Think Before You Like: Social Media's Effect on the Brain and the Tools You Need to Navigate Your Newsfeed | 
“A small core of around five close relationships is far more important to our well-being than a vast collection of hundreds or even thousands of casual online acquaintances.”
“Some social media users seem to be engaged in a strange game of collecting digital people...”
I currently have 45 Facebook friends and I think that number is high for me. What‘s your number; do you collect digital people? 🤔 No shame/judgement, just food for thought.
• Social media is absolutely nothing new... •
#currentlyreading #nonfiction #society #themoreyouknow #humannature #world #connection
• Again, the dangers of our social media-obsessed world. So many positives...just as many negatives. “HOW we use it is far more important than simply THAT we use it.” •
“You‘re an interesting species. An interesting mix. You‘re capable of such beautiful dreams, and such horrible nightmares. You feel so lost, so cut off, so alone; only, you‘re not. See, in all our searching, the only thing we found that makes the emptiness bearable is each other.”
—Contact, 1997 film
“Researchers in San Diego have grown “mini-brains” from stem cells [...] and striking differences have emerged between them based on the source of the stem cells. Cells taken from people with Williams syndrome, a condition that makes one prone to hyper-socialization, grew neurons with an unusually high number of connections. Mini-brains grown from cells taken from donors with autism, a condition marked by low socialization, had fewer connections.”
• Not surprised to read that Facebook still rules the social media universe •
#currentlyreading #nonfiction #society #socialmedia #facts
“Americans check their phones, on average, nearly 50 times per day. Those in the 18 to 24-year-old bracket do it 82 times per day, on average. Within five minutes of waking up, more than 40% of people have already looked at their phones for the first time of the day. More than 30% of smartphone owners check them five minutes before going to sleep. And around half of all smart phone owners take a peek at some point in the middle of the night.”
• I‘m not a super-paranoid person—otherwise I wouldn‘t live my life with/on social media. However, just flipping through this book and looking things over has me feeling conflicted/icky about our society‘s voluntary exposure on Facebook and other social media platforms. I‘m not sure the potential pros outweigh the potential cons. You know Facebook is forever, right? 🙄 I really don‘t know what to think; that‘s why I picked up the book! •
