Rise of TikTok

Koenig and Bauer patent the steam-powered platen printing press

On March 29, 1810, Friedreich Koenig and Andreas Bauer made their first patent for the steam-powered platen printing press, the first of many such inventions between 1810 and 1814. Koenig was a German inventor from the region of Thuringia who, having no success in his home country, took his innovative ideas to England and teamed up with Bauer. Previously, all printing was done manually by workers using hand presses, a practice that had gone unchanged since its invention in the 15th century. Koenig and Bauer’s machine incorporated machinery into the process where it “places the form, inks it, adjusts the paper to the form newly inked, stamps the sheet, and gives it to the hands of the attendant, at the same time withdrawing the form for a fresh coat of ink” (“Late” 498). The invention significantly cut down on the time and labor needed to print copies. The press was first used in April of 1811 for 3000 copies of 1810’s New Annual Register, " Principal Occurrences," which is said to be “the first part of a book ever printed with a machine” (“Late” 500). John Walter, a proprietor for The Times, bought two of the machines to produce his newspapers and “claimed they increased the production from 1,000 to 1,800 copies an hour” (Moran 288).  

Koenig’s steam-powered press was praised at the time as the “greatest improvement connected with printing, since the discovery of the art itself” (“Late” 498). The press was four-hundred years in the making and the first true innovation of Johannes Gutenberg's original design, exceeding the power of human labor with its mechanization. Newspapers, posters, books, and more became quicker to produce and, thus, easier to disperse to the masses. According to Koenig, his original plan for the press was to have the “laying of the ink on the types” be “performed by an apparatus connected with the motion of the coffin” to save one of the worker’s hands (“Late” 499). He realized that the press itself could be moved by machinery, instead. The press was seen as a step closer to perfecting the art of printing by speeding up the inking, increasing the rate of copies, and enhancing the quality of the prints.  

Despite its convenience to the printing world, Koenig’s press had its share of critics. The Times, relying on the machines for their newspapers, would receive “dark and anonymous threats of vengeance” from the very hand pressman that the machine was said to benefit (“Late” 499). The pressmen were concerned that the machine was replacing them and robbing them of their livelihoods. From their point of view, the skilled laborers would be out of a job because the new press could do all their work faster and more efficiently. Some of the machines were even smashed to bits in Paris to send a message of resistance against the new technology. The Times published an article claiming that they employed “only eight fewer workmen than formerly” and that “three times that number” had been hired to build the new machines (“Late” 499). It seems that the printer had increased the number of jobs available. Another group, the master printers, claimed that the machines “were not good enough for quality work” and that only a human can create such art (Moran 288). Despite their anxieties, the machines continued to operate, and more advances were soon to come.  

This event follows the historical trend of resistance towards new technology regarding wellbeing. Like TikTok, the steam-powered patent printing press allowed for information to be shared quicker and easier than ever before. People of all walks of life could get their hands on the latest novel, newspaper, or short story in a fraction of the time it would have formerly taken. With the app, informational videos can be shared all around the globe, connecting people and ideas that never would have reached each other. Also, like TikTok, the press had its fair share of critics who recognized the toll the advancement would take on their quality of life. If the machines did their jobs better than they could, then the pressmen would be unemployed, unable to support their families, and at higher risk for mental illness, such as depression or anxiety. Similarly, the Seattle schools claim that TikTok is resulting in higher rates of depression and anxiety among children and teenagers due to excess amounts of time on the app. Koenig’s press is a stark reminder that any technological advancement is going to have its pros and cons, as well as its supporters and critics. It is important to evaluate the piece of technology to determine whether it mostly benefits or hurts mankind. If it hurts, then it is the responsibility of the public to address these concerns and discuss ways to solve the issue.  

Connection: Later versions of Koenig's printing press went on to produce novels geared toward women. When "hysteria" was viewed as a problem plaguing overly emotional women, these books were viewed as too sentimental and trashy for them to read. You can read more about it here https://editions.covecollective.org/content/rise-tiktok.  

Works Cited: 

Koenig. “Late Improvements in Printing.” The Belfast Monthly Magazine, vol. 13, no. 77, 1814, pp. 497–500. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/30075485. Accessed 27 Apr. 2024. 

