Living Social 2.0
It was a fine Sunday morning when I was having tea on my terrace. I overheard a conversation between two teenage girls down the building who were sitting on a bike and checking their phones. “This is weird. It never happens like this. I should have gotten at least 25 likes by now. It’s been 10 mins since I uploaded this photo”, one of the girls said. “It’s cool girl, you will get them, let’s check reels meanwhile”, the other one said, and both got busy looking at Instagram showing each other the posts and stories about boys, fashion, cool stuff to buy, and whatnot. They were so much into checking the phone that they forgot what was happening around them. It’s a common scenario these days, I said and went back to my work. It is quite common these days to see people checking their phones in trains, buses, schools, temples, classes, clinics, queues, etc, while they wait for their turn.
We all know by now how social media has gotten a stronghold on our lives and apps like Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, and Twitter decide what we should eat, wear, buy, and how to live our life. Many of us feel that we are in control and use social media wisely, but think again! This article will enlighten you in many aspects and help you understand how we pass on personal information unknowingly. But before going there let’s also revise some benefits of social media platforms which we all know.
The positive side- 1.0
These tools were originally created to make a positive change around, and they continue doing so. People started reuniting with their lost family members, school friends, finding organ donors, etc. Several NGOs have benefited from these platforms, many communities are forming and talking about important matters and how to make the world a better place. You can easily find like-minded people, get life tips, fashion, and self-help tips.
In recent times the hashtags, #IAMVACCINATED, #GOTJABBED help spread awareness, positivity, and inspiration to a lot of people to get themselves vaccinated.
So where is the problem? Everything seems good. But then again, every coin has 2 sides and almost everyone fails to notice the flip side of this coin. These are not bad tools but they are like double-edged swords.
I stumbled upon this documentary called ‘The Social Dilemma’ and a few other articles in my research. This documentary is the confession of all ex- VPs, presidents, and directors of Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, and many other social media platforms. The way they have unfolded the awful truth these platforms present behind their glamorous face, is terrifying.
The original purpose of using social media has been diluted and one cannot see the truth or harsh reality with the naked eye. The nervousness these guys have on their faces while describing it tells you an even bigger story. All the facts highlighted by the tech experts in the documentary leave us dumbstruck, wishing we’d known this sooner.
Let’s start with the basic human need of being connected with other human beings. This is a primal need and every individual wants to cultivate it. But what if this need is manipulated by some platforms, packaged under the name of socializing, and presented in front of you which sometimes makes you jealous, frustrated, in constant need of attention, and being cool instead of being connected?
To understand this, let’s see some triggers that humans have and how these platforms effectively make use of them.
- Why do we turn to Social media in the first place?- All animals are curious by nature. As humans have such a developed consciousness, the degree of curiosity is much higher. We want to know what is happening in other people’s lives. Another reason is, people feel happy when other people reveal their personal things, incidences to the world. It’s proven that gossiping makes people happy as it releases oxytocin and makes the bond stronger. So people keep hunting that pleasure on social media to make themselves happy by peeping into others’ lives and then talking about it.
2. It’s all free, what’s the harm?- Another big reason is these platforms are free. There are several service offerings on the internet including social media platforms that are free to use. Many times people feel that as long as they are not paying to use the app/product, it’s okay! What’s wrong with that? But remember that when you are not paying for any product, you are a product! You provide information about yourself to such companies which is then used to show you certain types of feeds. Roger McNamee- an investor in a lot of silicon valley companies says that “earlier the business was simple as we were only selling hardware and software to customers. But in the last ten years, the big companies in Silicon Valley are in the business of selling their users.” Aza Ruskin (former employee of Firefox and Mozilla labs) says in support of McNamee that nowadays we don’t pay for the products we use, advertisers pay for them so advertisers are the new customers, and we are the things that are being sold.
The slight change in our behavior after seeing the ads/posts/feed is the product. Because it makes our habits, social behavior, and personalities to change over a period of time. This strategy initially started in a kind of hidden manner but today all social media platforms have officially become the biggest shopping centers. They are no longer hiding it! These corporations mine our data and use algorithms for anything they want and there isn’t much we can do about it.
3. Social Status & Shopping- As everyone’s life is so ridiculously amazing on social media, it’s hard not to compare! We keep constantly measuring our social value with others through such platforms. That’s the reason we put up our best lives and buy things that are not needed through social media platforms. And if this urge gets mixed with negative emotions like jealousy, then it becomes an enormous driver for consumption.
To maintain a certain appearance of their home or themselves, people keep buying new stuff, and Facebook, Instagram, and other social media platforms are well aware of this! That’s why we now see ads in between the posts, the stories, and everywhere. The stories are usually followed by automatic ads when viewed consecutively. But the human brain is so brilliant that it eventually starts ignoring anything ‘ad-like’ and we filter that information and focus on the content. We don't process them but we still see them, which is enough for some advertisers. And social media has tackled that as well! It now comes up with such material that blends into the content very well. The brain gets confused and doesn’t realize if it’s an ad or content and we end up blocking the real content sometimes and watch ads unknowingly.
In the above ad, the caption shows how much it cares for your water intake, thereby creating a soft corner in your mind, and “Learn more” is nothing but a CTA which takes you to the page to buy that bottle. Even if you don’t, it saves your information once you visit their page, and the next time you open Instagram it displays the ad again and you unknowingly start thinking in the direction of buying it.
