Social Media The promise and The Peril

It's been around for well over fifteen years. In its infancy, it started as something that everyone enjoyed and was talking about and said, what a great innovation. It connected us to far away friends, fire away relatives, and was seemingly bringing us closer together. But in the past decade or less, it has caused more division, especially in the United States of America, and some say it's ruining the very fabric of society. We're going to talk about social media this time on Wi's Thoughts. It's time for a virtual campfire sit down with Terry Weiss. Will come to White Thoughts. Hey, everybody, welcome back to the program, Welcome to Weis's Thoughts. Welcome to our virtual campfire sit down. I am Terry Weiss, your humbled host, and I am so glad that you decided to spend some of your valuable time with me today. I truly appreciate each and every one of you out there that is listening to the podcast, and I thank you for your continued support. And if you enjoy the podcast, would you do me a small favor? Drop by the website Weiss's Thoughts dot com wycee Weis's Thoughts dot com and leave us a rating and review, or better yet, if you're listening on your favorite podcast provider, would you drop a review in for us. We'd appreciate it. Thank you very much, and hey, if you want to get in touch with me, it's mail mail mail at Weiss thoughts dot com. We're going to talk about social media on today's episode of the podcast. This is something that hits near and dear home to me, and as I talked about in the teaser in the opener, what started out is seemingly something wonderful. Everybody was talking. I remember when social media was first really gaining traction about fifteen or so years or fifteen twenty years ago. Everybody was like, oh my gosh, you've got to try you know, this this new program out here, you know, Facebook, et cetera that developed, and when Twitter was in its infancy, and what was the the big one actually was back in the day my Space. My Space at least as far as my memory goes, was one of the big ones out there that really got I believe, the social media revolution going. And it was a great way for people to connect, you know, you could you could get in touch with long loss relatives, long lost friends, college buddies, people that you grew up with that moved away. It seemed like many of us were flocking to the social media craze and platform in its infancy when it started, and lately, as I was speaking about it, seems like in the past decade or so, it's really now become a contention, a point of contention in today's modern society. I mean, we're in the year twenty and twenty four, twenty twenty four, those of us on the digital side of the planet, and look at some of the things and controversies and issues and even harm that social media has done, not only to the youth, not only to the youth of this nation and the youth around the world, but even folks that aren't young, Okay, the middle aged, the elderly. Unfortunately, some people have committed suicide from bullying on social media. There's, of course, the fake news things with social media. There's the ability for people to use social media for shaming, for again bullying, for propaganda, to organize nefarious things such as violent protests and other things of such a variety. And I know, as you're listening to this, some of you out there are shaking your head and saying, yeah, Terry, you're just giving all the bad stuff. Okay, Yeah, social media still continues in some instances to do good. So do you think it is a matter of we've become more aware of the promise and falls of social media or are we finally learning some of the ugly secrets behind the hidden door of these social media companies and things they do and things they perpetuate and some of the let's just face it, knuckleheads that use it. People have lost their jobs because of social media and posts, some that may have been truthful and some not. Companies have taken a hit in their reputations and customer base and financially because of social media. Again, some information in that realm might have been true or not. So there's a lot to unpack here as we talk about social media, the perils, the promise, and the pitfalls. And when I think back to the beginnings of social media again, it was things like MySpace. When Facebook came out, it was all the rage. And if you ever watch the movie, the Hollywood movie that was made called The Social Network, that was basically telling you that Facebook started as a way for college people to you know, on campuses and around the country to keep in contact with each other. Maybe Mark Zuckerberg Zuckerberg Zuckerberg, however you pronounce his name. Sorry, Mark had good intentions when he started. But again, fast forward to the year twenty twenty four, and social media has become a haven of propaganda, at least as far as my eyes have seen. Misinformation, disinformation, censorship, a bully pulplit of a pulpit, a bully pulpit for certain groups and individuals to harass and docs and you know, put other people and groups of people down on all sides of the spectrum. I'm not saying one side has or can claim, you know, superiority or higher ground, moral, higher ground over others. So there's a lot to consider when it comes to social media. I've seen it destroy lives, both young and old, and it really makes me wonder. You know, there was a special on Netflix