I like reading this thread and echo a lot of the feelings about Twitter etc. But I also feel deeply frustrated at how slowly people are picking up on the issues around social media. It’s clear most people think Facebook, Twitter etc are doing it for the good of humanity, for the benefit of us. This is a deeply one sided business and must be regarded as such each time you use their platforms. Every time you use social media it gives them two things.
First, more eyes checking out the advertising. That means the advertisers pay more to the platform. But that’s the lesser of the two valuable things we freely give.
Second, data. We absent-mindedly haemorrhage tonnes of data every time we use social media. What we click on, how long we stay on that click before our next one, the nouns we type. When fed into a series of algorithms and some analytical procedures that very data reveals how to target your attention. That is how they know you’ll keep coming back.
Wait. They aren’t finished yet. It gets a little bit darker. These guys have big bucks, like - billions. So they attract the best and the brightest from the worlds best universities and competitors. And some of these people aren’t coders they are psychologists, neuroscientists and ex-politicians. Each group on its own (eg a bunch of neuroscientists) knows what makes humans tick better than anyone in the planet. Put these expert group together and you get the best understanding of the human mind there has ever been. And what do they realise? We are all drawn to extreme emotion. Anger, a sense of loss, fear, resentment, reward, lust, joy. They understand each of the chemicals sent around a brain in response. And how addictive these feelings are. So what do they do? They engineer social media to be a haven of those emotions. Think about all those crash videos you get on Facebook. Animals being attacked. Or humans saved from floodwaters. That’s what makes me keep coming back, that and the kudos on Strava. That’s me, how about you? What’s your click bait stream like? I bet it stirs those same extreme emotions I mentioned. Stuff that gets you think LIKE or DISLIKE. They also know that if you restrict the number of words people can use, and allow anonymity, you get extreme opinions. There is not enough space to present a nuanced view and frankly not enough time because you want to get your 140 characters in to the discussion before the next guy in the thread. Brilliant for more DISLIKES. Brilliant for car crash debates. A million closet Nevilles versus a million keyboard Carraghers arguing about the who owns the best trainers. Brilliant for business. The net result? Emotions have been commercialised. But only the strong ones. There’s no room for the unprofitable ones - consideration, reflection, respect, middle grounds - these are now the crud nuts of commercial social behaviour. These things fail to keep people clicking. These things are therefore absent.
So that’s why we have Whoppery. It’s the end product of one of the biggest businesses the world has ever seen. Don’t get me wrong, I know we had whoppers before the internet but they were treated and managed as benign, eccentric locals who probably didn’t get out much (and who would have to pen a letter to a far away like minded whopper if they wanted to build a consensus view). But now we’ve got the greatest brains on the planet manufacturing whopper get-together platforms and whopper-baiting algorithms for the benefit of the pounds and dollars.
Personally I feel this will put a huge strain on society. Democracies require fair, open access to truth and sensible, responsible platforms for debate. Social media is fast eroding the foundations. I’m convinced that in a few generations time we’ll look back at this era in the same way we now regard slavery, work houses and all the Victorian medical stuff about leeches and draining blood. And lead lined food tins. Such is the harm and stupidity.
It’s like the tech business strategy is determined to turn the human race into 6 or 7 billion Robbie Savages. And nobody seems to have a strong emotional response to that because they are too busy strongly disliking something they saw in Ronaldo’s breakfast. Which for some reason was on Instagram, next to the video of the koala on fire.
But now you understand why.
