Social Media Corrupts Human Interactions | Jack Symonds | Part 1 of 6 — Transcript

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1. 0:01[Music]
2. 0:09the motion is this house believes social
3. 0:11media corrupts human interactions and I
4. 0:13now look to Jack Simons standing
5. 0:15committee lady Margaret Hall to open the
6. 0:17case for a
7. 0:27proposition thank you Mr President and
8. 0:29thank thank you for having me as one of
9. 0:30your guest speakers this evening I would
10. 0:33like to start by saying that I am most
11. 0:35certainly not against social media any
12. 0:39one of my friends or followers will tell
13. 0:41you that I'm certainly not averse to the
14. 0:44semi-regular Instagram post Facebook
15. 0:47upload or even Snapchat
16. 0:49story perhaps even more importantly as
17. 0:52an Australian student social media
18. 0:55allows me to effortlessly stay in
19. 0:57contact with my friends and family
20. 0:59around World more importantly still
21. 1:03social media acts as a positive
22. 1:06implication for many people living in
23. 1:08developing countries and some of the
24. 1:10world's largest social media companies
25. 1:13are at the heart of these positive
26. 1:15changes Facebook's internet.org for
27. 1:18example has given internet access to
28. 1:21over 25 million people around the world
29. 1:23who have been able to reap the many
30. 1:25benefits that the internet provides
31. 1:27these people live in countries ranging
32. 1:29from Kenya to colia and the program is
33. 1:32only in its first two years social media
34. 1:35gives a voice to the people it allows us
35. 1:37to fight for what we believe in it keeps
36. 1:40people safe and it allows us to create a
37. 1:43movement in the name of what we think is
38. 1:46right but the fact of the matter is that
39. 1:49the motion put before the house tonight
40. 1:51is not about the benefits of social
41. 1:54media it is not about whether or not the
42. 1:57internet is good or bad
43. 2:01the motion put before us tonight is
44. 2:03about the impact that social media can
45. 2:05have on our interactions on our
46. 2:08relationships and on each and every one
47. 2:11of our lives on a deeply personal
48. 2:13level as a society we are constantly
49. 2:17feeling the need to be seen by massive
50. 2:19amounts of people we are growing more
51. 2:21and more dependent on instant
52. 2:24gratification and in order to feel
53. 2:26included we are forced to post gram snap
54. 2:30tweet upload pin checkin swipe like
55. 2:34share react or
56. 2:36message our real human connections are
57. 2:39being replaced by virtual relationships
58. 2:42the simple truth is that for the most
59. 2:44part we are spending huge proportions of
60. 2:46Our Lives living in the Digital Universe
61. 2:50and it is corrupting the way that we act
62. 2:52with each other but before I go into
63. 2:55more detail about the ways in which
64. 2:57social media is affecting our lives it
65. 2:59falls on me to introduce tonight's
66. 3:04opposition speaking first for the
67. 3:06opposition tonight is my friend L
68. 3:09vadlamani now in the spirit of tonight's
69. 3:11debate Facebook memes often tell us to
70. 3:13find you someone who can do both but as
71. 3:17the treasurer elect of the Oxford Union
72. 3:19as president of the Oxford mulus Asian
73. 3:22society as an incoming summer intern in
74. 3:25JP Morgan's Asset Management Division
75. 3:27and as a regular attendee at all of the
76. 3:30finest nightclubs that Oxford has to
77. 3:32offer L vadani can not only do both she
78. 3:36can do it
79. 3:37all next up we have Liam Hackett founder
80. 3:40and CEO of ditch the label Liam and I
81. 3:43were chuckling earlier because I when I
82. 3:45was researching him in the leadup to
83. 3:46tonight's debate I came across the first
84. 3:48comment on his Wikipedia page which
85. 3:50simply read Liam Hackett should not have
86. 3:52a Wikipedia
87. 3:55page Liam you'll be pleased to hear that
88. 3:57I actually disagree I have tremendous
89. 3:59respect for you and the work that you're
90. 4:01doing for victims of cyber bullying and
91. 4:03I look very much forward to hearing what
92. 4:04you have to say tonight finally closing
93. 4:07the case for the opposition we have Dr
94. 4:09Jessica carbiner Tinder sociologist now
95. 4:13in an attempt to sabotage my opposition
96. 4:15and learn about their arguments for
97. 4:16tonight's debate I set my Tinder radius
98. 4:19to the maximum 160
99. 4:21km however it was obviously far enough
100. 4:24not far enough because Jessica we are
101. 4:26yet to match and I still have no idea
102. 4:29what you're going to say against me
103. 4:40tonight Mr President these are your
104. 4:42speakers and they are most
105. 4:51welcome I'd now like to continue my
106. 4:54argument by first discussing the impact
107. 4:57that social media is having on us at an
108. 5:00individual level because if we can agree
109. 5:03that social media is affecting us as
110. 5:05individuals and changing the way that we
111. 5:07behave it follows that social media is
112. 5:10affecting the way we interact with each
113. 5:12other research from the University of
114. 5:15Pittsburgh School of Medicine studied
115. 5:17over 1,700 people between the ages of 19
116. 5:20and 32 it was found that on average
117. 5:24participants were spending 61 minutes
118. 5:26per day on social media and visiting
119. 5:28social media ites over 30 times per week
120. 5:32this research was conducted in 2014 and
