The Perils of Engagement Driven Platforms
The need of social networks to make a profit disrupts content
What makes something to go viral? Is it the content itself? Are communication channels the reason for a post to become popular?
Without a doubt, not always does the best content or most important piece of information receive all the headlines it deserves. This is due to the fact that most of the time “valuable” content is not necessarily commercially successful. Following the same idea, content creators have now become the most important funnels to direct information toward consumers as traditional channels of communication are becoming a thing of the past as technology companies have increasingly gained control of the advertising business. As a consequence, it has become more profitable to target younger audiences in new delivery forms, such as social networks and internet-based services.
As traditional media producers are figuring out how to maintain their offerings interesting to newer generations, technology based outlets have gained traction and power. Most of the time, these newer outlets have the ability to create a mood within their followers. I believe they even have the leverage to modify a person’s perception on a certain product or political belief. In other words, the line that differentiates media and our personal life has lingered. We now hold media extremely close to our personal life. In the past, we saw a newspaper as a source of information and a family photo album as personal content. Today, we read a New York Times article in Facebook while looking at a friend’s photo and, at the same time, chat with an acquaintance you just met.¹
Reliable information sources are struggling, sensationalist publishers are growing and users are left with an ever-increasing exposure to low quality content.
Even though it is within a content creator’s choice to post something on any of these internet-based platforms, such services require a stricter regulation. We must ask: what happens if Facebook starts favoring some articles regarding some political ideals, covers certain news categories or hides this article because it criticizes their product? It happened during last year’s United States election and has happened by favoring click-bait sources as they produce a higher advertising revenue. As a consequence, creators have started to favor publications that attract viewers and advertisers; nevertheless, the direct consequence is the abdication of quality and veracity. Moreover, there is no real competition in the content creation market. Big companies have enough leverage to target traffic into their sites and not letting users discover other alternatives. For example, Narrative is a promising startup that hopes to tackle this problem.
Sharing, helping to create and producing quality content is the first step.
As stated in episode 3 of the The Menu Bar podcast, a social network’s ability to self regulate is not clear. Ad driven businesses are not compatible with self-imposed censorship and regulation, due to the fact that traffic and views are more important than content quality. Hereby, I intend on saying that platforms are not the ones who must regulate our content. What happens inside a social network is just a reflection of what is happening in the world and we sometime tend to be overcritical of what roles do these organizations should have in the whole equation. For example, violence within digital platforms is becoming an ubiquitous problem. Hate speech and disturbing content have increasingly flooded such services. Thus, we should reconsider the definition of violence as something that not only involves physical force but also includes anything that harms and damages something or someone without relinquishing a fair concept of freedom of speech.
The underlying problem comes from the current business model that most social networks have adopted. Because of its profitability, it is unlikely that this will change soon. How is it possible that a video featuring disturbing content receives more rewards, has more engagement and is favored by search algorithms compared to an educational source with an intrinsically positive and constructive nature? Advertisements and sponsors are the reason behind these trends of seemingly illogical behavior. Most advertisers, who pay a content platform to show their product to potential costumers, consider reach as the most important factor when deciding the service they will hire to run an advertising campaign. From a business perspective it all makes sense. However, the consequences are dangerous and alarming. Reliable information sources are struggling, sensationalist publishers are growing and users are left with an exposure to low quality content. As a whole, users are simply a product for service providers and are the victims of the system’s business.
Platforms with millions of users per month definitely have the power to influence the course of events of nations and our entire world. Certainly they are an extraordinary tool to connect with others and are now an important part of our lives. We should not stop using them; instead, we should assess their impact on our lives and on society. By this, we should adapt our use-cases and change our behavior to engage in positive activities within these platforms. Sharing and aiding the creation and production of quality content is the first step. We should stop sharing sensationalist content and encourage others to do the same. Moreover, we should insist on the application of internal regulations and terms of use by internet-based platforms and ask for more human curation of content and better algorithms that distinguish between quality and disruptive content. Afterwards, lawmakers will take notice and more suitable regulation for this type of content and interaction must follow. Only then, platforms, such as Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram, will be able to successfully self-regulate their content and engagement.
¹ I firmly believe that using Facebook as a news source is a mistake. Content creators are not rewarded as they should, sources are not always trustworthy and Facebook’s algorithms are biased as this Wired article deeply explores.
