1. Zoom interview with Dr. Elaine Young (11/19/2024)

When I interviewed Dr Elaine Young, a marketing professor, about the impact of digital media on our behavior and society, she shared how technology has changed over time and how it affects the way we communicate and interact. She explained that people bring their behaviors into online spaces, and act differently depending on whether the digital setting is formal or casual.

She talked about how social media has evolved from being focused on communities to being driven by algorithms designed to keep us glued to our screens. These algorithms create personalized feeds that just feed to us what we already believe, sometimes leading to more extreme views. An example she used was cat lovers and dog lovers. She explained that if you love dogs, the algorithm will feed you dog content, and then will go on to tell you cats are evil until you live in an echo chamber of why would anyone like cats.

She also talked about the dopamine rush from getting likes and the fear of missing out (FOMO) that makes people check their phones on repeat. Her advice about addiction to social media was b delete apps from your phone (you can use them on an harder to access device) and being more intentional about what you consume online.

She taught me a bit of history too. She explained how digital communication started with simple chat rooms and grew into today’s social media. These platforms changed from bringing people together to focusing on money and keeping users engaged for advertising purposes.

2. Zoom interview with Dr. Alexis Brieant (11/22/2024)

When I interviewed Dr. Alexis Brieant, an expert in development, she talked about how media impacts stress, anxiety, fear, and anger, particularly during adolescence. She explained that adolescence is a very important time for brain development, as the prefrontal cortex is still maturing. This makes teenagers especially sensitive to media influences, but she wants it to be clear that the effects of media aren’t simple and experiences are different for everyone.

Dr. Brieant talked about how media interacts with the brain's reward pathways, which can make certain content more appealing to teenagers. She mentioned the importance of providing appropriate resources to help children and adolescents understand and process their emotions in a healthy way. She also clarified that some media can make stress and anxiety worse, but other media can help emotional growth. Dr. Brieant offered some advice for parents. She wants parents to be aware of the content their children consume.

She doesn’t want people to think media is good or bad.

3. Zoom interview with Dr. Sayamwong Hammack (11/13/2024)

In my interview with Dr. Sayamwong Hammack, he talked about how stress and anxiety impact the brain and mentioned the benefits of exercise to help reduce them. He explained that our interactions with stimuli shape our responses and that we are always being exposed to both positive and negative stimuli.

Dr. Hammack talked about how humans were made to respond to environmental stimuli, but how in the digital age we live in, this response is often used to compete for our attention. These companies tend to use emotional content because that type of stimuli is better at getting our attention.

He said that the brain should act as though there is a threat and then return to its base level but nowadays because of how life is and partially because of media, we don’t go back to the base level as easily. Dr. Hammack mentioned a well-known book, Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers, to talk about this phenomenon. It is a book that mentions how zebras go through stress when being hunted but then go back to their base level. But humans, ruminate and think about the stressors long after the stressor is gone.

When wondering about whether the amygdala will become more sensitive or desensitized, he mentions how when depressed (according to one theory) we get high levels of cortisol, but when the person has PTSD it has lower levels of cortisol than it should do to exhaustion. He clarified that he did not want to jump to conclusions or oversimplify.