Moran, James C. “The Development of the Printing Press.” Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, vol. 119, no. 5177, 1971, pp. 281–93. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41370709. Accessed 27 Apr. 2024. 

Stein, Colleigh. Friedrich Koenig invents the Steam Powered Platen Press. Physical Electrical Digital, New York University, https://kimon.hosting.nyu.edu/physical-electrical-digital/items/show/13…. Accessed 28 Apr. 2024.

"Hard Times" by Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens first published Hard Times in installments in Household Words, an English periodical edited by himself. It was published in 1854, with sections coming out from April to August. Later in 1854, Hard Times came out in book form. Each publication cost a tuppence, which would be a $1.25 in United States currency today. This low cost ensured “a wide readership” (Allingham, Household Words). Household Words claimed its purpose was “to show to all, that in all familiar things, even those which are repellant on the surface, there is Romance enough, if we will find it out” (Allingham, Household Words). Its main audience was the middle class, though this paper did make a goal of exploring the issues of the working class. Around the time period this book first came out, there were numerous advertisements for Dickens’s works that claimed him to be a “genius” and a “great master of fiction” (Daily News, 5).

Hard Times follows a number of characters ranging from the upper middle class to the poor working class and their lives in an industrial town. Mr. Gradgrind, a character who was a teacher in this story, had a strong philosophy and claimed, “Facts alone are wanted in life” (Book 1, Chapter 1). In Mr. Gradgrind and his faith in “Fact” and his disregard for “Fancy,” Dickens represented the philosophy of utilitarianism. In utilitarianism, there is a focus on the benefit of the group, instead of the individual, which can lead to “ignoring human values” (Stevenson, 9). Hard Times shows the relationship between the rise of technology and utilitarianism and the negative impact it can have on the people. When industrialization arose, the group became important for productivity, but the individual was lost.

The town in Hard Times, Coketown, was described in the following way: “Time went on in Coketown like its own machinery: so much material wrought up, so much fuel consumed, so many powers worn out, so much money made” (Book 1, Chapter 14). The town was simply a machine, with the goal of productivity, taking up the fuel. Patricia E. Johnson in her research article “Hard Times and the Structure of Industrialism: The Novel as a Factory” explored the issue of fuel by asking, “But what is the true nature of the fuel that is being consumed?” (4). The answer can be found in the lines: “So many hundred Hands in this Mill; so many hundred horse Steam Power” (Book 1, Chapter 11). Johnson concluded that “both the fuel and waste product of the factory system is human life” (4).  It can be seen that the workers had their identity in the machines through the fact that they were often just called “Hands.” Charles Dickens shows in Hard Times how industrialization and factories take over the identities of the workers and townspeople.

This allows for a connection to TikTok because Hard Times depict another time where the rise of technology caused a harmful effect on a group of people. The working class become inseparable from the machines they worked on, until they simply became that “fuel” or “Hands.” In the same way, Seattle schools are suing social media for similar harm. Behind screens, kids are more likely to cyber bully. These social media apps are giving rise to a mental health pandemic that the schools say they cannot keep up with. Between both of these events, there has become inseparable between one’s identity and technology.

Picture:

McNamara, Robert. “Biography of Charles Dickens, English Novelist.” ThoughtCo, ThoughtCo, 18 June 2019, www.thoughtco.com/biography-of-charles- dickens-1773689.

Primary:

"Advertisements & Notices." Daily News, 17 Apr. 1899. British Library Newspapers, link-gale-com.proxy.ulib.uits.iu.edu/apps/doc/BA3203397533/BNCN?u=iulib_iupui&sid=bookmark-BNCN&xid=0af971ec. Accessed 27 Apr. 2024.

Dickens, Charles. "The One Thing Needful." Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism, edited by Rebecca Parks, vol. 446, Gale, 2024, pp. 4-6. Gale Literature Criticism, link-gale-com.proxy.ulib.uits.iu.edu/apps/doc/HKEAVK096915109/LCO?u=iulib_iupui&sid=bookmark-LCO&xid=01b129c7. Accessed 27 Apr. 2024. Originally published in Hard Times for These Times, Bradbury and Evans, 1854, pp. 3-4.

Secondary:

JOHNSON, PATRICIA E. “‘HARD TIMES’ AND THE STRUCTURE OF INDUSTRIALISM: THE NOVEL AS FACTORY.” Studies in the Novel, vol. 21, no. 2, 1989, pp. 128–37. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/29532632.

