Perspectives unplugged podcast

The digital generation and technology are shaping societal views in today's youth. Technology offers opportunities but also brings challenges. Social media has transformed how young people interact, making it easier to say things online but harder to communicate in real life. Digital relationships and societal perspectives have both positive and negative implications. Access to information through technology influences youth's perception of current events and social issues, with independent media providing alternative viewpoints but also spreading misinformation. Mainstream media can still influence opinions, while social media allows for different perspectives. It's important to discern credible information from false information by using critical thinking and comparing sources. Certain apps and websites should be approached with caution, such as relying solely on TikTok for political information or avoiding Twitter due to its negative impact. Welcome to Perspectives Unplugged, where today we're talking about the digital generation and how technology is shaping societal views in the youth today. The influence of technology on the societal perspectives of today's youth is undeniable. While technological advancements offer numerous opportunities and advantages, they also bring forth challenges that shape the way young individuals perceive themselves, others, and the world around them. Introducing Penelope. Penelope, could you briefly explain where your expertise or experience regarding technology's impact on youth societal perspectives come from? Well, first of all, I'm a youth, and second of all, I use technology. So I think that growing up, spending those years online alongside real life, I think that there's a specific effect that growing up with that kind of technology has on the way you see the world, see world issues, the way you treat other people, the way you interact with them. As well as what world issues you do actually see, right? Absolutely. Alright, we'll start off with a little question. How has social media transformed the way young individuals interact and form social connections? Well I think it's definitely easier for people to say things online, and I think that the more you are isolating yourself to only interact with people online, the harder it becomes to actually talk to people in real life, because then you have no idea, it's completely different. It's an entirely different set of social conventions online than in real life. So I think that kind of exaggerating your speech is so much easier online than it is in real life, like you can tell someone online to kill themselves pretty readily, whereas you would never really say that in an argument with somebody necessarily. So it does affect like the whole dynamic, it's a big cliche, but high school's post-iPhone, the power dynamics and the relationships and the way people talk and interact with each other is like so much different, right? Absolutely, yeah. So what do you think some of the positive and negative implications of these digital relationships and societal perspectives are? I think that like maybe a positive effect would be that young people now are a lot more conscious of stereotypes and that kind of thing, or general kind of, I mean it ties into being politically correct as well, which can be viewed as both a positive and a negative thing, because there's a lot of people who are kind of exhausted by that kind of concept and so who are pushing against it and going in the other direction. But I think that for the most part, you know, people are very conscious of each other's kind of socioeconomic position or the kind of things that they say to each other in relation to what they perceive as politically correct or what they've been told online is the right thing to say, and it's sort of, it's interesting because on the one hand people are a lot more considerate of what they say and how they, what words they use and stuff like that, but it's also a thing where now it's so difficult for anybody to listen to or be around people with different opinions, because when you're online you're in basically an echo chamber of people who have the same opinions as you, so you're never really challenged in your belief. Yeah, and just bouncing off of that, I feel like in that way there has been a lot of progress made in terms of like, for example, people with disabilities and stuff like that, whereas nowadays there's more of like a need or an obligation that's like set on people to basically treat most people equally, right? And that does come with a thing where sometimes you can tell people have such ideas because they're educated and they truly believe the things, and other times it can be just out of obligation, like say there's a person who is very ableist in their own mind, they're not gonna go out and say like slurs that would have been acceptable like 50 years ago, where they might still have those negative connotations in their mind, but they cannot express it, which is a good thing, right? I think if you can't change everybody's mind, no matter how hard you try, so if you make it unacceptable to say these things to somebody, then regardless whether they agree with that or not, they can't say these things without being alienated, which is very much a good thing. Yeah, and not alienated in the way that disabled people were, but alienated in a sense of like ostracizing racist people, right? So I feel like that's a large shift that has happened, because through the internet a lot of people are being held accountable, because if somebody records you saying this, these like very bad things, there's a high chance that a lot will be taken away from you. Say 50 years ago, somebody couldn't record it and send it to the university you go to, right? Which