avatarNajwa Helyer

Summary

The article discusses the negative impacts of social media, including data tracking, privacy invasion, the spread of false information, and the manipulation of public opinion.

Abstract

The author reflects on their personal journey of understanding the dark side of social media, initially seeing it as a way to connect with friends and family. Through a conversation with an ex-partner working in tech, the author learns about data tracking and predictive algorithms that invade privacy. The article references Netflix's documentary "The Social Dilemma," which delves into the consequences of social media, including the spread of fake news, polarization, and threats to democracy. It highlights the manipulation of human behavior by tech companies for profit and the real-world consequences, such as the genocide in Myanmar and the spread of conspiracy theories. The author emphasizes the responsibility of individuals and content creators to fact-check and use social media wisely, advocating for a change in how we engage with technology rather than complete disconnection.

Opinions

  • The author initially viewed social media positively but became aware of its negative aspects, such as the potential for depression and anxiety.
  • The tech industry insider, referred to as David, believes that data tracking is not illegal but acknowledges its invasive nature by choosing not to use social media himself.
  • The article suggests that the originality of ideas is compromised by the constant feed of content on social media platforms.
  • Tristan Harris, a former Google employee, is concerned about the dark side of technology and the creation of a dystopian world, despite the potential for a utopian one.
  • The author criticizes the belief that social media platforms are harmless, pointing out that users are the product being sold to advertisers.
  • The article implies that tech companies, including Facebook, have the power to modify human behavior and have not adequately addressed the spread of false information and conspiracy theories.
  • The author acknowledges the irony of writing an article about the dangers of social media algorithms while knowing that the article itself will be subject to those same algorithms.
  • The author advocates for personal responsibility in using social media, suggesting practical steps like deleting unnecessary apps, turning off location settings, and muting notifications to reduce engagement with potentially harmful content.
  • The article concludes that the ability to share anything on social media should be exercised with caution, especially in the context of global turmoil and the upcoming U.S. elections.

The War on Social Media

It’s shaped polarisation and false news, and people are buying into it

Dole777 via Unsplash

I used to think social media was such a blessing. Travelling around the world, I could stay connected with my friends and family and show them what I was getting up to. I knew the dark sides to technology too, everyone does. From depression and anxiety, but not much more beyond that.

I dated this guy, I’ll call him David, who worked for a tech company. I asked him what he did exactly and he reviewed data online in regards to their clients’ behaviours and needs. Our conversation went something like this:

David: Everyone thinks that the government is spying on them, or Google is listening to them. It’s not, it’s just data. Everywhere you go, everything you listen to, watch and read is tracked. So that’s what I do, I track data.

Me: That sounds illegal.

David: It’s not. When you talk about something with your friends and it appears as an advertisement, it’s data from your past searches or location and it’s been predicted by algorithms. So that’s what I do, I engineer predictions to maintain engagement.

Me: That’s such an invasion of privacy.

David: Why do you think I don’t have social media?

We spoke about the originality of ideas and how that’s changed, with constantly being fed content on our news feed, we’re never sure if we’re thinking for ourselves anymore. He touched on the idea of being controlled by technology, and it’s the most dangerous type of control because we as consumers are blissfully unaware.

Netflix’s new documentary drama The Social Dilemma explored everything that David and I spoke about from data recovery, the way it’s shaped modern-day politics and the formation of conspiracy theories. Some of the biggest names in the tech industry participated in this documentary voicing the concerns of their invention.

At the forefront of the film is Tristan Harris, who was a design ethicist at Google and now the co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology. From the jump, he introduced his worry in regards to the dark side of technology while working at Google, and how it gained traction to the CEO but disappeared.

This worry is the formation of a utopian versus the dystopian world in which we currently live in — a space where we’re able to share, create and meet likeminded individuals, but has created polarisation and a threat to democracy. Tristan Harris states:

Fake news travels six times faster than real news

If we believe that everything we consume is real, then nothing is real anymore and we can’t navigate any of our problems. Sean Parker, the co-founder of Facebook, even said that he as a hacker, is aware of the things that they were doing with the data that they collected and used it anyway to engage and grow.

We’re meant to believe that because social media are free platforms that these products are harmless, but we are the product. Companies pay these platforms to advertise and make money based on our data and consumption. Money does rule everything around us after all.

Soon after, Facebook realised that they were able to intentionally modify human behaviour to create change — and of course, there’s a downside. In Myanmar, the genocide of Muslims stemmed from Facebook conspiracy groups that spread across the nation which left millions of Muslims fleeing the country.

In America, we’ve witnessed a tremendous amount of controversy in regards to Facebook, from Pizzagate to the 2016 presidential elections. The eerie part is Roger McNamee clarifying, “Russia didn’t hack Facebook, they just used the platform.”

“If you are not buying a product, you are the product”

These groups of people have caused mass genocide and doubt in governments across the world, simply from collecting data according to what you’ve consumed. It then becomes an endless cycle — going down the ‘rabbit-hole’ on the internet. The more that the AI (artificial intelligence) detects that you’re consuming information about QAnon, it’ll feed you more and more.

Soon enough, that’s all your timeline will look like and you’ll believe it to be true. The depth of manipulation that it’s able to achieve is masterful because, as David said, we’re unaware of the control that it has on us. It feeds us more information, true or not and it keeps us engaged from the moment we go to sleep, to the second we wake up.

Of course, at the creation of all these things, no one ever thought to think about the downside. After all, the evolution of technology has been the quickest progression in the last 20 years. In focusing on all the positivity, the red flags were ignored.

The documentary brilliantly pairs the facts being put to use with a dramatic enactment of a suburban family, whose interaction with technology and social media differs — a sister who craves conformity through likes and comments that ultimately breeds insecurity and a brother who sinks into conspiracy theories that drowns him away from reality. Uncanny to the world we live in right now.

At the height of the pandemic, fake news is spreading faster than ever before with people of all backgrounds coming forward and saying that it is a hoax. Placing blame on 5G, the American government created in a lab, the list goes on and on.

After the shooting of Jacob Blake, news on Twitter broke out that he had been arrested for the sexual assault of a minor. However, a simple Google search shows that it is in fact not true. Somehow, we easily believe false facts rather than looking for the truth ourselves or it’s become much simpler to believe that the world is filled with nothing but evil.

Even as I write this, I realise that I watched it on a platform that was delivered to me from an algorithm, and I am about to publish this piece that will go through a similar algorithm and will reach certain individuals more than others. The irony is that everything we do will become data that is used in algorithms, but it’s our responsibility for how we use it. We as writers have a moral obligation to write factual pieces considering the state of the world.

It’s not about deleting our social media accounts and throwing away our phones, rather changing the way that we use it. In the time I was dating David, I deleted apps that are no use, I switched off my location settings and I mute my notifications on all my social media.

In reducing my engagement through the online world of social media, I’m able to focus on more accurate information. Fact-checking everything that comes my way if it ever does — AI is unable to solve fake news, it doesn't know the truth and tech companies have shown that they are unable to stop it too.

The idea that we are able to share anything on social media is great but doesn’t mean we have to. The world is in turmoil already, we don't need fake news to bury us deeper in it and with November inching closer, the decisions we make are also dependant on what we are being fed every day, and we need to be smarter about it than ever before.

Social Media
Technology
Fake News
Politics
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