Well. Somehow we got here. The place where a random guy’s facebook post generated enough conversation that there was a story on the legitimate news about it. To be clear, I’m not weighing in on what he said or what she said. That’s not my concern. The last time I cared about a backing-and-forthing on the social media front was in the days of the Cottonwood Food Truck Crisis (#LongLiveHotDogGuy).
But I do care about how social media is shaping reality. I care about that very much.
I’m ill equipped to describe the dangers of media algorithms, but imma be still trying.
I watched this interesting show on Netflix called Social Dilemma. I’m sure someone has a better summation than this, but in short; it talked about how our attention is a very lucrative product that is battled for. I liked the quote that “if you don’t pay for the product, you are the product.” And the brilliant software folks are very good at getting, and keeping, our attention.
The show discussed the negative consequences that have come from less than 100 programmers being able to influence the opinions of 3 billion people. For example, humans weren’t hard wired to have a need for “social approval dosing” every five minutes. But here we are.
They said that since 2010, this attention feedback cycle has resulted in an increase in psychiatric hospitalizations for girls 10-14 by 189%. By the show’s report, the youngn’s of our time have been manipulated to believe that they need specific kinds and amounts of social media interactions, and that they can hyper-focus on negativity to the point of self-injury.
I don’t know they are right or wrong about that, but I do know that the manipulation doesn’t stop at tween girls. We’re all susceptible to it. Look around you. Can you see something you bought because it popped up on your Facebook or your Instagram? Do you have a strongly held opinion that started after seeing someone’s post?
You’ve probably heard about algorithms. (Again, non-smart person description here) Algorithms are the math-y way that your media controls what you see. What pops on my mine versus your Facebook is specifically engineered to be different so that each of us is inclined to stay on longer. (I’m a size 7 ¼ in tinfoil hats, by the way).
So what does this have to do with the guys’ facebook post becoming news?
Media and social media are feeding their version of reality to us. And since it’s designed to harvest our attention, we’re in a dangerous spot if we take the spoon fed information as gospel.
The show talked about how if I’m always looking at “the chicken came first” stories, my feeds and recommended views will want to keep my attention by showing me more “chicken first” stories. Never challenging me to consider if the egg was first. However, if my neighbor is always looking at “the egg came first” information, that’s what will her medias will continue to push her way. A confirmation bias feedback loop that just tells us each we’re right.
Who needs that much divisiveness? But it takes work to seek out our own information, do our own research, and come to our own conclusions. It’s soooo much easier for me to get my news from memes (What happened in Oregon that made crack legal?).
But let’s see if this loosely associated example helps.
Vegas. I’d seen it a million times glamorized in movies and media. Everything from “Hangover” to “3000 Miles to Graceland” glorifies this town. So imagine my surprise when we went there a couple years ago and it dawned on me; it’s a real and little place. Sure it’s cool and all, but being there instantly demystified that it was larger than life.
If Vegas wasn’t exactly like it seems in media and social media, I suppose it’s possible there could be other confusing representations out there as well.
So before you vilify or champion any side of any argument; ask yourself this: Are you being shown Vegas they want you to see? Or the Vegas that really is? Is the news that you are seeing really news? Or is it the result of algorithms feeding off each other?
There’s an old psychology phrase of “self-fulfilling prophecy.” It means a prediction that causes itself to be true. That’s what’s at risk with algorithms.
I could be going around thinking my neighbor and I are going to have to fight about if it was the chicken or the egg that came first. My algorithms could fight for my attention by making me believe that it’s going to happen. Tensions rise. We each put symbolic frames around our profile pictures indicating our allegiance. Next thing I know, there’s a donnybrook going on as we take out our garbage. A right scrap that maybe would’ve never happened if we didn’t let social media make our opinions for us.
Good on ya’ if you were able to stick with this one as a read. I know it’s a little out there. With that being said, I’m off to post some pictures of my crockpot (full of chicken) on my IG to see if I can land myself on the news.
Thanks for reading!
Bifocals and Barbells 