is, it holds people way more accountable as a byproduct of the internet and technology, right? How is access to information throughout technology influenced the way youth perceive and engage with current events and social issues? That's an interesting one, because I think that again, there's like a good and bad side to everything. The good is that we do have access to independent media and independent news sources, and so young people don't have to like rely on the general government-funded mainstream media to get their information. So there is like less likelihood of buying into propaganda. The unfortunate thing is that because there's so much information readily available, there's a lot of misinformation that's also spread. So if you're finding these independent news providers that aren't entirely legitimate, or if you're getting all of your information from TikTok, or if you're only learning about world events through Instagram slideshows, then you really like, you're isolating your sources to one platform, whether or not that platform is necessarily corrupt or sponsored in any way by someone with political motivation. Well, I believe that to be true, like people nowadays aren't being spoon-fed their information through the same newspaper that everybody else is reading. I do believe a lot of the time major news sources push certain stories, and it's a very clear thing that there's still a lot of media control in what people see. Governments can still influence opinions upon an entire nation. We saw that a lot with 9-11 in the Middle East, which is a little bit of a tangent, but I will not go down. I would say that 9-11, though, is kind of pre-what the internet is today. Yeah, that's very true, but that's just the main example that I believe. It absolutely was a big propaganda thing. Yeah, where I think things like that still are ongoing. Absolutely, and I mean like not as severe as that, right? Well, I would say that, okay, so like obviously the big thing in the news right now is the Israel-Palestine conflict, and I would say that the mainstream media is pushing to support Israel, and that's been like Hollywood kind of funded, that's been government funded, like all of the Canadian government, the U.S. government, all in support of Israel. And there's like that whole list of all the celebrities who signed this petition to support Israel and stuff like that, and so I think that if you're watching, if you're only watching mainstream media, kind of what's on TV at any given time, then you would more likely be consuming kind of pro-Israel content, whereas a lot of the youth don't really watch that kind of, don't really watch the news, they don't really engage with any of those outlets, and they're getting their information from social media, from like TikTok and Instagram, and these are all where independent reporters in Gaza are filming what's happening and reporting on what's happening, so there's a lot less censorship, I think, from these sources, and obviously aside from social media, like independent news sources and stuff like that, so you have this kind of polarization where if you're from an older generation and you're not kind of seeing these independent news sources and the things that the younger generations are seeing on social media because they are so adept at finding independent sources, I think you'd have a very different perspective. Absolutely. What are some measures that you personally take to ensure that you can discern credible information from false information when you consume various forms of media? I think that there's a lot of like virtue signaling and kind of obvious tactics that people will use to kind of convince other people of their opinions. I also think that there's a lot of bait for kind of internet discourse and discussion that's just really like easy to kind of identify and see as what it is. I think that kind of using your critical thinking to kind of like not even fully analyze what the person is saying, just like why would someone write this and or like say this and then put it out there, and then just like comparing your sources and I mean this goes for every kind of media analysis. Speaking of sources, are there any apps, popular websites, popular sources, stuff like that, that you avoid for any reason? I think that one should be careful of what apps they're using for information, like credible information, and what they're using for entertainment. So I don't really engage in online arguments or anything like that, but I know a lot of people do and I don't really take part in any kind of online activism or anything like that just because I feel like it's futile, but I would say like if you're getting all of your political information from TikTok, then you're going to have a lot of sifting through to do. I would stay away from Twitter. Yeah, I was going to jump in and say me personally, I completely avoid Twitter and I have not had it downloaded for probably a couple of years. I agree. Yeah, there was a certain point as well, I don't know if you've had a similar experience to this, but there was a certain point where it was during the last elections, the United States actually, and during those campaigning times, your feed is often flooded with this red versus blue content that pushes various extremes. And during that time, I made a choice, either I'm consuming this content and thinking about American conservative or liberal views, or the path I chose was to ignore all of the content I got on my feed, as well as remove the accounts that were spewing it onto my feed. Because me as a Canadian, I feel like I shouldn't occupy myself with United States politics very much, especially during election time. But I see from myself, just walking around, during election times, there were, for lack of better terms, like