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As the internet becomes more advanced and easily accessible, there has been a drastic increase in the amount of people and time spent on social media. Social media was first introduced in 1997 in its most rudimentary form. It was a small online space where people could share interests and talk with one another. It was considered niece and was not used by many. In the present day, social media captivates us entirely. It allows societies to stay connected, and has an influence on our everyday lives. Typically a smartphone is the first and last thing people will see on a normal day. This is because social media is addictive and plays into the brain’s reward system. Scrolling through posts is low effort and highly rewarding. The use of social media releases endorphins such as dopamine and serotonin. This is why we feel a pressure to constantly check our smartphones. People are also conscious that others are doing the same which is why there is a constant pressure to put out a filtered version of one’s life. A version that only shows the positives, which leads to people to compare themselves to others which can lower self esteem. This introduces people to an altered perception of reality where people perceive the small portion of content they are shown as the full scope of one’s life. The brain is very malleable to changes in its environment which is why social media can affect a range of brain functions, not only how we perceive ourselves and the world around us. This is aided by the fact that social media companies develop algorithms which only show users content they enjoy consuming. This creates a cycle where users desire to consume more content whilst simultaneously distorting their perception of reality. This can be considered self destructive behavior as people typically feel poorly about themselves when too much time is wasted on social media.

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The internet captivates too many aspects of our lives.

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The information influx that the internet provides degrades our semantic memory.

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The information influx that the internet provides degrades our transactive memory

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Constant media multitasking impairs our ability to hold attention and multitask in other settings.

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Constant social media use negatively changes our perception of reality as well as real world social relationships.

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A type of long-term memory involving the capacity to recall words, concepts, or numbers, which is essential for the use and understanding of language.

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"a theory about how people in groups... learn "who knows what" and use that knowledge to decide "who will do what," resulting in more efficient and effective individual and collective performance" (Hollingshead).

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Present, appearing, or found everywhere. Social media is ubiquitous in modern society and the information found on social media is ubiquitous as well.

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When multiple forms of media or content are being consumed simultaneously. Example: scrolling through Instagram while watching a movie.

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Obsessing over/ mindlessly consuming large quantities of negative content, impacting mental health in adverse ways.

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While the internet and social media have useful implications, its addictive nature paired with its ubiquitous presence in modern society leads us to degenerate behaviors which can degrade cognitive functions.

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Is there constant pressure to check social media? If so, how can this limit one’s attention span?

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Does relying on the internet’s large pool of information affect memory processing as well as our ability to gain/relay knowledge?

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How can dependance on social media degrade social cognition?

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It is involved in almost every transaction of information in the current day, weather it be to gain knowledge or to share it with others (education).

It is the main source of entertainment for almost everyone, countless hours are spent on social media/ the internet by a large majority for the purpose to entertain alone.

It is addictive, playing into our brains' reward system, making the constant checking of apps and notifications feel like a necessity. This phenomena is aided by algorithms that put out content which consumers will interact with the most.

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“Internet use is now deeply entwined with education, travel, socializing, commerce, and the majority of workplaces” (The ‘Online Brain’: How The Internet May Be Changing Our Cognition).

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"We conclude with a theoretical integration, a critique, and future research directions. One important assumption that underlies transactive memory systems theory is that, taken together, members have sufficient knowledge, skills (broadly defined, so this includes learning and information retrieval skills), resources, and motivation to perform group tasks" (Hollingshead).

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Information is becoming more externally stored via online data, rather than different people in specialized fields requiring real world interactions.

The internet has all the information for any topic, it can be accessed by a simple google search rather than being retained by people who group it into subtopics and actually understand how to interpret said information.

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Gaining information from the internet is faster and more efficient but it does not recruit certain aspects of the brain which other variations of learning do, leading to poorer recall in those who use the internet.

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"The results showed that Internet searching was associated with lower accuracy in recalling information as compared with traditional book searching" (Behavioural and brain responses related to Internet search and memory).

