The Mind: Everything You Need to Know by Niki Smith

I decided to select a book that focused more on how our brains process this new age of social media and all of the content we consume on a daily basis. The first book I chose was focused more on how we are all addicted to social media, and how we can implement practices to mitigate the negative effects of it. This time, I wanted to read a book that focused on the psychological effects and the inter-workings of the mind.

I selected "The Mind: Everything You Need to Know" by Niki Smith. This book was a great intersection between social media and psychology. It definitely was not only focused on social media which was a good break for me. I feel like this class has exposed me to a lot of the negative aspects of media- so it was good to read something that focused on psychology and the science behind how our brains take in this information. This novel was formulated in a way that was really easy for the general audience to understand. It started with a little bit of history and some psychological theories to get us acclimated with the terminology. It proceeded with the impacts of social media on the brain, and how it can perpetuate a cycle of loneliness and morphed self perceptions.

Something that resonated with me was Goffmans Theory of Symbolic Interactionism. Social media shows this theory in action because we find meaning in a given situations based upon reflecting upon our own actions through the eyes of others. Through the use of social media, we define our identity and self value based upon our perception of how other view us and our communications. We all know that we compare ourselves to others on social media, and this constant comparison can lead us into negative self perceptions and decreased self confidence etc. It was interesting to see this theory explain some of the ideas we have about social media.

This read provided some great background knowledge that readers can keep in our back pockets when trying to understand the effects of social media. Social media is always going to be present so it is important that we educated ourselves and are aware of the impacts it is impeding on us, daily.

Overall, this book was a very easy read and it was something that I looked forward to reading at the end of my day. It was the type of book where I learned something new every chapter and it was very eyeopening. Like mentioned, it was a book filled with a lot of academic language but it was presented in a concise way that was very easy to understand. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking to learn more about the brain and social media.