Remember to respond to two peers while being respectful of and sensitive to their viewpoints. Consider advancing the discussion in the following ways:
• Post an article, video, or visual to reinforce a peer’s idea or challenge them to see their point from a different perspective.
• Engage in conversation with your peers around cognition and the taxes on attention presented by the world today. Consider asking a question or sharing your personal experience.
Peer 1ED
Google and social media can have negative consequences on our well-being. It has been found that people who regularly use social media have higher levels of mental illnesses like anxiety and depression (TEDx Talks, 2017). Social media can also trigger addictive tendencies and behaviors, which has negative consequences on our attention (TEDx Talks, 2017). It was found that the behaviors associated with this addictive feature cause our brains to crave extensive stimulation (TEDx Talks, 2019). That being said, things like Google and social media are not inherently bad for us. It is not the site itself that is bad, it is the way we behave and use the sites that cause these negative consequences (TEDx Talks, 2017). I think determining whether the extension to cognition offered by these technologies is worth it depends on the person. Subject to how they engage with social media, it can either be a positive or negative element to daily life.
Deep fakes have the power to distort features and create false images (Wall Street Journal, 2018). Because these fakes are computer generated to mimic facial features while talking and other realistic features it tricks our mind into believing they are real (Wall Street Journal, 2018). This is significant because it gives these deep fake developers the ability to make it appear as though anyone is doing anything they want (Wall Street Journal, 2018). Basically, any person is a puppet, and the deep fake developer is the puppeteer (Wall Street Journal, 2018). This is extremely dangerous because it can be used to trick people’s perceptions into thinking what they are seeing is real and even cause them to create a false memory (Wall Street Journal, 2018; Goldstein, 2019). For example, a deep fake video could emerge of the president making an announcement of warfare which would lead the general public, as well as other countries, to believe this statement as true since it appears as though the president is saying those words (Wall Street Journal, 2018). This can cause decisions to be made based on false videos, which can cause detrimental and potentially deadly consequences (Wall Street Journal, 2018).
Humans have the ability to imagine different futures (TED, 2015). This creative function is used to imagine realities that are different from the present and cooperate to make this reality a possibility (TED, 2015). For example, people use decision making processes in order to begin social reforms regarding issues in social justice (Goldstein, 2019). In order to begin influencing these reforms, a group must decide that there is a social injustice happening and make the efforts to change it (Goldstein, 2019).
The concept of cognition in the modern world relates to the programmatic theme of self-care. I think this because with resources such as social media and the internet, it is important to be self-reflective (TEDx Talks, 2017). In order to avoid the potential negative consequences of social media, it is important that you set boundaries with yourself and what kind of media use you engage in (TEDx Talks, 2017). This will help you to establish a healthy relationship with media so that it does not negatively influence cognition and your overall wellbeing (TEDx Talks, 2017).
References
Goldstein, E. B. (2019). Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research, and everyday experience (5th ed.). Cengage Learning.
TED. (2015). Why humans run the world | Yuval Noah Harari [YouTube Video]. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzj7Wg4DAbs
TEDx Talks. (2017). Is Social Media Hurting Your Mental Health? | Bailey Parnell | TEDxRyersonU [YouTube Video]. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Czg_9C7gw0o
TEDx Talks. (2019). How to Get Your Brain to Focus | Chris Bailey | TEDxManchester [YouTube Video]. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hu4Yvq-g7_Y
Wall Street Journal. (2018). Deepfake Videos Are Getting Real and That’s a Problem | Moving Upstream [YouTube Video]. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex83dhTn0IU
PEER 2-BM
I believe that social media sites such as Facebook and Tic-Tok can have negative effects on our well- being. People now use these sites to replace the necessary social interactions needed to have a healthy social life. Before the internet, we our version of social media was having multiple lines on our house phone and going to the mall. Now with the internet we have become hermits in our houses yet we still think we are social. For example, people make tik tok videos believing that millions of people will watch it. Making that person a popular person with a social life, all because people like their video. I ask you something, how does that make someone social? Does watching a video and liking it makes us a social person, or are we just watching a video? People who always go on social media sites to see if their video went on the charts. Often develop mental issues such as anxiety. Social media was never went to over take our view on being social, however our cognitive behavioral psychology as made us believe that the more friends we have on Facebook the more social we are.
When using social media, we see false images of something we think is real. A sort of virtual reality setting, where our brains are forced to believe that we either need or want the image we see. A false news situation. This could be very dangerous because it is fooling our brains into believing that something is real when it is not. For example, people could be watching some news saying that North Korea has fired a nuke heading towards the states. Showing a picture of a rocket firing off. People would panic for several reasons, first they have no idea what a nuke looks like so when they see something blasting off they believe it is a nuke. Second the reputation of North Korea in the states is not good, so people will believe that they did fire the rocket. Making people give in to poor decision making to “save” themselves from the nuke. Having a country full of scared people does not look good for anybody. The implications this have when it comes from government is scary. People want to say how bad the government is and how they can not make any decisions, as soon as they say something that could kill us. We have a cognitive behavioral problem of thinking the worse and freaking out.
The individual has the ability to conform with the group motives. We has a species can gather as a group and change ideas of what human rights should be. Different ideas and beliefs can come together to discuss the problems and current issues and figure out situations to create a more understanding environment for all. We can change a person’s cognitive process to diversify their understanding and improve their cognitive abilities.
The important theme for cognition in the modern world is emotional intelligence and social justice. Living in a world that is as close as where you put your smartphones, gives us the ability to say or do in society. With millions watching everything at any time, we have to certain that what we messaged to people is not taken out of context. For example, we should not spread hateful emotions towards a different culture because kids will watch and start to believe in that stereotype. Making that kid act differently around that culture. This brings to my second theme of emotional intelligence, unfortunately we can not control what people say and many people do use the platform to promote hate. To speak horrible things about groups that are different from them. We must use our emotional intelligence to research and diversify our understanding of different cultures to come up with our own opinions.
1) Goldstein, E. B. (2019). Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research, and everyday
experience(5th ed.). Cengage Learning
—————
Remember to respond to two peers with respect and sensitivity to their points of view. Consider how you can move the conversation forward in the following ways:
• Share an article, video, or image to support a peer’s point of view or to challenge them to consider it from a different angle.
• Have a conversation with your peers about cognition and the current world’s taxes on attention. Consider posing a question or relating a personal story.
1ED Peer
Google and social media can have a negative impact on our mental health. People who use social media on a regular basis have been found to have higher rates of mental illnesses such as anxiety and depression (TEDx Talks, 2017). Addictive tendencies and behaviors can be triggered by social media, which has negative consequences for our attention.
