Animating the Dark Side of Social Media
Earlier this year we explored the dark side of social media. ‘This is Real Life’ is an animated campaign we designed for the Broadcasting Commission of Jamaica (BCJ). We did a deep dive into a problem that affects thousands of people every day: sharing photos of dead bodies on social media.
Having thought about it, I’ve decided to share some of the insights coming out of that experience with a wider audience. I think it’s important to see how the tools we use can shape our behaviour in ways we don’t even realise. And also how we can choose to engage others based on the change we want to see in ourselves, and in the world.
So Here’s the Problem
We’re on the verge of a potentially global epidemic. Every day people are waking up to the trauma of morbid images of killings, accidents and bloodshed on social media. In countries such as ours where crime and violence shape our daily lives, social media adds a far reaching tentacle. We lock our doors, but it brings it into our bedrooms and in front of our kids.
This problem is on the BCJ’s radar because all social media users are broadcasters too. The BCJ can’t regulate individuals, but they can try to build awareness about this problem’s negative social impact. I think their approach is unique and ambitious, but forward-thinking and necessary.
Social Media is Designed around our Emotions
But why do we share morbid images, anyway?
Here’s what we dug up in the course of immersive storytelling workshops we hosted at ListenMi and Carimac, with Karen Palmer, storyteller from the future.
Social media is not only designed to be addictive, but pics of dead bodies fit the exact profile of content that’s likely to go viral. According to behavioural psychologists, emotional stories get our highest priority and earliest attention. And three emotions in particular drive people to moralized content on social media. These Attention Grabbing Emotions are outrage, moral disgust and shame.
The three attention-grabbing emotions most likely to draw people to moral content are Outrage, Moral Disgust and Shame.
Social Media is Designed around our Motivations
Social media is also designed around people’s motivations. As social beings, we are motivated to promote our social identity. So even if sharing ideas or content is harmful to my community for instance, I am still socially motivated to share graphic images. That’s because it’s beneficial to my personal social identity. And how do I measure this benefit? Engagement. High engagement and extreme responses, whether positive or negative, increase my social currency.
It’s like I’m pretty much on social media to build my social bank account, filled with likes. Or outrage. Whichever.
Strong emotions are polarizing, and on social media that makes for a great experience! So in my echo chamber my feedback loop propels me to share more. So it’s all a game to rack up social high points, and the game doesn’t care if I’m on the dark side.
How Do we Break the Cycle?
The most memorable thing about this campaign for me was hearing victims’ real life experiences. We found persons who had been on the receiving end of photos of accidents and killings on their phones. And we asked them to just share their story. And they did, in a way they didn’t have the courage to before. I still hear their pain.
I think removing the veil of a standardized profile page and hearing the pain in a person’s voice reveals just that; a person. Our hypothesis, supported by Neurologist Elizabeth Waters, was that we could trigger people to think about how they post by creating an intense emotional experience. One way to do that is to see and hear a victim’s pain.
How Animations Help
One slight problem though. Both victims who agreed to share their stories wanted to protect their identities. The cases were still fresh, and they didn’t want to put themselves at risk or bring undue attention to grieving families.
We proposed to record their voice notes and animate their stories instead. Because our brains can’t tell the difference between the emotions in an animation vs. live action film (case in point, I still cry in Lion King), animated stories are just as powerful.
By animating not just scripted stories but real voice notes, we maintained the authenticity and emotion while keeping the message focused on their experience. And the responses to the videos so far have been pouring in. From “I understand now,” to “This happened to me,” and “I’m not even in Jamaica, but I see this happening here too.” People have been letting us know they connected in an emotional way. I think this brings us closer together so we can start to talk about how we want to change our engagement with real people, despite the hidden designs of a social networking platform.
Real Life, Real Issues
It’s easy to post a pic on a wall.
It’s slightly different when you have to shove a video into someone’s face, and see the consequences of the pain you cause.
Dealing with the ‘what next’ is a part of real life, whereas it’s easier to ignore or delete a comment online. This campaign may not be so interactive that you can speak to the victims. But you do get to hear them say how they truly felt for the first time. And you should listen.
No one knows the long term impact of social media on our mental health. For some people it’s a selfie outlet. For others, it’s daily trauma. We hope these animated stories can start a conversation about changing our relationship with social media, for good.
How about giving this post a👏 👏 and sharing it with others? And let’s talk more @Listenmi on Instagram. You may also stroll over to ListenMi.com for our other design experiments and animation expeditions.
