Georgia College hosted a Times Talk, a lecture series opening discussion on New York Times articles, Feb. 26 titled 'Disconnect to Reconnect: The Power of Living Beyond Social Media.” Jan Hoffmann, professor of rhetoric, served as the Times Talk host alongside facilitators Amy Bishop, a sophomore mass communications major, and Angela Criscoe, executive director of the School of Continuing and Professional Studies.
Times Talk has been going strong since 2005 and is an effort to display and discuss the different public events in the world reported by the New York Times. Bishop and Criscoe chose this talk’s topic inspired by “These ‘Luddite’ Teens Don’t Want Your Likes” and “Now in College, Luddite Teens Still Don’t Want Your Likes.” Attendees were given links to these articles to read prior to the discussion.
These articles follow students in high school who embraced being Luddites, a person opposed to new technology or ways of working.
They started clubs with like-minded people in their community that chose to switch to flip phones, limit time with a smart phone, or who worked on not trying to be perfect for social media.
Members of the club learned how to reconnect with nature and their peers and reportedly found it a better way of life. It challenged them to do things the “hard way” and some even brought the movement with them to college in hopes of showing their peers that they do not have to depend on a smartphone to live.
“Open your phones and go to settings and look for screen time and then look for the apps and find which one you use the most,” Bishop said. “Which app do you spend the most time on?”
Many of the attendants spent hours on their phones with a majority of the time on a social media app such as Instagram or YouTube.
“Living Life without social media has been so freeing,” Bishop said. “I chose peace instead of social media.”
Bishop deleted Instagram in September 2023, Snapchat in October 2023, and then TikTok, a couple of months ago.
Bishop then proceeded to ask if any of those in the audience could remember the last post they saw or interacted with. Only a few raised their hands. Bishop used their response to open discussion on how the excessive use of social media can correlate to memory loss.
According to the Neurology Center for Epilepsy and Seizures, people relying on smartphones for their information can contribute to forgetfulness. Only three to four people remembered what they saw last on social media. Criscoe and Bishop led this discussion to focus on the “fear of missing out” and the “joy of missing out,” which refer to how a person feels missing a social media post when offline.
A student in attendance mentioned that they used to spend a lot of time trying to get a perfect Instagram picture. They stated they were not enjoying their time with friends because they needed a good picture for Instagram.
“True joy cannot be captured on camera,” the student said following their story.
Another student mentioned that their parents would take their phones during their birthdays so they and their friends could focus on each other. However, they remember each birthday because they discreetly took pictures with their phone.
The conversation then became about how much time one spends on their phone and social media and how it can become unhealthy. To negate this, facilitators suggested attendees set time limits on social media or disable notifications to focus on staying in the moment.
“That social validation is toxic,” said Lily Grace Kinsey, a sophomore early childhood education major. “I think that commenting on social media posts can be toxic because you think like ‘Oh, I have to comment on this person (post) because I feel like I'm obligated to’ and not because you genuinely want to make this person feel good. I think ‘I need to tell her that type of thing in order to receive validation from others.’” The age difference in the crowd was discussed and how the use of social media across different age groups was very different. A few of the professors in attendance mentioned turning off the notifications of their social media apps so they do not jump to look at them every time something comes through their phone.
The discussion ended with the facilitators recapping the topics covered and how they want people to decide for themselves how much use of social media and phones are too unhealthy for them.