not too long ago, a few years back, maybe about three years or so ago, maybe a little longer, about how social media uses computer algorithms to keep us scrolling. I mean, we got things now like YouTube shorts, Facebook shorts, TikTok okay, where you're scrolling through those pages just watching ten fifteen thirty second forty second videos and it's onto the next, on to the next, and that computer is feeding you, that algorithm keeping you, you know, mindless scrolling. And I'll admit it, I'm not claiming any mortal superiority or high ground with you here on this. I have fallen down many times, fallen down the rabbit hole of us, you know, scrolling through like TikTok and YouTube shorts, especially on the social media platforms, just getting a little snippet. Then it feeds you something else based on that, and oh you like that, you didn't like that, you stayed on that one. And it's kind of scary, it really is. It's kind of scary how these computers can get into our heads and into our psyche and into our moods and influence our moods and what's going on. Really, it really is kind of scary. Now, it's not all bad. I mean, social media has been good. There's Social media has led to the development of such websites as like gofund me and brought attention to just causes around the world and things like that, helping people that are stricken with horrible circumstances or horrible diseases or horrible, heartbreaking loss where people can donate either their time or funds to help someone else. So it's not all bad and bleak, my friends, it's not. However, I was having a conversation with a fellow colleague earlier today, as a matter of fact, that the taping of this podcast, and we got on the subject of social media. I'm not sure who brought it up, but one of the points that I brought up was social media and I e. The Internet are a tool. And like with any tool, it can be used for good and it can be used for bad. It all depends on what you want to make of it. Okay, So we went into a long, you know, a pretty long discussion about that. Just like any tool, I mean, you can have a spoon. A spoon can be used to feed you, dig you know, in the dirt, you know, stir something, scoop something, et cetera. Or it can be used to hurt somebody. You know, you can scoop someone's eye out or something. I mean, I'm just being facatious, but you know what I'm saying. Just like an automobile, it can be good, used for good, to get you someplace, transport people in times of emergency transport you to a vacation, you can see the you know, you can see the country in an automobile drive basically anywhere that your vehicle is able to take you. But it can also be used for more nefarious reasons, you know, you know, like hit and run accidents, driving drunk, things of that nature, car accidents. So, like anything, it is a tool, and when used properly, social media can be very beneficial to society as a whole. However, when it is not used properly, you know, used for nefarious, evil things like I say evil, I'll use the word evil. I say evil. You will use the word evil, my friends. When it's used for evil things, this is where we get into trouble and get you know, society as a whole gets into trouble and it gets a bad rap. The other thing I think that also influences a lot of social media is advertising. Now, I understand, businesses need to make money to stay in business. You got to pay the utilities, you got to pay for the rent, you got to pay your employees that are running a thing. I get that. I get that. I understand where you're coming from. That being said, however, the runaway non proliferation of advertising. And what I mean by that is what's advertised to what age groups or demographics of society. I don't think there's a lot of control in that. It's more like the bigger the budget, and that the client is willing to pay to get their advertising out there. For the most part, it's going to be thrown out there for all to you and all to say. And that's the sad thing. That's the sad thing about it with social media. You know, there was just some articles on the Internet this week that you can go and research through that good old search engine Google with regards to the types of advertisement that is being shown to you know, young minds on social media, the things they're being fed. And there's a lot to be said for that steady diet of constant psychological bombardment, because at the end of the day, advertising as psychology. It's a psychological field. And I was talking about this with my voiceover coach here today when we had a session earlier in the day, because as a voiceover artist, I have to interpret or interpret scripts. In other words, an advertiser comes to me and says, Hey, Terry, I've got a thirty second TV spot that I need some voiceover or some narration for you get the script, You've got to break it down. You know, who am I on the script? Who am I talking to? Where's the conversation taking place, what's the tone of the conversation, how is it to come across? These are all psychological and emotional choices that I, as a voice actor voiceover artist have to make. And when the advertisers write this, or the copywriters write this, and the advertisers pay to have their product or service promoted, it goes into usually hands of an advertising agency, which then typically assigns a copywriter to write copy or different forms of copy, or a script as it were, and then it is pushed