TERRY LEWIS: Is social media a blessing or a curse?

Is social media a blessing or a curse? There is no doubt that Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, SnapChat, et al, have had an enormous impact on information gathering, relationships and business.

The answer to the question depends on whom you ask, but it’s hard to ignore the always online smartphones that seem welded to the hands of our younger generations.

According to a study by The Harvard Business Review, the average Facebook user spends almost an hour on the site every day, according to data provided by the company last year. A survey found that for many smartphone users, checking social media apps are the first thing they do in the morning — often before even getting out of bed.

My 24-year-old daughter sleeps with her cellphone on her pillow.

It’s difficult to imagine that the company founded 14 years ago by Mark Zuckerberg, along with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes, would grow into the behemoth it’s now become.

According to Wikipeda, which I can credit as a source here because it, too, is a new-age phenomenon, “Facebook has more than 2.2 billion monthly active users as of January. Its popularity has led to prominent media coverage for the company, including significant scrutiny over privacy and the psychological effects it has on users. In recent years, the company has faced intense pressure over the amount of fake news, hate speech and depictions of violence prevalent on its services, all of which it is attempting to counteract.”

But knowing that history doesn’t answer the original question, does it?

I’ve been on Facebook for the past eight years. In that time I have made new friends, rediscovered friends from the past, lost friends, been blocked by people, blocked a few myself, found good restaurants, discovered good people, bad people and folks who would make me walk across the street if I saw then coming down the sidewalk.

I have learned much over that eight years, and I have also given a few lessons. If you doubt the power of social media, all you need to do is look back to 2016 when Donald Trump tweeted his way into the Oval Office.

While acknowledging the power of this new medium, there are times I can’t avoid the ickyness of it all.

Common courtesy and discourse have been flushed down the toilet. People seem to no longer seek the truth but instead look for people and websites that blend with their views of what’s going on in the world — that’s another new phenomenon known as “confirmation bias.”

It’s unhealthy, and we are all poorer for it because we’ve become a politically correct, easily triggered, thin-skinned people convinced the world is full of bigots, skinheads, socialists and coddled children in search of the nearest safe place. What good is constant contact if all we do is gripe about the general state of affairs?

So what is the answer to the question?

I’d say social media is neither blessing nor curse, rather a combination of the two. What’s important to remember is the pages are delivered on a little computer in your pocket. You control the message, social media does not control you.

Try this, stick the phone in a desk drawer for an hour, then two hours a day. Step outside and look up. That big yellow ball in the sky is called the sun. Take a short walk, play with your kid, scratch your dog behind his ears, grab a rope and play with your cat.

Chill out without an app and see if you can lower your blood pressure a little. Our country, and you, will be better for it.

Email Terry Lewis at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @ABH_Lewis.