121. 5:35the numbers have been growing steadily
122. 5:37since that
123. 5:38time over one quarter of the young
124. 5:41people surveyed displayed indicators of
125. 5:43high levels of depression and the people
126. 5:46who most frequently checked social media
127. 5:48were found to be 2.7 times more likely
128. 5:52to develop depression than the average
129. 5:55now the opposition would have you
130. 5:56believe that this data is inaccurate
131. 5:59perhaps is people who are already
132. 6:01depressed that are turning to social
133. 6:03media as an
134. 6:04outlet while this may be true to some
135. 6:06degree the extent of the data simply
136. 6:09does not lie social media is causing
137. 6:12depression for a lot of people and of
138. 6:15course that depression is affecting the
139. 6:18way that we interact with each other in
140. 6:19the physical
141. 6:22World perhaps even more troubling than
142. 6:24the relationship between social media
143. 6:26and depression is the relationship
144. 6:28between social media and eating
145. 6:30disorders in young people and I'm not
146. 6:32just talking about young girls eating
147. 6:34disorders today are affecting people of
148. 6:37all genders of all Races and from all
149. 6:39socioeconomic backgrounds and in some
150. 6:41cases of all ages as
151. 6:43well the rise of pro-anorexia and proia
152. 6:47communities coupled with advancements in
153. 6:50social media algorithms now means that
154. 6:52these troubling communities have ways of
155. 6:55reaching people who aren't even
156. 6:57necessarily searching for them in the
157. 6:59first
158. 7:00instance as someone whose immediate
159. 7:02family has been directly affected by the
160. 7:05ravages of an eating disorder I can tell
161. 7:08you that social media does have a part
162. 7:10to play platforms like Facebook
163. 7:14Instagram and Tumblr are giving young
164. 7:16people distorted images of how their
165. 7:18bodies should look and often times the
166. 7:21the result is a serious mental illness
167. 7:25that has far-reaching implications on
168. 7:27loving families and loving friendship
169. 7:30ship the mere fact that Facebook and
170. 7:33Instagram have simple methods for
171. 7:36reporting self Haring and suicidal
172. 7:38content is respectable but it is also a
173. 7:41chilling indictment of the extent of
174. 7:43this
175. 7:44problem so if we take a step back and
176. 7:48examine the questions that we have
177. 7:49looked at so far why is social media
178. 7:52causing depression why is social media
179. 7:54causing Eating Disorders the answer is
180. 7:56one that I think we all inherently know
181. 8:00by being constantly presented with
182. 8:02highly idealized views of our peers
183. 8:04social media elicits feelings of envy
184. 8:07and feelings of inadequacy by instilling
185. 8:09us with the often false belief that
186. 8:12other people are leaving are living more
187. 8:14successful or more fulfilling
188. 8:17lives social media is not evil but it
189. 8:20can very well be
190. 8:22dishonest it presents us with a standard
191. 8:25that is unrealistic a reality that is
192. 8:28unreliable and a world which has been
193. 8:30filtered and altered for the benefit of
194. 8:33another person or group and that is the
195. 8:36very essence of
196. 8:39corruption not only is social media
197. 8:41corrupting the way that we behave as
198. 8:43individuals in our own lives it is also
199. 8:46changing the way that we act as a
200. 8:48society and the ways that we interact
201. 8:50with our political
202. 8:52leaders in the recent us election
203. 8:55Facebook's I voted function generated
204. 8:57340,000
205. 8:59extra votes while it hasn't yet been
206. 9:02determined whether these were in favor
207. 9:03of Republicans or in favor of Democrats
208. 9:06the implications on our freedom of
209. 9:08thought are worryingly
210. 9:10clear to give you a perhaps more serious
211. 9:13example in Facebook's recent fake news
212. 9:16Scandal Facebook employees were accused
213. 9:18by Gizmodo and other journalists of
214. 9:21falsely of of choosing the articles that
215. 9:23appear as trending on our news feeds
216. 9:26based on their own political beliefs
217. 9:28this alter ation of information this
218. 9:31filtering of our realities is once again
219. 9:33at the very heart of what corruption
220. 9:36really is but the issue goes deeper than
221. 9:39any one
222. 9:41Scandal social media is giving massive
223. 9:44followings to people who are popular
224. 9:46rather than people who are
225. 9:48professional truth is quickly being
226. 9:51replaced with speed and access and
227. 9:54journalistic integrity is something that
228. 9:56is quickly becoming harder and harder to
229. 9:58find
230. 10:00we are not having organic interactions
231. 10:02with each other with our friends with
232. 10:04our Idols with our families or with our
233. 10:07political leaders and if you think we
234. 10:08are I would urge you to be more
235. 10:12skeptical in summary my message is
236. 10:14simple we need not condemn social media
237. 10:18but to be aware of the fact that it is
238. 10:20corrupting our
239. 10:22interactions so tonight I say to you
240. 10:25all it's time to stop stalking and and
241. 10:29start
242. 10:30talking and sometimes you can learn you
243. 10:33can learn more by looking someone in the
244. 10:35eye than you can from looking at their
245. 10:38social media profile proud to propose
246. 10:40thank
247. 10:48[Applause]
248. 10:55[Music]
249. 10:58you