forward. And there's a lot of psychology, my friends, For those of you not familiar with the business of advertising, there's a lot of psychology that goes into it, a lot of psychology that goes into it, more than even I knew. And I have a broadcast background back in the day, went to school college for broadcasting and such, and there's an even over the past decade or two, there's so much more psychology into it and studies and data points that they use because it's about, you know, getting the dollar. And it's believed me. Advertising is heavily, heavily intertwined with social media. They are designed to keep you on social media. And that brings me up to another topic I wanted to discuss and talk about with social media, good, bad, are and different, the perils and the promise here on Wis's thoughts today, have you yourself experienced or maybe notice your children or friends are spending way too much time on social media and missing out an actually living life. I've been guilty of it at times in my life over the past, you know, five six years, I'm you know, I'm checking out Twitter or x as it is called now, or checking out YouTube. I guess we can. Can we call YouTube a social media platform? I guess so. It's a form of social media. You watch videos and interact and can't communicate back and forth by commenting on videos and such watching content Facebook. You know, I've found myself going down that rabbit hole. And another thing that me and the colleague I was speaking with earlier today talked about with regards to social media was that what you see, folks, And let me be perfectly clear on this, A lot a great deal of what you see on social media is not reality. Well what does that mean, Terry, I'm going to tell you that perfect life that you see a lot of these people that you may know, they may even be friends of yours or a friends of friends that you follow, or these influencers that you follow, It's not real life. It is not the day to day dulgrums, the day to day things that you need to do to exist, the job you go to, etc. It is not real life. Please understand that. Please ingrain that into your psyche. Nobody's life is this perfect. And by the same token, I don't think some of these catastrophizers on social media. Nobody's life is that much in the toilet at least, I would hope not. What you're seeing are the highlight reels of people's lives. Ooh we went to dinner here. Oh I'm on vacation. Watch me go down this water slide. Oh I'm stopping at you know, the local coffee shop. Oh I just happened to be walking through the park. Hey, there's nothing wrong with that. I'm not chastising those of you that post things like that. I've done it and I do continue to do it. Here and there on certain social media. By the way, I am on Twitter, slash x and also indeed dot com and YouTube and Facebook and such. Haven't made a TikTok account yet. I haven't garnered up the strength or the willpower to create a TikTok account. I don't know why. And I don't have an Instagram account either, There's none that I'm aware of under my name. But I do it too, I'll post, hey, you know, we had a great meal here there and that. But what I'm talking about and referring to is the people that basically are living in that virtual reality world per se without the headset. At this point, you're living vicariously through others on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, and it can be very destructive for your life. I guess I'm just going to come right out and say it. It can be very destructive for your life. How so o, Terry, Oh, please enlighten us, all right, I will. If you're ignoring the real world because you are just immersing yourself in social media, here's some of the effects that can have on you mentally. It can stress you out, it can wear you down, It can cause depression, anxiety, panic attacks, just to name a few. High blood pressure because your cortisone levels will shoot up if you're getting following posts and getting angry over stuffer. You know. Socially, it can cause you to lose relationships, distance yourself from people as you again retreat deeper and deeper into that virtual online world instead of being in the present moment in the real one. It can cause a number of physical symptoms, like we talked about two earlier, touched on briefly, but it can cause things like weight gain. Okay, sudden sedentary where you don't move. Some words just trip me up. I don't know why. I got to go back to my phonetics and my diction, which is annunciation, you know, like around the dragoned rock, the dragon Rascal ran anyway, whereas she sells seashells by the seashore anyway. It can cause things like depression. You know you talked about mentally in that, but physically too. That the physical symptoms of depression and panic attacks and anxiety cause weight gain because you're sitting on your keyster, on your phone or your tablet or in front of a computer most of the hours and you're not getting out of moving and you're you're socially isolating yourself, and that in itself can cause physical symptoms of depression, weight gain, a sedentary lifestyle, which can cause all kinds of problems, heart disease, et cetera. So I guess be mindful of social media. I mean too much. As my grandparents always used to tell me when they were alive, God rest their souls. You know, Terry, too much of anything is not good for you. And now you say, well, what do you mean. Too