Author's note:

This was one I submitted on my personal page for week 1. Salvatore commented on it due to being a peer (thanks!). Here it is for the community so I get credit on my analytic for it. And...I've added some more multimedia to it!

Facebook and Gambling - Discussion Topic 1

After seeing what everyone has done so far on Scholar I’m feeling overwhelmed! I do like watching all of the sitcom videos. I’m going to stick with words in Week 1. While I have an elementary education degree and a current teaching certificate, my background and work experience is as a clinical counselor (LCPC). An LCPC is like an LCSW, and something less than a psychologist (simple definition). I’m real big with Cognitive Behavior Theory (CBT). Specifically, I believe Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) is the most important theory of mental health treatment that there is. REBT falls under the CBT umbrella. Of course, it doesn’t work for every situation. And in some people the biological causes of their mental health issues preclude it from working at all independent of pharmaceutical treatment and other therapy. But I find that we should address all irrational thinking in ourselves in order to aid in our overall mental health. I also think, at least, that taking care of irrational thoughts first helps make it easier to address other mental health issues people may have.

This theory helps a lot in a guidance counseling setting in schools to individual students who may be experiencing irrational fears. It’s not the same as applying it when you are the head of a classroom. At least, I don’t think it is when applying to mass students at once. One example would be dealing with text anxiety for an entire class. Some of that is based on irrational fears. So, there is a place for it in larger classrooms and not just on a student-by-student case.

In watching the Skinner video, he is on-target with his free will thoughts. However, I don’t agree with his conclusion. After just talking about REBT above, you can imagine what I think about the irrational behavior that is shown by gambling in games against the house where on a percentage basis if you play long enough you will lose (gambling on sports or against other people like in poker is a little bit different). Let’s look at a modern day addictive activity in using Facebook and other apps. I apologize if someone else already referenced this report this week, but 60 Minutes has a good report on this recently.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/why-cant-we-put-down-our-smartphones-60-minutes/

https://www.inverse.com/article/30114-60-minutes-tristan-harris-apps-brain-hack

It’s like gambling in a way. In this case, the companies that pay Facebook for advertising and our personal data are the actual consumers. The people who use Facebook, myself included, are actually the product. There are a lot of reinforcers embedded to help induce us to keep using Facebook (“Hey I got another Like on my picture”).

We still have free will, though. Just because there are external forces that are well-crafted with the intent of making us choose a certain action does not mean we don’t have the final say. Granted, some of the influences may be powerful. It’s really about making as informed decisions as possible. Learning about why we make the choices we do and what the motivations we have are (and the motivations of those who want to make money off of us in this case have), helps us be able to make the most informed decisions that we can.

I’ve got to end this now. I have to check my Facebook page.

Go Illini!

P.S.

Since I get a 2nd chance at this...here is a video I liked discussing how social media affects our brains.