Is current social media a risk to humanity?

I don’t think that there is any debate that we are living in a remarkably transformative time.? Technology is advancing at a pace in which we are distinctly unfamiliar and while the positive impacts of change are generally understood, the vulnerability of moving so quickly is that we fail to fully understand the negative consequences of such a revolution.? I think that is the case with social media where privacy breaches can occur, a reduction in real human connection is inevitable, mental health can take a thrashing (particularly in children), false information can be proliferated in the blink of an eye, and addiction can develop in much the same way it does for an alcohol abuser or a drug addict.

While social media has clear benefits (knowledge sharing, access to information, connectivity, etc.), it likewise has faults.? But what we really need to consider is if today, we are purposely designing systems with these known faults built-in because it happens to be more profitable for the big tech companies developing the platforms.

On July 28, 2017, former Google employee, Tristan Harris, gave a Ted Talk titled “How a Handful of Tech Companies Control Billions of Minds Every Day.”? His aim in going public with his concerns was surely, at least in part, to make users of smart devices aware of the ways in which their technology (including social media) is continually and purposely designed to make these devices more addictive.? In his Ted Talk, Harris casually and rather frighteningly, explains that these technology companies routinely and “…precisely target a lie directly to the people who are most susceptible.? And because this is profitable, it’s only going to get worse.”

There is no more urgent problem that faces us today than this one, because the more time we spend scrolling through our social media feeds, the more likely we are to be sucked into the bottomless pits of our own virtual realities and encounter all of the other societal problems that social media tends to introduce.? So, while big tech companies are purposely designing systems to keep us engaged for their own financial motives, the fact is that the longer we are online, the more likely we are to be exposed to the dark underbelly of the web.

For instance, companies like Facebook benefit (i.e., profit) when there is outrage regarding a particular story on a newsfeed, because outrage generates an emotional reaction, and that is something you are more likely to share.? It’s called “negative bias” and it’s one of the reasons your local news station is more likely to dedicate significantly more airtime covering a story about an impending storm than it will about a beautiful summer day.

A 2019 research paper published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), suggested what we already were inclined to believe, that consumers around the world have stronger psychophysiological reactions to negative news when compared to positive news.? Of course, the unfortunate consequence of this type of emotional reaction to this type of negativity, is that the underlying toxicity and hate spreads like wildfire in a virtual environment and the end result is a drastic, and perhaps permanent, increase in reciprocal divisiveness.

Social media dependence is also becoming much more commonplace, so much so that the United States Addiction Center has added a “Social Media Addition” treatment program to its offerings.? The fact is that when you get those warm and fuzzy feelings from a lot of likes hitting your Instagram post, it’s the same portion of your brain being activated as that of a drug addict on a high.? And the more dependent you become, the harder you will fall if, and when, your account is ever banned, restricted, or deleted.? We must consider putting a level of control on our online activity, either through individual diligence, algorithmic constraints or, if necessary, administrative regulations.

The addiction component has a peripheral consequence in that many young people who are following the latest social media influencers get a small glimpse of what it would be like to generate enormous amounts of wealth while snapping selfies of yourself traveling around the world in Ferraris and yachts.? The problem is that the actuality of that happening is like winning the lottery, your chances are mighty, mighty slim.? But that doesn’t preclude the kids from trying, and the end result is that screen time swells as aspiring influencers strain to develop a devoted and sizeable following.? And when that doesn’t happen (and statistically speaking it will not), the negative aspects of the failed attempt weigh extremely heavy on the impressionable mind of a young kid.

According to the Brookings Institution, a nonpartisan and nonprofit public policy organization based in Washington, DC, “while computer programmers may not create algorithms that start out being discriminatory, the collection and curation of social preferences eventually can become adaptive algorithms that embrace societal biases.? If we accept that the implicit bias of developers could unintentionally lead their algorithms to be discriminatory, then, with the same token, we should also expect the biases of such programmers to lead to discriminatory algorithms that favor their ideology.”

In other words, these technologies are designed to select only the most engaging and relevant content for each individual user and, in the process, deliberately ignore any alternative philosophies, thereby making the reader more vulnerable to manipulation.? Effectively, these big tech giants have, for years, been deliberately and knowingly brainwashing readers to a single point of view, creating a generation’s worth of predisposed pseudo-intellectuals who feign insight by reiterating what has been encoded into their persuaded minds.

It is outrageous to the point of criminality.? These (very powerful) companies have been effectively operating exactly as tyrannical regimes, shadow banning those who oppose their views, suspending those who question their methods and eliminating those who demand accountability.? Social media platforms are rapidly becoming the primary source of news information in the United States and across the world.? Yet these platforms are not only manipulating the type of news that you are exposed to but allowing you to absorb content that is intentionally published with dubious accuracy.? And no one is holding them accountable.

Here's the thing.? We all know that these big tech giants are in it for the money.? And, in a way, that is capitalistically understandable.? But if we want to keep this thing from flying off the rails, we really need to start considering the question of regulating social-media platforms and other internet services.? These companies should not have stayed under the radar for this long, transparency, fairness and privacy are some of the major topics to consider regarding these platforms.