop empathy, and multitask effectively.

Q & A

What is the main concern people have about the impact of social media?

Many people fear that social media is making us more narcissistic, depleting our memory, and diminishing our attention span. These are the key concerns addressed in the script.

How does the speaker challenge the idea that social media is narcissistic?

The speaker suggests that online connections can be just as meaningful as face-to-face ones and that these connections could encourage empathy rather than narcissism.

What personal experience does the speaker share to illustrate the positive side of social media?

The speaker shares an experience where, after injuring their knee, they posted about it on social media. Strangers responded with warmth and compassion, showing that social media can foster empathy.

What experiment did the speaker conduct to test the relationship between social media use and empathy?

The speaker conducted an experiment where they asked over 400 people about their social media habits and empathy. The findings showed that those who spent more time engaging with others on social media were more empathetic.

How does the speaker suggest social media might benefit memory?

The speaker argues that social media could improve working memory by helping individuals process and prioritize information. They suggest that checking friends' updates on social media is linked to better cognitive skills.

What is working memory, and how does it relate to social media use?

Working memory is the cognitive skill used to bring order to information, prioritize what's important, and ignore irrelevant details. The speaker suggests that social media requires users to constantly process and prioritize information, which could improve working memory.

What was the result of the study on high schoolers and social media use?

The study found that high schoolers who used social media for over a year had higher working memory scores compared to those who used it for a shorter period.

What does the speaker mean by 'floodlight brain'?

The 'floodlight brain' refers to the ability to focus on multiple things at once, a skill that has developed due to the constant flow of information from social media, which differs from the traditional 'spotlight brain' that focuses on one thing at a time.

What was the outcome of the experiment on attention and social media use?

The experiment showed that individuals who used social media more had a 'floodlight brain' and were better at handling multiple pieces of information simultaneously. They were also more accurate in attention tasks and less likely to miss important details.

What are three ways the speaker suggests we can use social media positively?

The speaker suggests three ways to use social media positively: (1) Use the floodlight brain at work to manage multiple tasks. (2) Train memory by recalling information about friends' posts. (3) Use social media to develop empathy by engaging meaningfully with others.