Marshal McLuhan was a very astute fellow and ahead of his time. He essentially predicted the chaos that is called social media in 2021. It is easy to see why that social media influences people in many different ways. It makes people feel happy, sad, mad… it makes people angry, influences their purchases, makes people form opinions very quickly and much more. This is a fantastic example of McLuhan’s Technological Determinism Theory. If you want more insight on this theory, check out this article.
Why do people flock to social media when they are bored? Why do people mindlessly scroll Tik-Tok for hours and lose track of time? Why do I care what people are up to on Instagram Stories during my work lunch? The answer to all of these questions could be as simple as addiction to social media. However, this may not be the case for everyone.
McLuhan has it mostly correct in the Technological Determinism Theory. People are addicted to the feeling they get from scrolling. I know this point is arguable in a sense, but rationally thinking leads me to believe the muscle memory of opening a favorite social media app and scrolling with your thumb makes me think I am correct. I am willing to bet that a majority of adults can open their favorite social media app with their eyes closed. That means it is muscle memory. Muscle memory is built with habit. According to this article, “Habits are our brain’s way of increasing its efficiency. Our brain turns daily actions and behaviors into habits, so we would do them automatically and without too much thought — thus freeing up our brainpower for other more important challenges”
Scrolling Instagram or other platforms are a daily behavior. The reason it is a daily behavior is because it releases dopamine. This article explains the dopamine release in more detail. But this further affirms McLuhan’s theory.
On the flip side, McLuhan’s theory places the format above the content. Which given that there are multiple, billion dollar companies that get hours of people’s attention everyday would argue otherwise. The reason Tik-Tok is about to surpass Instagram in popularity is because the content is better. Tik-Tok became the leading model for other platforms, where the user interface is now being mimicked by other platforms. The reason people are so drawn to Tik-Tok is because of the content.
People are beginning to leave social media in droves because they are frustrated with one another. This would also be a slight against the Technological Determinism Theory. People are starting to recognize the harm social media has on their own mental healthy (see this article for further explanation) and this is overpowering the dopamine that comes from social media usage.
One final hit against the TDT, for short, is that people are starting to value human interaction. The lack of human interaction in person since 2020 has made people yearn for that human contact again. Looking at websites like Tinder show the desire for people to meet people. Dating apps in 2020 blew up because they wanted to find people to meet with outside of the virtual setting.