Other Works Cited:

Allingham, Philip V. “Household Words.” Victorian Web, victorianweb.org/periodicals/hw.html.  

Dickens, Charles. Hard Times. COVE Studio, BRADBURY & EVANS, 1854, https://studio.covecollective.org/anthologies/eng-l302-anthology-sp24/documents/hard-times.

“Hard Times.” Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., www.britannica.com/topic/Hard-Times-novel-by-Dickens.

The Rest Cure and Hysteria

 S. Weir Mitchell constructed a new technique to treat mental health, called the “rest cure,” in 1872. At first, it was used “as a treatment for injured veterans” who had fought in the Civil War (Stiles, “The Rest Cure, 1873-1924”). It continued to remain preeminent for the “next 50 years” as the use of this treatment continued to be used to cure other illnesses (Bassuk, 247). One of the most common usages for the rest cure was for women’s hysteria or mental illness. First coined in the 5^th century, Hippocrates used the word ‘hysteria’ to mean “a wandering uterus” (Shetty et al., “Hysteria: A Historical Perspective”). Now, in Victorian England, the word is used to describe the symptoms that plagued the female mind and body.

Women could have been diagnosed with hysteria for a number of symptoms from PTSD and depression to a “fondness of writing” (Cohut, “The Controversy of ‘Female Hysteria’”). This “cure” became a popular solution to the problem of hysteria amongst Victorian doctors. Previously to this treatment, “leeching, cauterization, and “normal” ovariotomy-procedures” were used (Bassuk, 245). The “rest cure,” instead, has strict procedures involving rigid orders of rest, isolation, and giving up complete control to the doctor. Women were given a “heavy diet” and they “would have been forced feed” if they refused it (Stiles, “The Rest Cure, 1873-1924”). The patient was not allowed to leave her bed during this time and only received exercise through “massage and electric simulation” (Stiles, “The Rest Cure, 1873-1924). A newspaper article from Lloyd’s Illustrated Newspaper included instructions of how to preserve a women’s health. One of the steps includes “Exciting books and trashy, sentimental novels and tales must be debarred” (Wilson, Lloyd’s Newspaper). This cure usually lasted a few weeks, in which their social circle was extremely limited. In their state, these women were seen as “vampires sucking the blood of the healthy people of a household” and were prescribed to stop “sharing their feelings with others” (Bassuk, 249).

In response to the rest cure, many feminist writers took a stand against, like Charlotte Perkins Gilman in her “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Charlotte Perkins Gilman portrayed the harmful impact of this “treatment” in her short story where a women suffered through this cure. In the end, though, the protagonists suffered a mental breakdown because of her treatment. While this may be just a fictional story, it shows the real lives of many women. Gilman, being one of the women, felt herself “teetering on the edge of a nervous breakdown” while on this treatment (Bassuk, 252). This historical event, like that of the Seattle lawsuit on social media, explores the theme of mental health and the affect media add on it. Seattle is suing social media because it had led to a mental health pandemic, one that they cannot keep up with. In Victorian England, the “rest cure” prohibited “sentimental novels” and “exciting books” because they believed it led to mental exhaustion and an increase of nerves (Wilson, Lloyd’s Newspaper).

Connection: Women were not the only who did not receive proper help with their mental health. You can read more about the men who suffered from PTSD after being pressured by society to enlist in a war here: https://editions.covecollective.org/chronologies/wilfred-owen-and-evolution-dulce-et-decorum-est.

Picture:

Price, David. “Period Drama.” National Museum of Civil War Medicine, 19 Jan. 2021, www.civilwarmed.org/menstruating/.

Primary:

"HEALTH & HOW TO PRESERVE IT." Lloyd's Illustrated Newspaper, 17 Dec. 1893. British Library Newspapers, link-gale-com.proxy.ulib.uits.iu.edu/apps/doc/BC3206286645/BNCN?u=iulib_iupui&sid=bookmark-BNCN&xid=53055c57. Accessed 27 Apr. 2024.

Secondary:

Bassuk, Ellen L. “The Rest Cure: Repetition or Resolution of Victorian Women’s Conflicts?” Poetics Today, vol. 6, no. 1/2, 1985, pp. 245–57. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1772132.

