Social Media- A Cautionary Tale

As I watch my 4 year old hold a Skype video conversation with his grandmother, I come to understand that social media has become apart of our daily human development. The Internet has given us many was to express our thoughts, feelings, dreams and fantasies and for some, an opportunity to never be alone. As I move through my personal and professional life I can’t help but think about the affects social media has on how society deals with appearance verses reality.

Before there was the Internet, radio and television were the media of choice that moved societies all around the globe, influencing how they lived every aspect of their lives. The underling connection between all media is its’ direct psychological affect on society and how we view ourselves as individuals and how we see other groups that we come into contact with that make a society.

Reality TV is a source of social discussion because it seems to consume a large social audience in the same way the Internet has. Shows like the Bachelor, Flavor of Love, Jersey Shore and the Kardashians demonstrate how what is presented as real may not be after all. These shows affect their audience in the way that social media on the Internet does with more then its entertainment value. There is value in researching and discussing the layers of psychology that affect people via the long term use of social media and its manipulative and influential ways.

In an article called, If Hitler asked you to Electrocute a Stranger Would You, by Philip Meyer, I read about an experiment that demonstrated the concept that humans have a condition of obedience. Stanley Milgram set off to prove the thesis by William Shirer that Germans were more obedient then Americans. (1) The experiment of taking one person and putting him in a rehearsed play without him knowing that he was in a play is a metaphor for the connection that individuals have with social media including reality shows. Social media may work because of the obedience factor discussed in the article. Social media manipulates and influences individuals’ perception of what is real verses what is manipulated entertainment because of the obedience factor.

So the next time I get annoyed because someone watches a particular reality show or spend more then enough time using social media on the internet, I can think about the obedience concept and keep an open mind to the idea of individuals finding a level of redemption or value even when what is being presented is not their reality.


1) Philip Meyer, If Hitler asked you to Electrocute a Stranger Would You, Esquire Magazine, February 1970