Likes, Shares, and a Privacy Scare
** User spent 5 minutes on DigSoc03 post**
How much of yourself are you ‘giving away’ with each click?
Every post you like, account you view and video you watch; is being monitored. Most of us hit ‘ACCEPT’ on privacy policies without second thought for quick access and convenience, but at what cost? In our digital society, we must choose between sacrificing privacy or facing exclusion from the digital community. As digital natives, do we really have a choice to live ‘offline’?
In 2023, over 4.59 billion people globally are active on social media, with projections suggesting that this number will increase to almost six billion in 2027. This rapid growth demonstrates the integral role that social media plays in our digital society. You may be thinking about the opportunities social media opens for global connectivity, enhanced engagement and enabling us to share and shape our digital identities. However, there is an unsettling trade-off: the vast amount of time you spend on posts, the pages you linger on and yes, those selfies — are all being tracked, traded and transacted as part of your growing digital footprint.
In a digital society where sharing personal information is the norm; understanding responsible digital citizenship is vital. Building on peer’s DigSoc03 discussions about the balance of convenience and privacy, this blog will critically explore the trade-off between digital engagement and privacy on social media platforms to critically examine the implications of living in a digital world.
Digital Engagement
Social media platforms such as X, Instagram, and Facebook have transformed communication by facilitating both synchronous interactions, including live videos and instant messaging, and asynchronous engagements, with delayed responses such as likes or comments on photos. These capabilities remove geographical boundaries, transforming how individuals and businesses engage and interact across the globe.
Transforming Business Communications
Social Media offers businesses a cost-effective method to directly engage and market their products to consumers by adopting brand/creator partnerships to encourage user-generated content and targeted advertisements. A SCORE survey identifies that 77% of small businesses use social media engagements to build brand awareness, facilitate customer service, and increase revenue. Synchronous interactions can be enhanced by implementing AI-Chatbots to provide 24/7 real-time assistance and customer services on social media.
Enhancing Social Interactions
Imagine being able to personally express your thoughts on X, showcase your latest talent on Tik Tok or share snapshots of your holiday on Instagram. Social Media empowers users to create and share a diverse multimedia content, engage with like-minded communities and access a variety of user-generated content, news, education and entertainment. Personalised algorithms recommend and curate enjoyable content aligned with user preferences. Whether you linger on a post or skip over a video, these engagements fin-tune recommender systems, using multiple user signals derived from watch time, past engagements and even geolocation.
Despite the benefits of these algorithms filling your feed with endless entertainment content, activating dopamine-related brain structures from short-form video content: Are they driving behavioural addiction? Research suggests these mathematically sophisticated algorithms are designed to deliberately optimise user engagement and time spent on the platforms, overlooking the long-term impact on users’ well-being . Research associates social media dependency with symptoms of substance use disorders including poor mental health, lack of self-control, and deteriorating relationships. AI-driven personalisation has raised concerns about the formation of ‘filter bubbles’ and ‘echo chambers’, limiting curated content based on previous online behaviours, reinforcing biases and restrict exposure to diverse content. With the prioritisation of content that maximises engagement, reports show increasing concerns on disseminating fake news, emphasising the necessity for digital citizens to develop evaluation and critical thinking skills.
Digital Footprint
In our digital society, every digital interaction contributes to our digital footprint, which includes both active and passive engagements. Active footprints incorporate intentional actions such as sharing posts and comments. Conversely, passive engagements are the subtle traces we leave behind, including cookies, IP address, and browsing history that is indirectly shared when ticking that ‘accept all’ box. Together, creating an impression of our identity.
“How do you sustain a business model in which users don’t pay for your service?” (Senator Orrin Hatch)
“Senator, we run ads.” (Mark Zukerberg)
Social media platforms provide ‘free’ services such as browsing, image storage, community engagement, and access to personalised content. Additionally, they offer monetary incentives such as TikTok’s creative challenge, YouTube Create app, and Pinterest education hub to encourage and support creative content production. However, these benefits come with the cost of privacy and to propel a ‘surveillance economy’.
