Introduction

1. Proposition Restatement: Social media is beneficial to our quality of life by allowing for ideas and information to be more accessible to the public.
2. Definitions: N/a

Statement/Justification of Criteria:

My reasons stem from some of the most important, inherent values of United States citizens, which are progress and freedom of information. I’ll start with an homage to the great Simon Sinek.

1. What is it that we do? Well, we do lots of things. How do we do what we do? We do what we do by sharing ideas. Why do we do what we do? We share ideas in order to find a more perfect form, a better way of doing things, and to create and improve upon ideas we had not yet conceived of before. From the moment we’re born to the day we die, we are doing something incredible that no other species of this planet is nearly capable of copying. That is the ability to communicate clearly. That is the ability to share and build on ideas with each other. When we do this, we are continually progressing towards a better future for all of us.
2. The ability to spread and access information easily is absolutely necessary for the continuation of human progress. Whether it is political, spiritual, economic, or otherwise, we humans push to find a new way of doing things, and the only way we can do so efficiently is by improving our methods of communication.
3. Social media gives power to the individual. When we feel a lack of purpose is when our quality of life is poorest. Social media allows us to create our own purpose and make something great happen in the world.
4. When people don’t have access to information they can be oppressed, manipulated, and belittled. Our quality of life is certainly improved upon when more people are able to access more information.

Application of Criteria

First Measure: The use of social media gives us access to different viewpoints and prevents monopolies on information like the mainstream news media used to have.

1. There used to be a specific few organizations that controlled all of the information Americans saw. They possessed the ability to influence entire swaths of public opinion. They would rarely get fact-checked in a way that held them accountable to the public and a lot of the information from the various stations came from the same sources.
2. Social media allowed us to blow up the myth that mass media is looking out for the interests of its viewership. People now have the ability to research and make informed decisions based on their own discoveries instead of being told what to believe by a biased reporter who did the research for them.
3. Social media allows us to build a community of people and information sources that we can trust and rely on. No one is forcing you to believe every click-bait article you open in response to a flashy headline. That’s the individual’s choice to make.
4. We now have the ability to communicate directly with our representatives and can hold them personally accountable to their constituents.
5. This is beneficial to all Americans because the foundation of our country was based on the principle that the people should be as close to the government as possible. Prior to social media, you could contact your representatives via phone, email, letter, etc. but when they respond, they are not held accountable to the public. Now we can call out politicians via social media and they have a social obligation to respond if it is a reasonable public concern. Otherwise, we can see their cowardly behavior outright and vote them out of office in the next election.

Second Measure: We here in the United States come from the most successful economic empire ever to exist. How did we manage to do that? By inspiring the next generation of communicators.

1. From the early stages of American history, the stage was set for our economic domination. We had estimated literacy rates ranging from 80% all the way to 100% in certain cities like Boston. This paved the way to a more fairly operated republic wherein each citizen has the ability to engage and understand the complexities of individual issues.
2. Why were reading and writing so important? The streamlined communication in ways that the human voice never could. They allowed us to lay down concrete foundations of understanding while continents apart.
3. Continuing to hurl humans into the future were inventions like the printing press, the type-writer, and the subsequent massive book publications that put information into the hands of many. Social media is just an outgrowth of these information technologies.
4. As you see, the results from that have been incredible. More people could go to college and share their ideas with contrasting thinkers. Now we have things like highways stretching from coast to coast, massive skyscrapers built like castles for Gods, and things like the computer that allow us even more access to information.
5. The more people who have access to the information the better. Social media allows us to spread and share ideas that would otherwise never have been discussed.
6. There is a reason we went from living in caves to living in castles over the span of several thousands of years, yet we went from living in castles to living in well lit, temperature changeable, bastions of hygiene with magical water makers and feces expulsion devices in just a few hundred. The reason is simple. Our ability to communicate evolved.

Third Measure: Social media allows us to get access to information that we want without even having to search for it.

1. Our social media accounts know us pretty well if we allow them to. If we decide to make that choice they can suggest specific posts that might be relevant to our individual passions and interests. People from all over the world can reach out into the abyss of strangers that they would otherwise never be able to connect with but were always meant to. This is how we are able to connect with groups that want to pursue a shared interest.
2. In many cases this means activism. Which more and more people are able to become a part of, thanks to social media.
3. The ways that we are successful in life often come from finding something that interests us and then improving upon it.
4. Social media is simply an idea hub that allows groups and individuals to express and share ideas. If you are opposed to that, you are opposed to progress.
5. Humans always want new ways to make progress. To invent, craft, and improve upon the status quo of human existence is an inherent principle in human psychology.
6. Without social media, we would have a lot less exposure to the things that truly interest us and motivate us to do the undone things that we have the potential to do.
7. As one of the greatest innovators of modern history, Albert Einstein, once said, “Everybody is a genius. but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid”

Conclusion

1. Review: Social media gives us the ability to share and collect information that would have been completely unattainable in the past. It is opening up the door to new ideas and allowing us more individual control over information. Control of information is control of the world.
2. Impact: Yes, some people overindulge in social media for simple pleasures, but that is not what it inherently stands for. It stands for the clearest, open, and honest form of communication we have available. With the ability to communicate and access more information, we have the ability to make progress. If social media is affecting some people negatively then it is best they make the individual choice to stay away from it. For the greater good of society, social media is vital to our quality of life.
3. Call for support: For these reasons, I ask you to support my position that social media is inherently beneficial to our quality of life.