University of Exeter 9

The podcast discusses the impact of social media on identity and creativity in the modern world. The host explores the role of AI and automation in popular culture, expressing concern about the potential decrease in authenticity and creativity. The host also discusses the double-edged sword of social media, highlighting its ability to connect people but also create feelings of competition and loneliness. The importance of connection and real-time interaction is emphasized, while also acknowledging the superficiality and comparison culture that social media can foster. Lastly, the host questions whether it is possible to truly unplug from the technological world and whether we should even try. Hi everyone, welcome back to another podcast. Today our topic is the podcasting self and what it means to be human in the modern world with a particular focus on popular culture. Now my two guest speakers aren't available today so I've decided to focus on social media as our area of popular culture because we only have 10 minutes to have a chat and I think social media is probably the most relevant and most kind of common everyday bit of our lives about popular culture because social media is everywhere. I mean inevitably I have the highest screen time ever, I'm always on my phone, I wake up and check my social media and go to bed and check my social media so I thought it was a very good idea to look into this. So I've kind of come up with three areas of discussion I think would be interesting to have a little chat about and because I haven't got my guests I've used chat GPT, again I think a very important feature of being human today in the modern world. Chat GPT is this uprising phenomenon that we're all kind of depending on lately so I thought I'd use chat GPT as my special guest who's given me a couple of ideas along the way. So the first area I wanted to talk about was the impact of AI and automation on identity and creativity. So I've kind of considered AI a feature of popular culture. Now I know it isn't properly popular culture, like it isn't something that kind of forms British society and our British identity and it isn't something that's like on the TV but I do think it's going to become a popular culture. It is something that I think affects social media massively, it affects my education, it affects everything so I thought I'd quickly go into it. So I use chat GPT a lot, I use it a lot for my work, I think it's a very good tool, I think it's very promising, it holds a lot of potential for the future but I am someone that is quite worried about it. I don't know if that's maybe because I'm an old soul maybe but I am someone that's quite concerned about it because I do believe it can decrease our authenticity and creativity. So for me I'm someone that's grown up performing, I've loved drama, I got into doing pantomimes and shows since the age of four so I've really kind of grown up on the stage if you think about it and one of my assets that I've always kind of thrived upon and loved about myself and kind of valued as a personal skill that I can bring to the table is my performing skills. Now for instance this will be very current to you guys, I just had to do an EPQ for my A-levels and I decided to do a presentation performance rather than a written dissertation because I believe I have a better power at communicating through spoken word rather than an essay and through my body language and my facial expressions through my tone of voice so I kind of took that opportunity and utilised it and it did work in my favour. So to me for someone that kind of thrives upon my sense of creativity it's very scary that a robot could kind of just undermine my valuable skill that I've kind of grown up with thinking that kind of distincts me from everyone else. Like if you think about it AI can just do a performance, it can come up with literally a script for a play in the press of a button, it could literally replicate anything in a second so it really can undermine this. I mean chat VP team, my guest host, has said it can cause the erosion of creative professions but professionals like graphic designers, copywriters and illustrators also may need to increase competition with AI potentially devaluing human craftsmanship in these fields which I think is completely correct. Again I think with AI it can cause this lack of identity because it can cause like a blur between authenticity and performance. I think with AI it's very easy to lie, it's very easy to say that what AI has produced is your own work so I think it can create this false sense of confidence within people which inevitably is a sense of performance, it's not authenticity because it's not ourselves. I mean chat VP team has said social media platforms and AI tools allow people to curate their identities in unprecedented ways. From AI generated avatars to enhanced digital presences people can explore alternative versions of themselves. So I could be a completely different person through chat VP team and on social media which I think is crazy. I mean if we're talking about being human in the modern world, are we even human in the modern world when in the modern world we're provided with tools such as AI and social media which lets us distort our public image, it lets us distort who we are completely. I mean the person I am on my Instagram is not who I am right now filming this podcast. I mean on my Instagram I'm someone that seems very put together that travels a lot and like does her hair and right now I'm here with my hair in a messy bun, no makeup and you know going home for Christmas and staying there so it can kind of cause this false sense of reality which I don't think is properly addressed. Another area of topic I thought we could talk about is social media's double-edged sword which I thought was a really interesting phrase that I found and when doing a bit of research for this double-edged sword I thought that was very compelling and this idea of connection versus loneliness. Now I think with social media especially when coming to uni, I mean I'm using anecdotal examples because for this project we were actually asked to choose our favourite podcast and for me I listen every Wednesday without a doubt to The Girl's Bathroom. I love it, it's a very personal casual podcast which I've tried to recreate. I don't know if that's the right thing but that's the vibe I've gone for and so I'm trying to do that kind of anecdotal advice kind of angle that they've taken to podcasting but with me just transitioning from fifth form to uni I found that social media is very much a double-edged sword. It can be so great at connecting and communicating with family, friends from home and new people from university but it can also cause a sense of competition. I do feel like when I'm posting on Instagram I'm kind of competing against other