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in si de ha lto n. co m O ak vi lle B ea ve r | T hu rs da y, A pr il 28 ,2 02 2 | 36 1459 NOTTINGHILL GATE, OAKVILLE 905-469-3232 | DELMANOR.COM JOIN US FOR A TOUR AND DISCOVER THE DELMANOR DIFFERENCE. Media theorist Marshall McLuhan suggested that each media-related exten- sion of man comes at the expense of another organ. For example, by increasing reliance on visual media, we lose touch with oral communication. McLuhan also formulat- ed the laws of media which states that all media aim to extend the body, and when they do so some media be- come obsolete, some get re- vived and when a new me- dium is pushed to its limits, it reverts to an early ver- sion. McLuhan's theories take on a new significance as we witness a reversion of social media, which I re- fer to as "tribal media." By this, I mean media that re- flects a fragment of a soci- ety consisting of like-mind- ed people within specific political, economic, cultur- al and personal parame- ters. Social media has now been around for two de- cades, and has been treat- ed with ambivalence since its inception. The global COVID-19 pandemic may have pushed social media to its limits, and reverted it to an earlier version: chatrooms. Until a few years ago, one of the greatest worries about the internet was how addictive it could be. How- ever, when we studied the relationship between screen addiction and stress, we found a silver lining: There was a possi- bility that addiction to screens helped reduce the emotional burden of other stressors, such as financial worries or relationship problems. The COVID-19 pandem- ic forced a different con- sideration of whether or not social media use pro- duced stress and anxiety. Those who were search- THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC PUSHED SOCIAL MEDIA TO BECOME INCREASINGLY TRIBAL NAJMEH KHALILI-MAHANI OPINION See - page 37 As the COVID-19 pandemic pushed people online, the result has been increasing divisions on social media. Dreamstime photo