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“The ability to access information online caused people to become more likely to remember where these facts could be retrieved rather than the facts themselves, indicating that people quickly become reliant on the Internet for information retrieval” (The ‘Online Brain’: How The Internet May Be Changing Our Cognition).

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Having access to any information at anytime makes our ability to recall facts duller, this is because searching information on the internet does not give certain parts of the brain the stimulation it needs to form memories.

Knowing facts about subjects from memory makes the bigger concepts easier to grasp and helps our brain make connections for it

Getting the information from the internet often doesn't show the full picture which leads people to false conclusions.

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Media multitasking trains the brain to quickly switch attention to whatever the most stimulating source of content is. This practice teaches the brain to do the same but with environmental stimuli, making it harder to hold attention to one thing during real world applications.

Media multitasking is part of the addictive nature of social media. It uses a combination of algorithms as well as multiple sources of content to play into our reward system making the activities of the real world seem less interesting when they don't provide the same endorphins media multitasking would.

Multitasking with media also impairs our ability to multitask in real life because nothing productive is actually being done while media multitasking.

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"The impeded task-switching ability in heavy media multi-tasking individuals was due to their increased susceptibility to distraction from irrelevant environmental stimuli" (The ‘Online Brain’: How The Internet May Be Changing Our Cognition).

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Social media makes us fixate on "friends" that we make on their platforms. This term is used lightly as they are nothing but name to face connections our brains make but are valued so highly by our reward systems that we interact less and hold less value for true friendships with real life interactions.

Social media shows only a small, overly positive portion of "friends" lives which we perceive as the full scope of their reality. This leads to obsession over how people are living better than the content consumer in a loop called "doom scrolling" where they will keep seeking the reward of new content whilst constantly making themselves more insecure.

Social media use paired with doom scrolling also makes people have a skewed and often negative view of reality which comes off as overthinking when these people face real life social situations. In this way constant social media use can degrade one's ability to socialize with peers.

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"this implicit cognitive process can also be hijacked by the artificial environmental manufactured on social media113, 114, which showcases hyper-successful individuals constantly putting their best foot forward, and even using digital manipulation of images to inflate physical attractiveness" (The ‘Online Brain’: How The Internet May Be Changing Our Cognition).

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While the negatives of high social media consumption are apparent, when used in moderation there are valid benefits that need to be taken into consideration. It has been argued that the constant reliance of the internet for the storage of knowledge has degraded some aspects of human memory and learning processes, but when used correctly the internet is a very powerful tool. However, it must be used as a tool, not a crutch. Preferably something that helps things get done more efficiently without sacrificing quality. The internet is also a great place to get good research and educated articles if used properly. There is also the idea that transactive memory with information stored on the internet can free up memory space for different concepts to become more well versed. Keeping this knowledge in books and with other people gives more depth and meaning to it so, while less convenient they are more reliable that the internet. Finally social media can bring many positive aspects to peoples lives. It can show positive content and connect old friends together when used properly. The problem is it is typically not used properly.

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Something that surprised me while I was doing my research for this project was the evidence of how relying on the internet for knowledge actually related to physical changes in the brain. They were showing the inactivity of certain regions where memory recall would be present and they actually found that the people using the internet remembered how to find the information rather than actually remembering the information. This shows that the brain is malleable and needs practice in order to stay sharp and learn more information. The internet is a good shortcut for this but it will never replace consolidation of knowledge into long term memory. The other information I found surprising was how much the internet encompases our everyday lives. It is used in literally any transfer of information besides direct talking or reading from a book. This is something that I knew but never really came to realize until now. This is partly because my generation are technological natives, a new term I also learned while studying for this project. It means that unlike previous generations, we have always grown up with technology surrounding us and the internet has always been something that has been a part of our lives. Something that challenged me while writing this would be finding evidence that was concise and fit my argument the best. I had to read through which options made the most sense and think through how I could implement them into an essay the best. Overall I learned alot about a topic I am interested in which was my goal for this project.