Trumpies in Canada, right? Like during United States election time, in a classroom, people would be spewing American topics. I do think that American politics is... Very sensationalized. Very sensationalized, and a lot of people would see America as kind of this cultural center, kind of. And I mean like, again, this is all, there's like a whole talk about people kind of centering their world views around Western culture, and around American culture specifically, because it's so prominent. Like all of our media is American, all of our general kind of, I mean in the older days it was like always like Hollywood and stuff like that, like it was everything was centered, all of pop culture is centered around America. So I think that especially with someone as eccentric as Trump, there was no doubt that he'd be a global sensation, and there was no doubt that the elections would be a global sensation. But I do agree because there's a tendency for people to, especially online now, to absorb themselves in the affairs of like either another country, or even, it doesn't even have to be political, it could just be like obsessing over a certain aesthetic, or style, or person online, or game, or anything like that, to where they ignore the real life circumstances around them. So if your example is politics, like people being overly kind of absorbed in the election, and Trump and stuff like that, then it would be, it would lead them to ignore their own local politics, and their own country. Going off of that, do you believe that there should be an effort made either by the youths, or by the media, to localize content consumed? Like in the way the Canadian radio must play, I don't know the number, but like 30% Canadian music. Do you think there's a lot to be gained from that? I'm not sure. I think that there's like, there's a line between caring about your day-to-day life, and the experiences of people around you in real life, and excessive focus on your own country, and stuff like that. There's still a need for kind of awareness about the world around you, and I think that that can really easily become like patriotism, or like yeah, just like an over-emphasis on one's own kind of environment, and like a kind of disregard for anything that's not happening right here, right now. So yeah, it's a balance that you have to How do you think the integration of technology has affected the skill sets of youth today? Youth are obviously developing much differently now, due to media and the excessive consumption. Do you think there are drawbacks that are clear, and discrepancies in the skill set of us young individuals who consume this media? I think that a lot of people put this emphasis on how like Gen Z is like lazy, or kind of just like doesn't really care about anything, or are underdeveloped, or are kind of not getting as much exercise as previous generations did, and I think that that's all kind of just kind of sensationalized, and over-talked about. Because in reality I think it's more like, I think there's definitely an attention span thing. I think that Gen Z has extremely reduced attention span, and but this can go for older generations as well, who have adapted technology the way like we have. So like if you're any 20, 30 something year old, who's obsessively scrolling through Twitter every day, is not going to pick up a book, just as like any teenager scrolling through TikTok for hours and hours a day isn't going to pick up a book, just because it's like no one reads it anymore. And that's I would say like probably the biggest downside to all of this, is just like no one can concentrate on any form of media for an extended period of time, especially one that isn't like visually stimulating. So it's no one can read at all, and if they do read it has to be part of some larger internet thing, where like yeah nothing with like book TikTok and all that kind of stuff. It's like you being told what to read, and how to read it. You're not really doing anything for yourself. Yeah I believe a lot of the time like especially with TikTok, Instagram views, and what you see is also based on how many people have seen the videos you're watching. This means a lot of people are being filtered into the same like niches, are consuming the exact same videos, and I think it's just generally a lot of consumption, but not a lot of information. Like especially any youth scrolling through TikTok on their phone in class, is most of the time consuming like brain rotting material, which is a subject we should talk about as well. It's just this over consumption, where our media has become less media, and serves more of the role of a game, right? Like a comedy is one thing, but if you're consuming this media for stimulation, the same way you would play a mobile game on your phone, there's I think there's a lot to be said with that. And so if we're drowning political content in garbage, what happens I believe is this subconscious, where you're being fed the message in a 16 second clip, and then you watch 10 16 second clips of what like babies falling, video game clips, whatever. So yeah, family guy. And so our content is being drowned, and so larger media can influence with subliminal messages and things like these in those ways, as well as larger corporations are the ones paying for ads on all of the websites. So yeah, yeah. These things are designed as well to feed you the information they want to give you. As much as you think it's you, it's all user created, that's not very true, right? So the way we're being fed our information is much different, but a lot of the times, the larger messages are the same. So it's a large repetition of history, just in a different way. Absolutely. Thank you very much to our listeners for tuning in today. Catch us next time on Perspectives Unplugged.