Other Works Cited:

Shetty, Siddharth A.; Chandini, S.; Fernandes, Sharol Lionel; Safeekh, A. T.. Hysteria: A Historical Perspective. Archives of Medicine and Health Sciences 8(2):p 312-315, Jul–Dec 2020. | DOI: 10.4103/amhs.amhs_220_20

“Anne Stiles, ‘The Rest Cure, 1873-1925.’” BRANCH, branchcollective.org/?ps_articles=anne-stiles-the-rest-cure-1873-1925#:~:text=While%20the%20rest%20cure%20is%20today%20associated%20with,a%20treatment%20for%20nervous%20invalids%20of%20both%20sexes

Cohut, Maria. “Female Hysteria: The History of a Controversial ‘Condition.’” Medical News Today, MediLexicon International, 13 Oct. 2020, www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/the-controversy-of-female-hysteria.

T. S. Eliot publishes "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"

In June of 1915, Oxford graduate T. S. Eliot published his first professional poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” in Poetry magazine, later to be placed in Prufrock and Other Observations in 1917. It is regarded as the “first modernist poem in English” (Poetry 217). The poem details the happenings of Prufrock at a crowded party as he grapples with his insecurities, fears, and desires. Prufrock wants to be intimate with a woman, but his isolation and anxiety prevents him from doing this. Furthermore, he grapples with the idea of growing old and how people will react to his outward deterioration. The poem’s target audience seems to be middle-aged, middle-class men living in the modern times, as Prufrock himself fits this profile. He seems to be going through a mid-life crisis where he regrets the chances he never takes but is too paralyzed with fear to take any action. Although the pricing for Poetry is not cited in any sources, the magazine’s goal was to promote up-and-coming poets and uphold artistic integrity, so the price was most likely affordable to the common man.  

The reception of the poem by critics and audiences alike was mostly positive. Marion Strobel of Poetry magazine described it as a “scrupulous psychological study” and praised it for the “pervasive beauty of the imagery, the rhythms used, and the nice repetitions” (Strobel 159). British poetry critic Edgar Jepson asked, “Could anything be more United States, more of the soul of that modern land, than The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock?” (Monroe 211). He claims that the sophisticated language, emotions, and visions within the piece are a yearning for beauty, something he believes the United States cannot make themselves. While the comment is a slight against the United States, Jepson sums up the anti-modernist message Eliot is attempting to evoke. As an example, consider the following passage: 

For I have known them all already, known them all: 

Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons, 

I have measured out my life with coffee spoons; 

I know the voices dying with a dying fall 

Beneath the music from a farther room. 

So how should I presume? 

In this section, Prufrock is describing how nothing in his life can surprise or excite him anymore. He already knows what is to be expected in civilized society, such as the tea breaks and parties he feels obliged to attend. He knows what the “evenings, mornings, afternoons” will be like because he does the same thing repeatedly every day of his life. The dying voices are the conversations of guests being drowned out due to their meaningless contents. Prufrock asks “how should I presume?” because he does not know how to carry himself in a modern society where nothing significant or profound happens. He feels isolated by his rejection of life’s monotony and anxious about the steps he should take. TikTok, a modern invention, results in similar feelings of isolation and melancholy. The addictive, short video clips can keep kids scrolling on the app for hours, cutting into the time they could be interacting with others. Smart phones already keep people from socializing, but TikTok makes it even harder for users to step away. The loneliness Prufrock feels is a symptom of TikTok in excess. Here’s another passage: 

And indeed there will be time 

To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?” 

Time to turn back and descend the stair, 

With a bald spot in the middle of my hair — 

(They will say: “How his hair is growing thin!”) 

My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin, 

My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin — 

(They will say: “But how his arms and legs are thin!”) 

Here, Eliot is giving voice to the modern man’s insecurities about his public image and perception. Prufrock questions whether he should join the party with “Do I dare?” then immediately turns back in fear. Then, he lists off the parts of himself that he dislikes. He mentions his bald spot and how people will comment on his thinning hair. He compliments his own outfit with a “rich and modest” necktie only for him to undermine his confidence with an intruding thought about how people will notice his thin arms and legs. Prufrock’s severe insecurity and low self-esteem mirrors that of the children and teenagers on social media apps like TikTok. Users upload only the best videos and photos of themselves to social media platforms because they want to impress others. The young and impressionable who see the “perfect” lives of others will feel inadequate and embarrassed by the imperfection of their lives, potentially leading to anxiety and depression. Like Prufrock, kids will feel insecure about their own bodies because they think they must resemble the millionaire models they follow on the app. Eliot’s poem echoes the isolation, self-loathing, and anxieties of modernity that continue to haunt us to this day.  

