Technological Determinism and the StatsCan Report

Anahita Kavianpour

Baym outlines four perspectives on the causal relationship between technology and society that enable us to further understand social anxieties that may arise due to the implementation of technologies. I will be focusing on Baym’s first perspective of technological determinism and its evidence in the StatsCan report. Through the data collected from the Statistics Canada report titled Canadians’ assessment of social media in their lives, the research concluded many ways that the use of these social technology changed society and has caused impacts on our lives. The research concluded with finding six major outcomes that are attributed to the use of social media. These are “lost sleep, trouble concentrating on tasks or activities, less physical activity, feeling anxious or depressed, feeling envious of the lives of others, and feeling frustrated or angry” (Fonberg et all, 2021, Pp.2). All six of these come from the use of social media and all have negative impacts on individuals’ wellbeing in their daily lives and social interactions further contributing to the anxiety around digital media.

Have you ever experienced any of the six outcomes due to your social media use?

 

Sources

Baym.N, (2010) Personal Connections in the Digital Age, Retrieved October 13, 2021

 

Fonberg. J & Schellenberg. G& Schimmele. C, (2021), Canadians’ assessments of social media in their

lives, Economic and Social Reports, Statistics Canada, Retrieved October 13, 2021, from: https://doi.org/10.25318/36280001202100300004-eng

Comments

  1. Taylor HolmesOctober 14, 2021 at 6:54 PM

    I greatly enjoyed reading your blog! The Statistics Canada article is extremely informative and interesting. To answer your question, beginning with the first impact of losing sleep, the concept of revenge bedtime procrastination comes to mind. I have found myself tired in the morning because I have stayed up too late being on social media. RBP is when individuals stay awake to spend time relaxing (ex., scrolling through social media) as their busy day did not allow time for this. As a busy student I have experienced RBP, and I am curious to know if others in our class have experienced it as well. Turning to another outcome, studying can also be tough when motivation is low. I tend to reach for the phone rather than focus on my homework. I know many who scroll through social media, even when meaningful conversations are taking place. I know many families have a “no phones at the table” policy to promote genuine conversation amongst the group. The other outcomes I experience much less. We must invest resources into uncovering all the outcomes of social media. The best thing we can do to manage its impacts is to be knowledgeable on the topic. Overall, it is extremely unfortunate the prevalence of these negative outcomes.

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  2. Kat StaplesOctober 17, 2021 at 7:21 AM

    Hi Anahita,
    I really enjoyed reading your post! I liked how you used the six major outcomes in the StatsCan report on Canadian’s assessment of social media and related them to technological determinism. I also think these are some great examples!
    In all honesty, I have probably experienced all six of these outcomes when it comes to my social media use but I have chosen to focus on one that I think is the most prominent, and that is lost sleep. There have been many nights where instead of sleeping, I like to watch TikTok’s, scroll through Instagram (mainly looking at NHL news and highlights from games that day). But, something that keeps me up at night the most is reading stories on Wattpad. I always tell myself that I am only going to read 2 or 3 chapters and then go to bed. More often than not, these 2 or 3 chapters turn into 4 or 6 (at minimum) because I am really enjoying the story or I don’t want to stop and be left on a cliffhanger. To solve this problem, I simply just put my phone down and I don’t even open these apps because I know if I do that I will spend hours on them instead of getting the sleep I know that I need.

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