Dear Future President,

With our generation today living in technology, every corner we turn to contains some kind of social media. Whether it be our phones that we always have on us, laptops and tvs that are in our homes, or simply the radio in our cars, our lives always revolve around technology, making us unconsciously altering our decisions.

You see, people are under the impression that social media is normal and will continue being here because technology is only going to keep improving in the future. I do not completely disagree with this, but this statement that other people claim is not really adding on to what I’m saying. Yes, technology is only going to improve and social media will only increase, but it doesn’t mean we should give it the ability to alter our decisions so easily. Social media naturally bounds change to alter our way of thinking to adapt to what society thinks. May it be the latest fashion trends, dieting, what to feel, and the most popular right now, the politics. Social media unnecessarily adds fire to the flame, which makes it sway people to the view that society wants.

There has been many research in the past that show scientific studies of this topic of social media changing our minds and the way we think, but as usual, it is always a split view. Aj Agrawal, a business writer, wrote an article about this specific topic and concludes that social media is a great thing; it’s good for new reports, up to date stories, teen awareness, marketing, and etc. People in general also claim that it also isn’t necessarily unacceptable to be influenced by social media, referring social media to simply a parent or friend to look upon. On the other hand, Joakim Nilsson, Managing director of SCRM Cloud that specializes in technology and consulting solutions around social media monitoring, disagrees, by stressing that “everyone has a voice is more true now than ever, and there’s nothing holding that acceleration back,” summing up that people nowadays are actually taking for granted the meaning of free speech.

To conclude, I don’t have ridiculous expectations of you, the future president, to completely close off social media, but I do hope that you contain it. Social media truly isn’t an entirely terrible thing, but when it comes to swaying people’s opinions, that’s when I think it should be monitored. Everyone has their own right of speech which is completely understandable, but there has to be a fine line that people should know of. The line of when it is appropriate because when it’s social media, it is behind a screen, so no one is ever afraid of what they post, read, or say. The government does search and find the person if such things get out of hand, but that still doesn’t stop the effect of our mind’s being twisted and altered. Simply indicating a fine line of what is appropriate and what is not on the web and social media is all I really ask for.

Sincerely, 

Tili Xiong