I haven’t been sleeping lately. Let me tell you why.
straddles a chair and sighs
Remember that FRIENDs episode when Joey puts Stephen King’s The Shining in the freezer because it was getting too scary?
I’ve been doing some research on social media and its effects on society, how it’s proven that it makes people sadder, more paranoid, and less optimistic about the world. Along with news, it’s making politics and civil discourse impossible in the world. That’s not intentional on the companies’ part, BTW.
But there’s something far more sinister than even that: we’re being manipulated. That Facebook ad you saw this morning? An algorithm made that happen. How you found my YouTube channel? Algorithm.
There are people out there who are gaming the social media system to serve ads that elicit emotions in people without them actually realizing it. The US election in 2016 is the most notorious example of this, but it’s not just happening in politics.
Here’s the thing: We all know this. We just choose not to see it. It’s becoming harder and harder for me to un-see.
Collectively as a society, we ought to throw social media companies in the freezer and hope they get better… 🙂
I’m an endless optimist. But I do think that when we look back on this decade, historians are going to have a grim opinion about what social media has done to our society. Few people have even acknowledged it because it’s too inconvenient to do so.
If you want a great read this weekend, check out Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now by Jaron Lanier. Really good stuff. Depressing, but good.
