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Oz Blog News Commentary

Is Social Media Infantilizing Us?

April 2, 2014 - 06:10 -- Admin

Imagine raising your kids without ever telling them "no". To anyone of a certain age, that may sound outlandish, and yet, in many ways, that's exactly where Americans are headed culturally -- and it's infantilizing us.

Unchecked, we get to rant (also known as, throw tantrums) on our Facebook newsfeeds in an avalanche of words anytime we want. We can feed our endless need for validation by publishing the most moronic posts imaginable -- "Buying a bagel. Yummy, I love bagels!" -- expecting our "friends" to "Like" it. Twitter, with its 140-character limit, plays directly to the fidgety, digitally over-stimulated, slightly spastic adults we've become. The innumerable media outlets that truncate complicated ideas and news items into packaged listicles don't help. Even our Gchats and text messages read like gibberish: c u @ 2, k?

Visit The Boston Globe for the rest of the story: