Sky LaRell Anderson, associate professor of digital media arts at the University of St. Thomas, was featured in the Minnesota Star Tribune discussing how social media platforms are designed to amplify anger, despair and emotional engagement during upsetting times. Anderson explained that algorithms prioritize emotionally charged content, encouraging constant outrage, and suggested that stepping away from social media or taking intentional breaks can help people reconnect with trusted information sources, local communities and healthier ways of processing difficult news.
From the article:
Is the only way to avoid the toxicity and relentless negativity of social media to get out? Maybe, says Sky LaRell Anderson, who teaches at the University of St. Thomas.
“The first thing I recommend is that people relearn how to use the internet without social media. That doesn’t mean to stop using social media entirely, but social media pages have replaced the web for a lot of people,” said Anderson, an associate professor of digital media arts who deleted all of his traditional social media accounts years ago.
Since then, he has discovered he can get information he needs without social media: current events from trusted sources (some of them online), events info from community pages, contacting businesses through customer service numbers rather than relying on Instagram accounts.