4. YOLO and FOMO- These terminologies have taken internet content to a different level. People join many events, clubs, groups, Instagram accounts in fear of ‘missing out’ on all the fun. Also, there are many influencers who promote stuff so effortlessly on social media, that people forget that mostly influencers get things for free but people need to buy them. Influencers don’t forget to tag the product and even sometimes offer discounts with their name if you buy it immediately. So when your favorite actor/sportsperson/even a friend is promoting it and you see the ‘buy’ link right next to the same post with a discount, why won’t you fall for it? These posts indirectly pressurize people to buy things or visit a particular place or grab that discount as if they will never get the same later. Also, easy payment options (EMIs, Credit cards) have made things very simple! When you buy such stuff, there is an instant release of Dopamine which makes you feel good. It makes you feel that you belong to that clan now. However, it makes you psychologically vulnerable first by creating the need and then gives you pleasure, thereby making you the perfect target for advertisers. How cool is that!
Initial Vision
Facebook had a vision of connecting people with friends and families. Instagram had the vision to make the world beautiful by sharing beautiful photos. Twitter started because it wanted to connect people and allow them to share their thoughts with a big audience. Snapchat availed sharing of photos & videos that are meant to disappear after they’re viewed. It was advertised as a “new type of camera” because the essential function is to take a picture or video, add filters, lenses, or other effects and share them with friends. However, these are slowly becoming shopping malls, politically influenced entities, and information selling centers. Anything these platforms create becomes socially acceptable and by making such things ethical, all other platforms will conveniently copy them in the future.
The Reality Today — 2.0
- Unrealistic expectations
Remember the riddle, what goes up and never comes down? (Its your age.) Let’s twist it — what goes up and leaves you feeling empty when it comes down? The number of ‘likes’, ‘followers’, ‘hearts’, and ‘thumbs-ups’ on posts are seen as a reflection of reality. A single negative comment on something may make a person insecure about themselves. Now imagine the effect of a hundred negative comments. It makes an individual much more self-conscious of their flaws that went unnoticed so far. This may motivate them to look for approval from their followers. As a result, this ends up creating a cycle of dependency for these social media stars; the number of youngsters suffering from mental health disorders like depression and anxiety is skyrocketing.
Example- The Snapchat filters transform your face to a great extent and when you upload it on social media you immediately get a bunch of likes. Slowly people start hating their natural face and features and want to look like a ‘Snapchat filtered face’. The demand from teens and their parents has considerably increased to look like a ‘Snapchat face’ that plastic surgeons have named it as ‘Snapchat Dysmorphia’.
2. Information to Misinformation to Disinformation- When any information is circulating over social media it’s really hard to find out its authenticity. Also it’s difficult to find sources of such information. For e.g. According to one TV news, many Americans started believing that you get the Corona virus by eating Chinese food. It spread faster than the corona virus itself and made people sceptical of eating chinese food. Another example was, In 2018 in India, a viral video claimed to show a child being kidnapped by a motorcyclist. It was circulating on whatsapp but it was deceptively edited and was missing the key context. It was originally produced as a child safety campaign by ‘Roshni Helpline’ — a group in Pakistan. But due to its false edits people believed it to an extent that when people in Karnataka saw a group of 5 people distributing chocolates to the kids, they mistook them for kidnappers and beat them to death (Source- The Washington Post News). We all have seen the hoax news claiming about the death of a celebrity. When I dug deeper to know the reason for this behavior, I realised that the youtube channel that first claims an actor/celeb to be dead and releases the news online, people jump at the video to check it. The video always starts with how great the celeb was and they show some of his/her pics with heart touching music. By the time people realise the news is fake they have already spent a good amount of time watching the news and the purpose of the youtuber of getting certain hits/views in a certain time is fulfilled. Moreover, he has already made his money by capturing you in the trap of his hoax news.
This really raised a question in my mind that where are we heading? Do we really want to make so much easy money that we are crossing all standards of ethics? Youtube had to change its strategy after a few years and now you get money by the count of your subscribers and not just the views. But in the case of one Indian actor, even Youtube took a wrong stand. See the news below.
3. The increased dependency — We rely on technology and social platforms so much today that there is a question of will technology replace mankind? With increasing dependency on technology and rapid development in machine learning and artificial intelligence, is there an existential threat? A checkmate on humanity? Today we need birthday reminders by facebook to wish people. We use calculators to do the simplest of calculations. Kids don’t eat if they do not have a mobile in front of them. People carry phones with them, even when moving to another room in their houses. Some even carry them to the toilet. No one posts pictures without editing them. We nowadays can’t remember phone numbers. We have alarms to drink water, take medicines, pick up kids from school and what not.
“Nothing vast enters the life of mortals without a curse.”
and social media platforms and other developing technologies are vast beyond our imagination.
But these platforms are going to be there even if we want them or not. So what can we do about it? We can’t eliminate them entirely from our lives. Looking at the benefits they offer we are going to need them for our future. When I post this article it will definitely go on my social media as well because, it’s said that if you want to clean the mess you have to step in the mess first. It was a big eye opener for me and I feel we can do some simple things to be in control:
- Use only when you think you are going to make a positive difference with your post.
2. Try to be actually there with the person instead of wishing them online
3. Try to avoid negative comments and controversial discussion on the posts.
4. Try to be there to listen to your friends/relatives whenever they need you.
5. If possible, keep the location of your phone turned off.
6. If possible, do not post your kids on social media and expect likes on behalf of them.
7. Try to minimize the usage of the phone in front of your kids. Try a book instead.
8. Use only the necessary apps.
9. Avoid scrolling mindlessly.
10. Stop forwarding content without knowing the authenticity. Incase you are doubtful, dont forward.
I know it’s difficult to follow them all but a tiny step in the right direction today, is a huge step for the future of society.
Sources:
- The documentary Social dilemma- Netflix
2. Growth Design case studies
3. The Washington Post News — https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/02/21/how-misinformation-whatsapp-led-deathly-mob-lynching-india/
4. The national school of journalism and public discourse- https://www.nsoj.in/stories/the-flip-side-of-social-media
5. In-shorts news app.
