If We Got to Know Everyone Enough, Can We Leave This Social Media Aside?

One of the fundamental structures of Computer Graphics is, of course, the pixels of the screen together with the color systems, especially Red-Green-Blue, known as RGB. In the Computer Graphics course, which I have been teaching every semester for years, I spend the first week as a linear algebra reminder week and then immediately continue with the subject: “Pixels and Display Systems” because it forms the basis. The way to understand how images technically appear on a screen passes through  understanding the pixels first. Pixel is the abbreviation of the words Picture Element. A pixel, in its simplest form, consists of a mixture of red, green and blue lights. We cannot understand filters without understanding the idea of ​​the first pixel, how the digital image emerged, the functions of color systems and how different functions can create different mixtures, our impact on these functions and the importance of algorithms. Filters, yes, you are familiar with them: Cool, Soft, Hefe, Mayfair, Inkwell etc. that you select when sharing pictures on Instagram.  At the end of the class, I show my students a video right after explaining the topic. I shared it with you below. This video is a code.org narrative by Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom and photographer Piper Hanson. It is a simple video where they explain pixels and filtering techniques at a fundamental level. The importance of it for me is this. I want to tell my students that the infrastructure of visual and video-based social media tools, which they spend several hours a day looking at and often kill their time, started from the very basics of Computer Graphics and then turned into very advanced structures, that is, they should use it more like a Graphics Programmer when using this social media. Kevin Systrom is a Stanford-graduate programmer who was interested in programming when he was still in high school and even wrote his own levels in Doom, one of the most famous video games of our time. He created Instagram in 2010 with his friend Mike Krieger, who is also a software engineer. Two years later, they sold Instagram and started to develop and invest in other areas. He is currently only 40 years old and has a fortune of $2.7 billion. Everyone’s perspective on social media may be different. My perspective is a graphics programmer perspective. After that, from time to time, to see if there is any useful or funny content. Yes, like that. Useful or funny. This is my perspective on social media. My account generally remains closed. From time to time, I take a look and close it again. Fun is important because we all need to laugh. I have a few favorite comedians. I watch a few of their videos and hang up. Sometimes, because I don’t like the news circulating in the mainstream media, I look to understand what the public thinks about certain issues. This much. I couldn’t be on the same page as those who spend the whole day looking at photos and videos on social media and wondering who did what. Let’s call it a professional deformation. But it is an undeniable fact that it has become a craze and even an addiction today. So much so that many business lines and large economies have become dependent on social media due to user access, and it has become a necessity as well as an addiction. Now, how about looking at the data?

LET’S LOOK AT THE DATA

According to the information taken from the statistics whose references I have shared below:

• There are 4.9 billion active social media users in the world.
• 95% of Americans have access to the internet and 74% are social media users.

• Although it seems to have lost its popularity in the world, there are still 2.8 billion Facebook users.
• The average daily time spent on social media is 2 hours and 24 minutes.
• 90% of adults aged 18-24 are social media users.
• The average follower rate of social media influencers for those aged 16-24 is 26%.
• In America, the number of times they pick up the phone and look at it in a day is 74 times for those aged 18-24, 50 times for those aged 25-34, and 35 times for those over 35.
• 81% of those who are dining out pick up their phone and look at it.

Each of these items I have written above can be explained for pages, talked about for days, and articles can be written about them. For example, let’s take a look at the first item. Compared to the world’s population, 4.9 billion doesn’t seem like a lot, right? A little more than half. Let’s look at the situation this way. According to Statista and Forbes, 5.35 billion people in the world have access to the internet. That is 66% of the world’s population. Another 34% do not yet have access to the internet. In this case, if we consider those who have access to the internet, we can discuss how high this social media usage rate is, or we can also discuss why 34% of the world’s population still does not have access to the internet. 

I shared the usage rates in America. We can enter into different discussions by comparing these rates with Europe and the socioeconomic structures of the countries. But I will only share the data with you. For example, below I have shared the internet access and social media usage statistics in Europe and the world published by the PEW Research Center. How should we read this data? For example, in Germany, which ranks first, the internet access rate compared to the population is 93%, but the rate of social media users is 51%, the difference is 42. In America, this difference is 20, like Canada. There may be people who want to look at countries where the difference is less than 10 and engage in development level discussions. As I said, there are many topics to talk about.

Now let’s come to the last three items that make me think the most. What were those items: 

• The average follower rate of social media influencers for those aged 16-24 is 26%.
• In America, the number of times they pick up the phone and look at it in a day is 74 times for those aged 18-24, 50 times for those aged 25-34, and 35 times for those over 35.
• 81% of those who are out at dinner pick up their phone and look at it.