much sunshine, Yeah, you can get sunburn. Too much wind, Dan whinbmurn. Too much snow, yeah, too much rain, yeah. Too much water, Yeah, you can actually get sick and die, you believe it or not from drinking too much water. I didn't never knew you can drink too much water. I mean, the only way I thought you can get too much water is by drowning. But evidently there is something where you can consume and drink too much water which is counterproductive. So too much of anything can be bad, and especially when it comes to social media. Here's something I'd propose here as we come close to wrapping things up on this episode of Voice Thoughts Today, as we talk about social media, the perils and the promise and the pitfalls. Every once in a while, I would say, and for me, here's what I found that works. Every about every ninety days, between sixty and ninety days two to three months, I take a social media vacation for a week. Oh my god, perish the thought, Terry. Yeah, I do. I started doing it a couple of years back. And I'll tell you what, it's not easy. It's not easy. It's almost like saying I'm going to go on a diet. It's not easy to do. However, the first couple of days are tough, verse forty eight hours. Because it's like anything, it's an addiction. Okay, it can be an addiction for a lot of people. It's a behavior, it's a formed habit. However, once the first time I did it, I found that once I got past that forty eight hour mark, I really didn't miss it that much. Honestly, I didn't. I really didn't miss it a little. Oh yeah, I took seven days. The rest of it, I was more present, I was calmer, I found more things to do. I got you know, I exercised more, walked more, you know, rode the bike more. I got more accomplished in my professional and personal life. Imagine that because I wasn't spending massive amounts of time staring at a screen. I stare enough at a screen, you know, producing this content for you. And whether it's in the podcast, doing my voiceover work, audiobook work, narration, stuff like that videos, I spend enough time staring at a screen. And then in the nighttime, I'd like to watch me a show or two, and maybe, if I get so desired, a binge watch show or two. But I did find that I got more accomplished in the real world, got chores done around the house, got ahead of chores, you know, the missus had the and guys, you'll know what I'm gonna say. Sorry, sorry, ladies, this is gonna sound very probably sexist. The honey do list. You know, Guys, when you get that day off from work, or you figure you got a few days vacation and the wife says, well, honey, i'd like you to do this, honey, I'd like to create what's called the honeydo list. We've all had them, God bless their little beautiful hearts, and we try. But I've i phone again with taking that social media vacation. I got a lot more stuff done. I really did. And by the end of the seven days, I even stretched it. My second time through. I did it like eight or nine days because I just was like, oh, oh yeah, okay, I guess I can go back on Twitter now or Facebook or what have you. I was getting used to not being connected and available every minute of my waking hours, and there was a change, there really was. So, you know, give yourself a social media vacation every once in a while. Get in touch, get to know you again, whether it's through meditation, riding a bike, taking a walk, connecting with your family and friends and loved ones through phone calls, an email, a well written, heartfelt email, a video call. Instead of this those little blurbs and highlights of your life on social media, give that a shot. Check it out, see if it'll help you. I'm not saying it's going to be easy, but you know, if you can't do a whole week, start off, try three days. I just went full board with the one. You know, a week is my thing. I know people though that do it, you know, like once a month they'll take three days off during the month and not do not do anything with social media. I guess you know, there's no one size fits all. So you know, like they say, your your mileage may vary when you buy a car for gas mileage, try what works for you. If you can get up to that seven day, great, you know, fantastic, and reconnect with your life. Reconnect with you, get to know you again, get to know your family, your your husband, your wife, your daughter, your children, your niece, your nephew, your parents, your your siblings, your friends. You'll be better for it in the end, my friend. I'll guarantee you that, and so will those around you. Hey, thanks for listening to the podcast today. Thanks for listening to White's thoughts and spending some of your time with me around our virtual campfire. I truly appreciate each and every one of you out there, and drop us a review. Will you on your favorite podcast provider or at the website If you want to reach out to me, it's mailmail mail at Weiss Thoughts dot com. He'll forget I got a voiceover website Terryweiss dot com. If you need any type of voiceover work, podcast editing, et cetera, audiobook, narration and more. It's all at Terry Weis dot com. And like I always say my friends, to see a change in the world, you have to be that change in the world. It all starts with the person looking back at you in the mirror every morning. Be kind to yourself, be kind to others, and also be kind to pets. Take care and we'll talk to you again real soon. D nine chemically recorded and MDAs