Shoshana Zuboff refers to this profit-driven strategy as ‘surveillance capitalism’; a business model that profits from our digital footprint. This business strategy not only uses data to predict behaviours but also to ‘influence and modify’ them, contributing to what Zuboff describes as data colonialism.
“an expropriation of critical human rights that is best understood as a coup from above”. (Shoshana Zuboff)
But whom is behind the ‘coup from above’?
Facebook, Apple, Google and Amazon, often referred to as ‘data-opolies’, dominate the digital marketplace with an ecosystem of services, from social networking to e-commerce. Their platform’s high user engagement creates a significant barrier to market entry, posing challenges for smaller firms to compete. Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram and Google’s purchase of YouTube has further solidified their monopolistic positions. In his book ‘Breaking Away’, Stucke discusses how data is a tool for market manipulation and monetisation through behavioural advertising and emphasises the misalignment in our digital society between market interest and consumer privacy. A Mintel report captures the profitability of these data-centric business models, identifying significant increases in advertisement revenues, with YouTube ad revenue reaching $7.7 billion and Meta’s ad revenue growing by 12% to $31.5 billion.
Privacy
Data is often termed as “the new oil” for its high value. Just as we safeguard oil, why not our privacy? The European Union’s introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was a significant step towards strengthening individual privacy protections by mandating explicit consent before personal data can be processed, stored, or shared. However, the efficacy of GDPR has been queried following several high-profile privacy breaches, including the €225m WhatsApp fine for GDPR violations related to lack of transparency in data collection.
Roles & Responsibilities in a Digital Society
A Deloitte survey revealed that over 90% of consumers routinely click “accept” on legal terms and conditions without reading them, underscoring the critical gap in digital literacy and privacy education. As digital citizen’s it is essential to be informed about how our data is collected and used, to balance online engagements with effective data control.
Self-Reflection
In my letter to the FutureMe I wrote:
“I hope to become more aware of the current technology advancements… as a Gen Z, I tend to only see the positives, from this course I hope to gain insight into the negatives as well”
This course exceeded these expectations, gaining knowledge across various topics, with several WOW moments along the way. From exploring living IOT bees to examining multiple types of Smart Cities ranging from top-town (1) and bottom-up (2) approaches to citizen empowerment strategies, to foster an effective and sustainable society. It has opened my eyes to the disruptive technologies that have become the new ‘norm’ for Gen Z and the implications they carry; provoking deep thought, and critically addressing the societal and ethical impact of these technologies. The interactive elements of the course, such as polls, comment sections and assignment feedback, enhance my critical thinking by considering the diverse perspectives of my peers. I will continue to actively question and critique the positives and negatives of a digital society. This reflective approach has already driven me to experiment by deleting TikTok from my personal life. In the future, I plan to maintain this critical perspective in all my digital interactions.
Confession time: I have always hesitated to post on LinkedIn as the platform’s blog style of communication felt daunting. However, observing PechaKucha’s blog style and how my peers created compelling posts that balanced casual yet confident, informative yet engaging. I realised the importance of developing engaging communication skills and a strong online profile, especially in today’s digital society where online engagements are increasing. This challenge transformed into a learning opportunity, allowing me to develop confidence in this writing style with each piece of feedback on my blog posts. I will take this skill into my personal and professional life, starting with creating my first LinkedIn post!
Before this course, my approach to finding images for academic presentations and social media posts was straightforward — copy and paste the first Google image that fits the bill, often without proper attribution. In academia, we are taught to rigorously cite every paper and publication, however digital content such as images and videos usually go uncredited. This course has developed my understanding of intellectual property and its significance in a digital society. I will continue to practise these learnings, by ensuring that I properly credit all forms of digital content in my academic, professional and personal life.
Every Monday, I look forward to my dedicated time slot for this module to refresh myself from the traditional teaching methods. This module is not just about learning; it is about engaging in an interactive experience demonstrating technology’s transformative potential in education. Digital engagement varied from writing letters to our future selves, engaging with polls, participating in comment forums, listening to podcasts, and ticking off our digital checklist. The design of this course is an example of how technology can be integrated into a digital society to enhance learning.
