How Social Media Depersonalizes Us
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- Опубліковано 13 бер 2024
- Our website: www.justandsinner.org
This is a discussion of how social media interactions depersonalize us both by treating people as mere ideas, and by divorcing people's words from their own person and context.
For those who do not know me or my content, I just want to clarify that my critique here is not of the idea of a universal or objective human essence (I'm no postmodernist), but of the Enlightenment construct of such things.
A bit off-topic but have you read any of the Alasdair McIntyre's works (After Virtue being most prominent)? I see a lot of overlap between your general critique of enlightenment ideas and his critiques in the book. He is one of the most prominent supporters of revival of Aristotelian ethics.
@vault13dweller15 I read After Virtue in college. I liked it at the time, but haven't revisited it.
Leaving twitter was probably the smartest thing I've done in the last year.
Giving up social media and video games last year was one of the best decisions I've ever made. I recently converted my iPhone to be a dumb phone, and it's been just as helpful. My personal skills have flourished, my mind is clearer, my dopamine levels are healthy, and I have significantly more time to do things that are actually good. I am more prayerful, more educated, and a better husband than I have ever been. I really wonder if the invention of the smartphone and social media have been the worst things in human history.
Which is why it is incredibly wonderful to be able to go to a solid confessional lutheran church anywhere and be able to connect with those people on the Perfect level. Beyond that may be difficult, but during a solid liturgical service we are together in Christ.
Hope that makes sense.
It's not just social media. Really think about how your communications have changed with people with whom you mostly text message. And how different it is when you're speaking in person or on the phone.
The differences may be subtle. But multiply those subtle differences over hundreds or even thousands of communications. They completely change our relationships with others.
I can see that lack of contextualization even among family members. As my children grew with the fast development of technology the differences between my generation and theirs have been enormous. I realized that I was guilty of not taking my parents' context of life and culture into consideration for their way of raising me and my siblings and their values and beliefs. Now my children are doing the same. I'm trying really hard to make them see, now that i can see, that context for everthing and anything must be considered. I'm not saying context justify bad behavior or beliefs, but it explain a whole lot.
I also look forward to the return of localism. No more celebrity preachers. No more online ministry grifting. No more religious twitter snark.
Too bad it will require an air-burst EMP to force the issue.
Social media could be a tool, but it’s become a toxic cesspool. Some of that toxicity bleeds over into face to face interactions also.
I like what you said about context and flourishing, particularly for Christians. Communication can really be a double edged sword. I think of the babelfish in Douglas Adam's Hitchhiker's Guides to the Galaxy which states: "Meanwhile, the poor Babel fish, by effectively removing all barriers to communication between different races and cultures, has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of creation"!
Yes, I agree communication is a problem online because our experience shapes our interpretation, making it easier or harder to understand someone with different experiences (I mean mostly background but also education, etc).
But I don’t think it causes depersonalization, I believe most people naturally categorize people in any setting. Then in an online context where interactions are quick and everyone is in a hurry that judgement is very often incorrect.
I believe the real problem is assuming a global community is possible. Every time tons of humans lived very close to one another they had to adhere to a tight culture that glue them together otherwise they would be fighting (or worse) all the time. Now we might not live in close proximity but the Internet is almost the same, with the difference that we don’t see the eyes of the person we’re “condemning”. That’s why there’s a huge pressure for everyone to conform to a set of post-Christian values, a push that is being directed at individuals’ thoughts and values and established communities for that matter, including religious ones. That’s the danger the mere existence of the Internet brings nowadays.
I've understood that the difference between what we have with social media versus what we used to have with written stuff in general, is that there is not much by way of contemplation anymore. Because when read comments or any of the sort, we simply do not reflect to understand what someone is saying.
If we understood by default that people are talking within their own contexts all the time, it might at least pause to reflect on what is being said, rather than attacking someone immediately as social media often inherently incentivises. Good thoughts Dr. Cooper, keep them coming!
I agree! Developing personal relationships is so needful in local assemblies. God’s churches are full of people who are addicted to self entertainment and are not so interested in getting to know the brethren. Many scriptures speak about this, “love one another fervently with a pure heart.” Etc.
Maybe another tag-on to this is that the fall of localism and the rise of cross-cultural (mis)communication seems to have led to a general decrease in conviction. With thought and behavior being processed impersonally online rather than being taken to parents, teachers, clergy, or friends, there could be less development of thought within one's context, leading to specific justifications for those thoughts and actions being thrown out.
Love these videos recently!
I agree. It would be very easy to become a stumbling block for others because they only read a snippet, misunderstand, and then feel affront, fear, or anger.
The things that interest me, theology being one of them, are not suitable for posting on X or FB, because the way I would talk about any topic would be different if I was talking to another Confessional Lutheran, to any other Christian, to an atheist, or to a person of any other religion. I'd be making the same points, but how I would go about making those points would be different (what vocabulary I would feel I need to clarify, what I would emphasize, how I would ask them questions to get them thinking, etc.). So, the depersonalization goes both ways in that not only are we impersonal to them but we're also reaching an anonymous and broad range of people from all walks of life. It makes it much harder to meet them where they're at and have a good faith argument.
The way I see most of the heated arguments nowadays is like this: two people are arguing about a tree and they're getting more and more upset that the other person can't see or won't accept what is so obvious to them about the tree. The other person seems heartless, cruel, unreasonable, and a fool. What they dont realize is that they need to take a step back and clarify where is the tree growing, what is the climate there, etc. If they did that they would find that one person was talking about a tree in a mangrove and other other about a tree in a fir forest. Both trees but completely different roots and quite different in other ways too. If I want to talk about many of the hot issues in politics right now, for example, I would first need to take a step back, clarify what I believe about God as a Christian, how that determines my worldview, and define the terms I'm using before I could expect to have a conversation about many topics affecting humanity and have my line of reasoning be followed and understood even if the other person didn't agree with me.
I think there is very little in this world that is actually common sense. "If you stick your hand in fire, then you're going to get burnt" is common sense that we learn as kids, but take any topic pertaining to worldview and we'll find that making an appeal to common sense is very ineffective to someone of a different view.
Agree
I'm glad I found your channel, man, lol. The world hates idealists and those who believe in objective universals concerning the soul and the impassable man. I dunno if you're generally an idealist exactly, but I do find many similarities in your approach as to mine (though you dress nicer, lol).
Appreciate the videos.
My philosophy is broadly Neoplatonic.
@@DrJordanBCooper Broadly is a word, lol. Look forward to future videos!
6:10
Johann Georg Hamann wrote a lot against this kind of thinking. In his Metacritique of Pure Reason, a response to Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, he uses Kant's own experience of being "awakened from his dogmatic slumber" by David Hume as proof that he (Kant) was not thinking independently of his Western European environment.
Social media is the new pandemic. People cannot stop using their mobile devices, even for 5 minutes. I hate going into the city because i have to keep dodging people glued to their phones.
Converting my iPhone to a dumbphone and giving up social media and video games has made a powerful change in my focus, my time, my mood, and my personal skills. To think I'm basically just reverting to how life was 15 years ago is astounding. Without the ability to spread my opinions instantly, I find that I consider them more and I am also far slower to offer them when physically present with others. Without google at my fingertips I can dwell on an idea longer, and I understand what information is or isn't important based on if I remember it next time I have access to a desktop computer. The damage social media and smartphones have done to the human mind is incredible.
7:06 But isn't the image of God that all men are imbued with precisely a kind of universal humanity?
See pinned comment.
Social media allows people think as though they are like God, as if they have some universal understanding or perspective of how the world should work. In that way, it’s a hurdle to the 1st Commandment, an embodiment of pride.