 Connection: The same year Eliot published this poem, Wilfred Owen writes his first first manuscript of Dulce Et Decorum Est . Similarly to Prufock and its critique of modern times, Owen sheds light on the horrors of war and the new technologies (mustard gas and trench warfare) that make the experience a living hell. The solider within the poem recounts the gruesome death of a fellow solider and questions the narrative that dying for one's country is noble and necessary, Check it out here Wilfred Owen and the Evolution of Dulce et Decorum est | COVE (covecollective.org). 

 Works Cited: 

Eliot in his office at Faber & Gwyer, March 1926, taken by his brother Henry. 2020. T. S. Eliot as Publisher: Book Reports, Blurbs, Poets, Faber & Faber, https://tseliot.com/editorials/eliot-as-publisher. Accessed 28 Apr. 2024.

Eliot, T. S. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." Poetry Criticism, edited by Carol A. Schwartz, vol. 251, Gale, 2022, pp. 221-223. Gale Literature Criticism, link-gale-com.proxy.ulib.uits.iu.edu/apps/doc/JZREIH294667752/LCO?u=iulib_iupui&sid=bookmark-LCO&xid=8bcee4b4. Accessed 28 Apr. 2024. Originally published in Poetry, vol. 6, June 1915, pp. 130-135. 

Eliot, T. S. “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T. S. Eliot.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/44212/the-love-song-of-j-…. Accessed 28 Apr. 2024.

Monroe, Harriet. “Mr. Jepson’s Slam.” Poetry, vol. 12, no. 4, 1918, pp. 208–12. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20571758. Accessed 29 Apr. 2024. 

Strobel, Marion. “Perilous Leaping.” Poetry, vol. 16, no. 3, 1920, pp. 157–59. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20572654. Accessed 29 Apr. 2024. 

Wilfred Owen and the Evolution of Dulce et Decorum est

n 1917, the first manuscript of Wilfred Owen’s  Dulce Et Decorum Est was crafted, as a response to Jessie Pope. During this period, Jessie Pope was known to be a propogandist who promoted the ideas of warfare and enlisting men into large scale conflicts. She began translating these beliefs into war poetry, publishing several works pushing the idea of the youth joining World War 1. Her most famous poem “Who’s for the Game?” advocates for the shaming of those who attempt to avoid putting themselves on the front line. Owen’s initial draft of his poem put a large focus on countering this poem, highlighting the fears and depressing attitudes felt towards warfare. Even the title itself, “Dulce El Decorum Est’ is pulled from the Roman phrase “Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori”, meaning “How sweet and fitting it is to die for one's country.” An ironic statement used to highlight why so many soldiers will lose so much of themselves to fight for their country.  

This initial draft was later revised and edited to be more appealing towards the wider masses, changing the initial address from “Dedicated to Pope” to having no specific address.  Jessie’s initial pro-war rhetoric became far more popular and widespread, even encouraging the usage of “white feathers” to highlight the cowardice of young men who didn’t want to fight. Owen’s modern draft was attuned to the aftereffects of participating in such a grueling war, adding in lines about soldiers having PTSD related dreams and hearing the voices of their fallen brethren. The final line was added to represent the intention of the poem, claiming that fighting for one’s country was a big lie many young men believe.  

Anti-War mentality has only become more noticed by society, mainly for its effects on the mental health of the people who participate in those scenarios. A study of many anti war poetry was conducted around late January to Early February 2024, which analyzed many poets stances on war, including William Owen. Akanksha Bhanot in her piece “Echoes of War: Exploring War poets and their Continued Resonance” takes note of Owen’s beliefs, stating that. “Despite radical shifts in the methods, strategies, and technologies of war over the past century, their poems explore fundamental and unchanged realities” (Bhanot  pg.3), emphasizing how Owen’s poem displays the dehumanization that often comes with war. She points out the nature of Owen’s ability to juxtapose the horrors of the war with the refined Latin text. It illustrates to the reader just how much warfare can be glorified into this beautiful thing, in spite of the dangers and mental strain it causes on the soldiers. 