If it isn’t addiction for a person to pick up their phone 35, 50, or 74 times during the day, what is? This rate appears to be much higher in young people than in adults. Doesn’t this situation make everyone think? What about young people’s follower rates of influencers? When discussing this issue, it is necessary to consider in detail what kind of influencing we are talking about or in what size of influencing we are talking about. This again takes days. But the scary thing is, and everyone knows this, that not all of these influencers are creating content about science/art/sports etc. They don’t always talk about issues that really matter. The vast majority of them are about how to do make-up, how to look slimmer, how to choose clothes, how to spend money, where to eat the most expensive, luxurious life, etc. They create trends on these hollow issues. They drag their masses of followers after them. There is also the issue of looking at the phone during dinner, which is again one of the things that bothers me the most. There is only one meaning for me when someone checks the phone frequently when we go out to dinner with family or friends, and I am very clear about this: “We are in an environment where we do not enjoy listening to each other and spending time together. I don’t care about you.” Of course, there are exceptions. Let’s say we left the children at home, they asked something urgent or our elders called and had an urgent health question. Let’s answer the phone. But let’s put it back when we’re done. Why do we need to look at social media for no reason? Doesn’t this addiction scare you? This rate of 81 percent means that those who have this addiction are not only the young generation but almost everyone. I’m afraid the vast majority are now addicted to social media.

New generation anxieties

Another set of data I researched was on anxiety. When we look at the examinations of cases screened by experts, we see the following:

• Social media has become addictive.
• The problem of feeling unhappy with one’s own life and being jealous of the lives of others is becoming increasingly common (see FoMO – Fear of Missing Out Phenomenon). A concept called “Facebook Envy” emerged.

• Loneliness has reached its peak. 
• Mental health problems began to increase due to constant comparison of yourself and your life.
• Cyberbullying has become a huge problem (see, e.g. https://dosomething.org/article/11-facts-about-cyber-bullying).
• Rates of anxiety and depression in young people have increased by 70% in the last 25 years.
• Significant mental improvements were achieved in those who took a break from social media use.

Rates of anxiety and depression in young people have increased by 70% in the last 25 years

These are very striking data. We see that, unfortunately, we condemn our children to these empty worlds. We uncontrollably and carelessly steal their talents and dreams and leave them alone in this huge darkness. These systems, created to connect people to each other, have caused many people to become more and more isolated. And we continue to do so blindly. Young kids have forgotten how to socialize. Young children began to think that living other people’s dreams was a dream.

Creative intelligence, critical thinking, innovative ideas, teamwork, scientific stance, artistic perspective… These are still within them, but they were born into a digital world that suppresses them so much that they cannot emerge adequately. Sometimes, when I talk to our senior professors who are older than me, they tell me: “Students checked their phones during class hour and did not pay any attention to the lesson.” And I tell them that when kids don’t follow social media, they are born into a phenomenon that makes them feel like they’re falling behind in what’s going on. Instead of ignoring this feeling and imposing bans, it is necessary to replace it with other, more logical questions and pursuits, and to make the subjects they are dealing with more attractive for them. In the first week of Java and C Programming classes, I always ask the following question: Consider: Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, etc. How many programming languages ​​used to developed these platforms? While children are looking at Instagram on their phones, their gaze suddenly turns to the board. We introduce the subject nicely by talking about front-end programming and back-end programming. Don’t forget. As elders, our responsibility falls first. We have to become aware of the concepts and problems and deal with the new generation of problems. If you don’t drop that phone, kids won’t either. If you do not care, they do not care as well. It’s that simple. 

Have we not gotten to know or remember everyone yet? Aren’t we jealous enough to see how some of our childhood friends have turned into sweet, talented and hard-working people and live beautiful lives? Didn’t we see some of them turned into bad individuals, blame them, and judge them enough because we ourselves are always superior to the people we criticize, without asking and investigating? Not enough make-up or clothes tried on? Didn’t we envy enough when we saw how rich some people were, or didn’t we show everyone that we had more money than some people? Haven’t we done enough pontificating, playing keyboard chivalry, and ranting about subjects we have no idea about? 

How difficult can it be to get things right? Why wouldn’t it be enough to spend 10-15 minutes a day watching the useful speeches of a few scientists whose ideas we like, getting inspired by athletes, following old and new works of art, looking at a few dinner recipes when in trouble, or, as I said before, watching a few funny videos… Friends from high school? Why do we worry about where someone is and what they did without even saying hello virtually, when we could see them on Facebook, instead of pick up a few people’s phones, have a heart-to-heart phone conversation with them, or if we can, visit them and ask how they are doing? What does this mean to us? Who cares about other people’s lives? It is none of our business. If we got to know everyone well enough, what are you waiting for to reduce the use of social media for the sake of the new generation to whom we will entrust the world?

References

www.datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-turkey