As a member of the notorious "millennial" generation, who has accounts on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, I'm sick of hearing adults tell me that social media is messing with my brain and ruining my life. Believe it or not, I am still capable of communicating face to face, I do actually get most of my news from physical newspapers and magazines, and no, I am not friends with people on Facebook that I don't know in the real world. Oftentimes discussions about my generation's social media use are unproductive and one-sided, and the conversation usually stops at some sort of impractical pseudo-solution like "just unplug yourself for a week or something, you'll feel great!"
So, I was excited to stumble upon this video from the folks over at AsapSCIENCE, who have managed to add some some useful elements to the social media discussion by dissecting the effects these sites have on our brains. They discuss everything from the effects social media has on our ability to multitask to "phantom vibration syndrome," an actual medical term for when you think your phone has vibrated but it was really just an itch. They talk about some negatives, some positives, and some things that are kind of just strange. Check it out!
