This story is jointly published as part of the Utah College Media Collaborative, a cross-campus project bringing together emerging journalists from Salt Lake Community College, Southern Utah University, the University of Utah, Utah Tech University and Weber State University. The collaborative is an Amplify Utah project with support from PBS Utah.
Those who grew up during the beginning of the digital age can recall the magic of MySpace — a new form of connecting with friends and showcasing one’s personality. From being able to put a soundtrack on your blog to posting photos, commenting and sending messages, media has become a normal part of life.
Whether by choice or by social standards, navigating online life has become a must in newer generations.
Trends between millennials, Gen Z
Compared to millennials, Gen Z uses social media more overall, with data showing that 90% of Gen Z use social media platforms.
“Gen Z is definitely influenced by social media, but honestly, every generation is at this point,” said Li Chen, an associate professor of social media and data analytics at Weber State University.
However, millennials are more likely to say they are addicted to social media compared to Gen Z. Data from Civic Science reported that young adults aged 18-24 use social media less compared to the same age group five years ago.
The link between social displacement and social media
Although, from a broad perspective, lack of in-person engagement can be seen as the result of social media, from an individual perspective, social media and communication actually showed a positive relationship.
Social media has been used as a tool to continue communication while adapting to busy lifestyles. And time spent on social media showed no actual disruption of future in-person meet-ups.
Out of the average three hours spent on social media, a significant portion of that time was spent communicating with others.
However, increased social media use has prompted research into the phenomenon of social displacement, which looks at the idea of how face-to-face time is being replaced with social media or online connections.
The idea of social displacement has had mixed results, linking social media to a concept that predates social media itself. However, one link was clear: social media’s link to the loneliness epidemic.
Connection vs. communication
“I think we’ve seen isolation [more], so [the problem is] less about communication and more about connection,” said Marni Brunstetter, a mental health therapist and social worker at Salt Lake Community College.
Brunstetter offered advice on building connections in the digital age: “We have all the ability to make the social connections we’ve been making since the dawn of civilization, and we don’t need another app — we don’t need the phones — to fix it for us. We can be the ones that make the choices that get us in more connection with others, that help us feel that we know our neighbors. Reach out to them to build that sense of humanity.”
Sarah Billington, an associate professor who teaches interpersonal communication at SLCC, considers a connection to be “something meaningful” that not all communication achieves.
“The purpose of communicating is to get the message out, right? But I think, often, people are communicating to connect,” she said.
Communicating to connect can best be exemplified by building communities with meaningful friendships that can lead to more personal connections. In contrast, communicating alone can look like posting photos, statuses or commentary with no intention to allow others to engage in a meaningful way.
“That was why social media was really invented — you could get online, you could share your story, you could even maybe meet people. The intention is to connect, often,” Billington said. “However, I think sometimes people get on there [social platforms] often as well to just communicate something.”
Connecting in a digital world
“I do think, in general, people are less connected on a personal level,” said Heather Cunningham, an SLCC Fashion Institute student. “I feel like people struggle [to] maintain relationships … like understanding each other on a fundamental personal connection.”
Cunningham said she felt as though everywhere she went, peers complained about how hard it was to make those personal connections.
“While I think part of that [disconnect] is the effect of growing up and becoming an adult, I think a big part of that [disconnect] is that it’s just a different set of skills that you have to put in to create those personal connections versus creating online connections,” Cunningham said.
Haley Von Niederhausern, another SLCC Fashion Institute student, uses social media to find “pseudo communities” that offer opportunities to find genuine connections. But, she added, “they’re not true communities, because there’s no true personal connection.”
While Von Niederhausern doesn’t discredit the online communities, she explained that everyone should also have real-world connections. Even though it is something she struggles with, she said she still makes the effort to build those relationships.
Algorithms and the echo chamber effect
Echo chambers, or silos, are parts of algorithms that only feed material that is similar to each other, which often fosters a single narrative for user consumption.
“The real issue is how echo chambers trap people in one perspective,” said Li Chen. “Social media makes it super easy to only see content that reinforces your beliefs, which can distort how you see the world. For Gen Z, who often rely on these platforms for news, it can be tricky to sort out what’s real and what’s just hype.”
Von Niederhausern described the cycle that can occur within an echo chamber.
“If all you consume is the hyper-reactionary content … that, in my opinion, is what trends more towards brain rot. It’s also actively participating in that [content], where you’re commenting on it — you’re taking those feelings into your real life — you’re again, feeding, almost submitting to those echo chambers,” said Von Neideierhausern.
Jarrod Ventura, a positive media psychologist and Ph.D. candidate at Chapman University, combats online echo chambers by challenging his students to “break their feed.”
Breaking one’s feed is purposefully engaging with content outside of personal beliefs, such as liking videos that show an opposing view of a political issue. This creates a “confused” algorithm that cannot gather enough data to show similar videos, breaking a user out of echo chambers and exposing them to broad perspectives online.
Mindfulness in media consumption
Along with his challenge to “break the feed,” Ventura teaches his students mindfulness by incorporating meditations throughout class and teaching how to use media for good.
“I basically try to find all the positives and goods, right? So, how can positive media elicit happiness [and] love?” said Ventura. “When someone is more likely to experience positive emotions, that becomes their default after a certain point.”
Social media can play a part in depression and anxiety, but it isn’t so much social media itself, but the content consumed.
Positive media psychology focuses on the potential of technology while encouraging people to become more aware of their own consumer habits. Platforms such as Joybox and Marco Polo create a more uplifting environment for users.
According to Ventura, these apps are designed for users to “spiral upwards” with positive media use habits by viewing content that makes them feel good emotionally. However, these platforms have not gained the same traction as Instagram, Facebook and other mainstream apps.
“There definitely needs to be more introductions of positive media into our mainstream [platforms],” said Ventura.
However, in terms of media regulation, Ventura commented on the challenge to break habits while finding a way to self-regulate: “In [the] communication [field], we always talk about [how] we know what’s good for us, but we don’t always practice it.”
Ventura discussed how different forms of communication utilized by media can allow either synchronous or asynchronous connections. While navigating digital connections, he recommends using platforms that allow for longer-form videos and interactive communication, which allow people to connect more than compared to texting.
Ashley Orduna reported and produced this story as a communication student at Salt Lake Community College.
