`Messages, Mediums, and the Mind!

How to protect yourself from the onslaught of social media messaging

 

Marshall McLuhan, the communication researcher, and writer coined the phrase, “the Medium is the Message.” McLuhan pointed out that it was how the media depicted the message rather than the message itself which imprints the mind. Although this phrase was first uttered in 1964 it is still as relevant, if not more so, today. While COVID-19 rages across the world, so do conspiracy theories. People and especially the youth are seduced with fear-baiting theories about vaccines: people having tracker devices planted in their body, stalking every move, and all while Bill Gates is smiling in the distance counting his money ( or as this picture would have you do, his tears).

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The organic, homeopathic, back-to-nature narrative is taken to extremes and people think they don’t need the help of research but can heal everything with herbs. Until they get sick, then they come running to western medicine. My point is not to demonize: herbs, holistic medicine, and thinking, nor thinking critically about government; but to see the extremes propagated by social media and the weak parts of our mind, and realize the youth has the greatest vulnerability to these forces. Educators need to address this growing void across the world and create more opportunities for students to understand the power of these ever-changing mediums of social media. 

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As an educator, I am always looking out for solutions and ways to create digestible moments for my students to remember the importance of digital literacy. Renee Hobbs, professor, and digital researcher wrote a book, Digital and Media Literacy, of which she outlines 5 key steps to reflect on when engaging with content on the web: access, analyze, create, reflect, and act. Before I break these steps down, I will share an experience I had in the class this week. 

A student asked why I needed to learn this. I said, “you need to be credible and base your opinions off credible sources, then doors will open.” I then said, “some people are more credible sources regarding playing video games, I am not. Other people are more credible regarding basketball and baseball.” I asked, “why would you want to listen to a person who never played basketball? Yet, we do that all the time in the world. Therefore, you need to reflect on where you are getting that information and explain what is powerful about it and the source." The student blinked and in their head thought, "here he goes, Sundheim is ranting again."

Rants are sometimes necessary along with digital access. Students first need to understand the power of digital access. Every day they have worlds at their fingertips. But at the same time, they need to access programs that help them protect their world. Programs that protect their passwords, data, and filter misleading news stories, to mention a few. Access is not just having every digital resource but being able to differentiate harmful resources within the web.

Hobbs recommends students analyze and create content on digital platforms. Students need to constantly ask: is this source credible, what is their agenda, and how are they trying to sell me something. Students are often emotional and the internet plays upon those emotions. Therefore, they should reflect what emotions these sites create: fear, anxiety, and or more stress and seek to moderate their use to minimize those effects.

Then every student needs to understand they are a creator. Every time they retweet and share anything that they are taking part in the creative digital process. Not solely recreating but students should know how to create relevant content so they can share empowered information with their digital communities. In the end, their analysis skills will help create vibrant creative content across digital mediums. 

Lastly, students should be given space to reflect and act. They should ask themselves, is this who I want to be ( on the web)? Are they taking part in bullying? Are they posting things on social media they would never say in real life? Are they using platforms to engage in real-world problems and bring forth solutions? If students do not reflect on what they want their world to be, they can never engage social media to help create that world. It takes the right access to empowered resources, the ability to analyze credible sources, create an experience, reflect what they want to manifest in the world, and act in the digital world as if it were the real world; to liberate all oppressive digital mediums.