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A story about the negative impacts of the internet and social media on mental health and motivation in school. <\/p>\n"},"library":"H5P.AdvancedText 1.1","metadata":{"contentType":"Text","license":"U","title":"Untitled Text"},"subContentId":"f3b8d906-7626-411f-8447-0ea8b8456181"},"title":"The Internet is my Frenemy by Aidan Burns"},{"content":{"params":{"text":"

The internet in many facets has helped me throughout my first three years of my undergraduate studies in Electrical & Computer Engineering. It has also greatly affected me in a number of negative ways. If we allow the internet to encompass social media (since they are \u201cdot com\u201d sites) which for the purpose of this activity I will, the internet has changed the way I think, approach problems, my attention span, and changed the way I become motivated academically. Spending an exorbitant amount of time on social media throughout my adolescence has without a doubt affected my mental health in a negative way, because of how relatively young \u2018social media\u2019 is, it is challenging to tell the scope of the way it has affected me. There\u2019s a very real chance that our children will ask us, \u201cWhy would you ever use social media if it is so bad for you?\u201d, the same way we ask our parents and grandparents, \u201cWhy would you ever smoke cigarettes if it's so bad for you?\u201d Social media has made it more challenging to focus on academic tasks as the distraction is so close in my pocket, worsening my attention span. But the internet is not just social media, the abundance of information available has changed how I prepare for exams, what level of understanding I find acceptable for myself, and the motivation to learn. With my experiences in my co-op terms (although I sort of knew this before them too), I have come to learn how very little of what I learned in the classroom translates to work, with what I really need to know being either taught or use my resources available to me to learn. This has shifted my focus academically to simply learn what is needed to do well on the exams, the additional background information that I would have previously tried to understand being ignored. With the answers just a click away, it is very challenging to not just copy. This has affected how motivated I am as so much of this does not seem pertinent to my future success, so I begin to contemplate whether this time invested in these courses is worth it. Lastly, the internet and cell phones have made it harder to separate our lives from our school or work, and the pandemics shift to doing things virtually has only exacerbated this problem. <\/p>\n"},"library":"H5P.AdvancedText 1.1","metadata":{"contentType":"Text","license":"U","title":"Untitled Text"},"subContentId":"66cd1b66-4168-4d7d-8382-5ad9efac9e10"},"title":"The Wicked Problem"},{"content":{"params":{"text":"

I don\u2019t think I\u2019ll ever fully get over my wicked problem, but some steps have been taken to limit its effects. With respect to social media, I have enacted strategies to reduce my time on these applications. I first tried to quit cold turkey, but as is the case with people trying to rid themselves of other addictions in this fashion, this did not work. I then read through a number of articles to see how others have limited their time, and have seen improvements. I set daily limits on certain apps on my phone, and have goals to reduce overall screen time by the month. In addition, in busy times like exam season I remove all applications on my phone excluding call, and text. This gives me almost no reason to use my phone in a time where I really don\u2019t have the time to use it. The other issue of greater internet availability has been more challenging to solve. Motivation is something that I have a hard time changing through certain strategies, as I cannot seem to trick my brain in that way. To help with understanding the material, I have tried to more consciously look at how the use of these resources both help and hurt my long term academic development. When I can recognize that using this service is not in my best interest, I can at times put forth a more concerted effort to truly learn. But, this has limitations, if I simply am too busy I will take the short way out of using the resources, which I don\u2019t think is too egregious in the grand scheme of things. Lastly, the biggest issue I find is the outdated model of education these institutions use, and if steps were taken to incorporate education to match that of the realities of the modern world my wicked problem situation would improve drastically. <\/p>\n"},"library":"H5P.AdvancedText 1.1","metadata":{"contentType":"Text","license":"U","title":"Untitled Text"},"subContentId":"1f4a612c-7849-4d1c-a492-ce8c70786c07"},"title":"Finding a Solution"},{"content":{"params":{"text":"

The wicked problem I face is not unique to me, as almost all my peers with which I\u2019ve talked to have faced this issue on some level, but with steps I\u2019ve enlisted above more students can make their use of the internet more efficient and impactful.<\/p>\n"},"library":"H5P.AdvancedText 1.1","metadata":{"contentType":"Text","license":"U","title":"Untitled Text"},"subContentId":"1c345bc8-92b0-40ea-bd44-edf395f94e3d"},"title":"Final Thoughts"},{"content":{"params":{"text":"

Burns, A. (2021, October 5). The Internet is my Frenemy<\/em>. Liberated Learners. https:\/\/wicked.liberatedlearner.ca\/technologist\/the-internet-is-my-frenemy\/<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n"},"library":"H5P.AdvancedText 1.1","subContentId":"fde200c3-9fc0-4405-82de-d44861852550","metadata":{"contentType":"Text","license":"U","title":"Untitled Text"}},"title":"APA Reference"}],"hTag":"h2"}

The Internet is my Frenemy

Liam Peart