people at uni which I know sounds really deep and a bit sad but I think that's kind of how it's become inevitably. I think it's this whole idea that on Instagram you're supposed to be posting that you're having the best time and that you know you're always out when realistically that's not the truth for anyone but I think for other people seeing it and maybe if they're feeling a bit lonely and upset with university you can really easily compare yourselves so I do think it can make people feel very lonely. I think again if you don't get a reply or if you don't get the amount of likes you were thinking it does make you kind of spiral and question whether you're kind of validated in the sense you thought you were. So Chat TPT came up with the power of connection with global reach and real-time interaction. Now for me I think this is a really great point because me and my sister have a big age gap we're five years apart and she did a year abroad and when she did a year abroad and even when she went to uni I mean she went to Durham and I'm from Hertfordshire so she was kind of the furthest away from me she possibly could I mean I don't know if that's very telling, if she wanted a break from the family or if yeah she just needed some time away from us but to be able to message my sister was so so important like I don't think I ever really acknowledged how important that was to me. I mean she went to uni when I was doing GCSE so I was still just a teenager and a teenager needs their sibling like a sibling is such an important part of my life I mean I think to be human you possess an identity and part of my identity has been shaped and crafted and influenced by my sister so I needed my sister growing up and to be able to message her and kind of see what she was up to see photos of where she actually lived and who she was meeting was so important to me it kind of really settled me and knowing that she was so far away but we still had this connection so chat GPT that was a really interesting point but then on the loneliness paradox it's spoken about superficial relationships saying that while social media fosters connection these interactions come at depth a like or a comment doesn't replace a heartfelt conversation and an over-reliance on these interactions can leave people feeling emotionally unfulfilled and also talks about comparison culture and FOMO and disconnection saying that social media highlights curated versions of people's lives creating an illusion of perfection that can lead to feelings of inadequacy jealousy and loneliness among users sorry I have a bit of a tongue twister this morning come and get my words out and then with FOMO saying the fear of missing out making users feel left behind so so true I think that's a really fair point which I kind of went into beforehand but I do think social media can easily be weaponized it is a great great thing but it can also be pretty harmful and detrimental to our age group so I think it is something definitely to be taken with caution now the last area I know it's gone quite quickly but I wanted to get in quite a lot into these 10 minutes but can we truly unplug and should we now I think this may be a controversial opinion but I don't think we can possibly unplug I think when we're looking at being human in the modern world emphasis on modern world the modern world is a technological technologized technologized that's the word technologized it's a it's a technical world like our whole world is built around the internet everything is online I mean literally I'm sat here with a laptop my phone and my ipad in front of me I have three devices just to do one project of work I simply don't think it's possible to go without I I do you know what I think people can live without social media I think people would be able to do that I mean my mum happily has no social media and she's very happy with her lifestyle I'm very happy that she isn't on it but I don't think you can physically get away from technology and I think that's what's detrimental I think as soon as you go into the supermarket you're faced with it as soon as you walk into town as soon as I leave my room here I'm faced with it so I think it's impossible to avoid I'm not saying that this like automatic technical technical world we live in is bad I mean it's great it's great for innovation and advances I mean inside the medicine knowledge and communications it's great but it is it does have a slight limitation and a bit of a dangerous side to it on I think our mental health and how we live our lifestyles but I don't think we should completely unplug I think we do we need to live in the era we live in we have to kind of accept that I mean being human is being part of the world we're in and we are products of this technology that we live in it's inevitable but I think it only needs to be taken with caution and I don't think we need to completely unplug and track GPT kind of agrees so when I said can we truly unplug talks about the practical challenges being like social media has become embedded in daily life for communication work and entertainment says a professional tool for networking branding and staying informed disconnecting entirely might not be feasible without significant lifestyle adjustments and it also says psychological dependence which I thought was a really interesting point said social media platforms are designed to be addictive and features like infinite scrolling algorithmic feeds and notifications that reward engagement many people find challenging to step away social media fulfills emotional needs for connection and validation very very true this whole idea of needing a certain amount of likes literally kind of dictates how you feel about a post like I know I've taken down posts because they haven't got the amount of likes I've wanted which is silly but it's this whole kind of reputation and image on social media that we all want we all yearn for it and it says should we unplug for mental health benefits improve focus and productivity and reclaiming real-world connections very very true okay so that concludes the end of the podcast I hope you found it thought-provoking and engaging and really like this kind of chatty casual discussion style I hope that you take these kind of topics and think about them yourselves and if you have any questions any feedback do kind of get involved with the community it'd be lovely to hear what other people think about what it is to be human in the modern world with social media popular culture and AI I've kind of combined quite a few topics there because it is very interdisciplinary and they all kind of link together I hope you have a really nice rest of your day and see you next week where hopefully Paul and George will join the discussion we'll continue this and they'll give us more research and more knowledge to build upon look after yourselves bye