“News Walk: Does Social Media Bring People Closer or Further Apart?”

Hello everyone, welcome to News Five in Line. Today’s co-hosts are Yuting, Quincy, Qin Peng, Fuyao, and myself. Our diverse perspectives and various viewpoints will take you into the rich world of news. Feel free to subscribe to and like our independent channel.

Today’s focus: Five in Line conducts an on-site investigation on smartphones. Who is a heavy user? Does social media bring people closer or further apart? Views differ among the five. Would you dare to challenge not using a phone? What are the two things from ancient times that modern people don’t have? Tech giants fear technology! Fuyao praises such platforms.

TikTok, with nearly 150 million users in the United States, has recently stirred up trouble again. Thirteen states, including California, and the District of Columbia filed a joint lawsuit on October 8, accusing TikTok’s algorithm of causing severe addiction in teenagers, damaging their mental health, and violating their privacy.

Before this, TikTok was already facing the danger of being banned in the United States. Now, it is accused of maliciously harming children’s health, making its situation even more precarious.

Social media has undoubtedly significantly changed our way of life. Today, we want to start with the latest news about TikTok and discuss various aspects of social media.

Q1 Yuting, first of all, how has TikTok been accused of causing severe addiction in children?

It is said that “One sound of Douyin, parents wasted.” The overseas version of Douyin, TikTok, follows the same principle. How did they achieve this?

1. 【Short-term high-stimulus content】TikTok’s algorithm pushes personalized, short and sharp videos based on users’ habits, heavily stimulating children’s visual and auditory senses, rapidly causing addiction in children, disrupting their focus, making them more impatient and impulsive. It can easily lead to “Douyin Brain”: on one hand, only pursuing highly stimulating content; on the other hand, causing children to lose patience in their cognitive development.

2. 【Infinite scrolling mechanism】This design leads users to continuously swipe videos, making it easy for children with weak self-control to spend a lot of time on their phones, affecting their physical health, such as decreased eyesight, sleep deprivation, lack of exercise, and more.

3. 【Social pressure and challenges】 There are often challenge activities on TikTok. Children may participate out of curiosity or to fit into their friend circle, wasting time to participate and imitate. However, some challenges are extremely dangerous, such as eating detergent, pesticides, and the “choking challenge.” Some have even died from such challenges, such as the well-known incident in New York in 2023 due to the “subway surfing” challenge, which resulted in at least 6 deaths.

4. 【Reward mechanism and psychological response】 TikTok activates the “dopamine secretion” in children’s brains through mechanisms such as liking, commenting, sharing, which is the mechanism that brings happiness, making children addicted and dependent on the platform. When they seek approval, they may also experience anxiety and depression. Moreover, social media tends to favor people with better appearances, leading to appearance anxiety among adolescents. Similar phenomena on TikTok have been widely reported, where some people cannot even face themselves without filters.

The American Psychological Association (APA) in 2020 pointed out in a report that some content on platforms like TikTok unconsciously normalizes violence and inappropriate behavior. About 24% of surveyed teenagers often see violent or aggressive content on these platforms, which could lead to desensitization or acceptance of such behavior with long-term exposure.

All of these mechanisms not only make children heavily addicted but also harm their mental health, physical health, normal social interactions, and thinking. Different from other overseas social media, TikTok is under the control of the Chinese Communist Party. On one hand, it spreads “CCP’s ideology” for the authorities and, on the other hand, “infiltrates” overseas public opinion, stirring up trouble. Therefore, TikTok can be said to be the “spiritual opium” exported by the CCP in the 21st century.

Q2 Quincy, social media aims to be as attractive as possible, right? How can one make it both appealing and not addictive?

Answer: In fact, making social media appealing and not addictive is not contradictory. High-quality content not only attracts but also allows for moderation. Low-quality and vulgar content can be addicting and amplify people’s vices.

It depends on the creators’ intentions. Some creators focus on long-term value and positive user experiences, such as sharing beautiful things, real-time news, educational knowledge, or entertaining and relaxing content. These are all beneficial.

However, if creators pursue quick consumption, deliberately creating borderline content for traffic, promoting lowbrow values or even immoral teachings, like organizing challenges to occupy someone’s house legally, the impact of such content becomes negative.

In essence, social media holds significant social responsibility. Today’s young people may not fully understand the world yet, forming their views largely based on the influencers they follow. The content transmitted through these channels can shape who they become, and it’s crucial to be mindful of what is being shared. The transition to a world more reliant on technology may increase the need for psychological therapy, as the touch and communication in the virtual world differ from face-to-face interactions among people.

Q3 Fuyao, Qin Peng, in your opinion, what makes a good social media platform?

Qin Peng: 1. Massive customers: Just having a few users is not enough; there should be high-level users to share various opinions.

2. Global awareness: Closed-off social media platforms, aside from political censorship, such as China’s Weibo and WeChat groups, are good. Facebook, in my opinion, is merely a social community for friends and echo chambers, not a good social media platform.

3. Differentiation: Platforms like Trump’s Truth Media can be effective.

4. Embracing diverse opinions: One should not suppress free speech or deliberately spread negative ideologies. In this sense, I find China’s Douyin to be suitable,

5. Good interactivity: It should not be one-way communication.

In this sense, Twitter after Musk’s acquisition, labeled as “X,” is good. On the whole, YouTube and Instagram are also good, while TikTok and Douyin under Communist control have issues.

Q4 Public Opinion

a. Social media has changed our way of life. How much time do you spend on social media daily?

b. The poet Du Fu once wrote: “Tomorrow we may journey to distant mountains, the world’s affairs vast and unlimited.” In the past, it was challenging for ancient people to meet their friends, and after a brief encounter, they didn’t know when they would meet again, yet their longing for each other was profound. Nowadays, no matter where people are, they can videocall with their phones, yet relationships might not necessarily deepen because of it. Here’s a thought-provoking question: Does social media bring people closer or farther apart?

c. If given a choice, would you prefer to live in a world without social media or even without the internet?

Quincy answers: In terms of personal preference, aside from work, I can definitely live without social media. I mainly use social media for acquiring knowledge. From this perspective, I believe the fragmented knowledge obtained through social media only lays the foundation, and the knowledge gained from deeply reading a book is different. Fragmented knowledge is merely knowledge, not profound and appreciable; at most, it inspires you to learn new things.

Reading a physical book in a focused manner not only provides a complete knowledge chain but also nurtures your personal qualities. Cultivation is essential in Chinese culture; it’s the degree to which one is imbued with teachings. Personal cultivation is crucial.

However, considering my current work nature, I cannot completely abstain from social media. For instance, I need immediate access to news and information about ongoing events worldwide, including a presence on screen. Makeup knowledge isn’t something I can learn from books. The work nature in modern society indeed makes it challenging for people to stay offline. You say top artists can paint and be fine; maybe only their agents need to promote them online. However, for real estate businessmen, if they don’t go online, they won’t even know when a property auction is.

I love a saying, “An eagle soaring in the sky can find tranquility by looking at the peaks.” It means that when you see these majestic mountain peaks, your pursuit of fame and fortune calms down. Nature’s magnificence, the world graciously bestowed, serves to heal us. In other words, people can exist without the internet, so if I could live in a world without my current work obligations, where there is no internet, then please write me a letter when that day comes.

Yuting: This question is intriguing. With over half the world being addicted to electronic devices for convenience, many elite leaders of top companies are making efforts to keep their families as far away from such devices as possible. For example, many Silicon Valley elites send their children to independent schools like Waldorf Peninsula School, where they are prohibited from using computers. A few years back, there was a popular news discussion about the children of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs being completely isolated from electronic products during their childhood. An article in the UK’s Independent in 2017 argued that teenagers using electronic products could lead to depression and even suicidal thoughts.

For me, whether there is internet in my life is not crucial – having a strong inner self is of utmost importance. Regardless of the internet’s existence, temptations and mesmerizing things won’t disappear from society, and where there are people, there will always be challenges and allurements. Only you can decide whether to succumb to them.

Before I realized what I wanted, I used to feel lost and was influenced by the internet. I would envy others when I was down, seeing their joy while I was busy working. But later on, I understood what I truly desired, the choice I made to work hard, to put myself in sadness. I discovered that I was my own enemy, capable of making myself unhappy and unmotivated. Desires know no boundaries; you can’t have everything you want. Even the wealthiest person can’t make everyone like them.

Gratitude and cherishing what you already have is the key to true happiness. Before I understood this, to avoid being influenced, I physically chose not to see things. But once I comprehended it, nothing could affect me anymore no matter what I saw, as I knew what I desired and had made my choice.

In conclusion, I’d like to share my view. When we were in school, we all studied a text called “Sending off Meng Haoran at the East Gate,” which always moved me. It tells of the ancient determination to learn and acquire knowledge, to endure hardship for it. Seeking the truth and knowledge was treacherous for ancient people too. For example, Tang Xuanzang, to retrieve the scriptures, embarked on a perilous journey to the West, facing numerous hardships. However, ancient people were able to truly absorb knowledge easily because of their focus and sincerity. In contrast, modern individuals find it challenging to concentrate and learn deeply due to overwhelming distractions.

At times, I wonder, we likely can’t return to ancient times, but what if we could combine the focus and sincerity of ancient people with modern technology and methods to learn, seek, enrich and improve ourselves? Wouldn’t that be wonderful? I wonder if you agree with this perspective.