Are we too wired?

• Author: Csorba, Emerson
• Position: Debate - Influence of social media

We live in a digital world and rarely disconnect from it. Facebook has 1.8 billion users, and Instagram has about 600 million monthly users. Snapchat's 158 million daily users post some 2.8 billion snaps every day. Most of us walk around with smartphones (see graph) that we use to post our statuses and get constant updates and photos from our friends.

So is there a downside to being so wired? Two experts--one a public policy researcher and the other the head of a digital communications company--weigh in.

YES

About a year and a half ago, I attended a meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, that gathered 450 "changemakers" to tackle some of the world's most pressing challenges. I thought the participants would emerge with new relationships and perspectives on complex issues such as poverty and climate change. Instead, participants spent the meeting glued to their phones, taking selfies and sharing on Facebook.

This experience is typical of a shift in values taking place in our society. Increasingly, we're spending time engaged in activities less for their own intrinsic value and more for how we will look to others if we're seen on social media doing them.

I think something important is lost in the process of sharing so much of ourselves online. Social media "likes" and new followers provide us with public approval, but this need for constant sharing of ourselves--and the immediate gratification that comes with it--diminishes the meaning and significance of the things we share. Some parts of our lives are worth keeping private.

Many of the relationships we form online are largely superficial, and the constant online sharing has psychological consequences. A handful of studies, including one recently conducted by the University of Michigan, suggest that increased Facebook usage contributes to anxiety and even depression. We are constantly seeing what others are doing and paying attention to their lives as they unfold in real time. That deepens our anxiety and uncertainty about whether we are leading lives that fulfill our own potential.

Lost in the online sharing and advice-gathering is the fundamental ability to reflect on questions by ourselves, taking as much time as we need to come to our own decisions. In short, because of our growing dependence on constant digital connectedness, we have become afraid of spending time alone.

--EMERSON CSORBA

Fellow, Canada's Public Policy Forum

NO

Humans are social creatures, so we naturally seek out opportunities...