If you have been on any of your social network sites anytime today or last night, I am sure you are familiar with the infamous white and gold (or black and blue) dress. This dress has caused endless discussion and/or debates all across the world of social media in less than a day. The fact that the color of a dress can spark so much attention is just proof of how powerful social media really is.

It makes you wonder, does social media control our minds? Every time something is posted that sparks the interest of many, it becomes a social media phenomenon! It is quite obvious that is does not take much for us to be glued to our phones, from the hottest celebrity gossip to something as small as a dress. Social media can be fun and also helpful for networking; however, it is a little scary to see how much buzz was generated over a dress. Granted, this was a test to reveal the differences in how people see images. Nevertheless, this dress took on a life of its own due to how fast we circulate information on these sites. It went from one simple post asking what color do you think the dress is to the creation of memes, heated debates, and questioning whether your vision is up to par or not. 

That brings me back to the question about mind control. We view these “trending topics” as ways to have harmless fun on social media, but it makes you wonder if it is more to that. Are we “puppets” for social media? It only takes one thing to trigger something in our brains that tells us to join in the “fun” surrounding a particular topic. Is it really just fun or is it proof that social media is gradually altering the way we think? The power of social media is a phenomenal thing; however, it does cause some to reevaluate how much it impacts our minds. No matter what, social media is only going to continuously grow. Only time will tell if our minds are being affected with this growth.

Michaela C., Associate Editor