When you witness the constant fuel of dangerous and destructive imagery, it’s not impossible to see how even an app like Tik Tok can potentially mess with the minds of its user base. The young demographic is often subjected towards horrific imagery designed to appear in their feeds, potentially harming their perception of certain environments. Because Tik Tok often encourages this mindless content consumption, many people from the young to old can often lose themselves in this type of imagery, some of which perpetuates toxic beliefs not too unlike the pro war sentiments seen during World War 1. Without any proper exposure to more healthy and safer content, a user of Tik Tok can end up not to unlike the soldiers depicted in Owen’s poem, often fearful and unable to function due to a specific set of imagery polluting their minds. 

Sources Cited: 

“Manuscript of ‘Dulce et Decorum Est.’” Omeka RSS, ww1lit.nsms.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/exhibits/show/thefullenglish-910mw2/12. Accessed 29 Apr. 2024.

Seattle Lawsuit of Social Media

Seattle public schools sued large social media platforms on January 6, 2023, with the case set to be heard by the US Supreme Court. This is not the only filed a school suing these platforms, with Kent School District filing their own lawsuit a few days after. This 91-page lawsuit demands that these companies be held accountable for the harmful effect they have had on the youth’s mental health. These platforms’ goal is to increase the amount of screen time by “exploiting the vulnerable brains of youth” (Yang, 2023). With this increase of screen time, students are being exposed to dangerous content, leading to deteriorating health. According to NPR, there has been a correlation between an increased screen time and issues such as mental health, lack of sleep, cyberbullying, etc. The school expresses its lack of staff and inability to treat the growing mental health crisis within its district. Despite the fears, AP News describes how “graduation rates have been on the rise since 2019” putting into question just how disruptive the apps are to education (Johnson 2023). Social media also kept students in communication with one another during the isolation of the pandemic.

This is not the first-time social media has faced push back in the form of lawsuits. In 2021, Wall Street Journal investigated whether TikTok’s “extreme diet videos” led to eating disorder in teenage girls. These pieces of information are often not public, as the NPR reported that a Facebook whistleblower, Frances Haugen, exposed 2021 studies that prove Instagram “executives hid research about the risks the company’s products posed to kids” from the public and investors (Yang 2023). While the negative exposure puts these social media platforms in a tight spot, they are not without protection. Due to Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, “tech companies can’t be held liable for what others share on their sites” (Yang 2023). The lawsuit against such companies aims to make the algorithms used by them common knowledge to the public and confine Section 230 to specific boundaries. Many of these practices were put into place due to the many suspicions of the type of content being subjected to the youth, often designed to appeal to specific tastes and demographics.

The lawsuit follows a pattern throughout human history of backlash against new innovations and technologies. An invention can make our lives more efficient and comfortable, but it can also affect our livelihoods and mentalities. With social media people can connect, ideas can be shared, and information can be learned from across the globe. Humanity has never been more connected than it is right now. However, there is a fear that this technology will make us lose our humanity by distracting us from the world around us. Screen addiction keeps us from interacting with our family and friends and makes our lives so easy that it bores us. What we see online can also make us insecure and lower our self-esteem, leading to depression and anxiety. TikTok has its good and bad elements, so it's up to the individual to decide whether one outweighs the other.

Works Cited

Johnson, Gene. “School Lawsuits over Social Media Harm Face Tough Legal Road.” AP News, 11 Jan. 2023, apnews.com/article/us-supreme-court-technology-seattle-social-media-lawsuits-24adabfb13223a6acb0210b93caf0928.

Yang, Mary. “3 Reasons Why Seattle Schools Are Suing Big Tech over a Youth Mental Health Crisis.” NPR, 11 Jan. 2023, www.npr.org/2023/01/10/1134832529/seattle-schools-big-tech-lawsuit-takeaways.

Picture

“School Lawsuits, like Seattle’s, over Social Media Harm Face Tough Legal Road.” The Columbian, 13 Jan. 2023, www.columbian.com/news/2023/jan/11/school-lawsuits-like-seattles-over-s….