Social Media is Dumb
(nope, I’m not trying to be cool…)
A s our world gone remote due to the pandemic, I realized more and more that we live in a perfect time for social distancing. We have a world where we can order food, get groceries, study, shop, or even buy a car without needing to speak to another person, nor leave the comfort of our own homes. We rely heavily on social media, chat rooms, and video calls to keep up with our friends and families. We can even create new relationships or get into fights with people without ever seeing their faces nor knowing their real names. Social media existed with the intention of connecting us to each other, but when did it start to become part of our everyday lives?
Our social media dependency existed long before the pandemic outbreak arrived that suddenly changed our daily lives. As I write this article, I’ve scrolled through my Instagram and checked my Facebook a few times just to see if I have new notifications. Most of us, social media users, are guilty of checking and scrolling our feeds on a daily basis without keeping track of how much time we’re spending on it. Some people wakes up in the morning and the first thing they do is check their social media, some goes to bed with it, scrolling until their too tired to. We scroll thoughtlessly without paying attention to the effects of it on our mindsets, relationships, beliefs, personalities, and even in our physical and mental well being. We are hooked on social media simply because it is giving us what we want to see, curated to our own interests, fueling our emotions, and sometimes just an accidental curiosity.
If you lived in the United States this past year or followed the news, I’m sure you have witnessed, heard, or even came about someone who has strong political beliefs that have hampered their ability to think logically and sometimes even their ability to have a proper conversation. Just think about the justifications of the people that attacked Capitol Hill just last month with the intention to murder some people from the Congress. The difference in perspectives is no longer acceptable because we are seeing different contents with very little regard to the validity of them. False information has been widely spread out, faster than the pandemic ever did. What did any of the online media do in regards to these false shareable contents? Not much.
The National Institute of Health, a U.S. government agency, recently published an article stating the continued increase of psychiatric cases, such as depression and suicidal behaviors in young adults, within the past two decades. Filters started as fun features to do in social media, until we started seeing the blemish-free, perfectly shaped, groomed, and makeup faces. Young adults are not only dealing with puberty but also started comparing themselves to what is “beautiful and perfect” in social media. More and more teenagers are turning to plastic surgery because of what seemed to be cool, acceptable, and beautiful that gets the likes and hearts of the social media crowd. Social media is open to everyone- until you’re banned- and invented to stay connected and to be easily connected with almost anyone, that includes drug dealers and pedophiles. Just this morning news, parents of a 16 years old straight A student were talking about their son that overdosed with drugs. They later found out that he got the drugs from a stranger that reached out to him through Snapchat. “It’s an experimentation gone wrong” stated his dad. There’s also a handful of news reports throughout the years warning parents in regards to their children’s photos being copied and shared by online predators without their knowledge. How is this possible? It’s because not only that we can connect with almost anyone online, but we can also be anyone.
Cambridge Analytica was a political consulting firm that used online data on voters , and used them for their clients’ political campaigns. Their method included a profiling system through gathered data, including and not limited to voters’ private smartphones data and Facebook-likes in their profiles, to create an personalized psychological targeting to influence those voters. The Cambridge Analytica/ Facebook scandal of 2018 brought light on how the combination of mined online data, targeted social media marketing, and a series of psychological and emotional triggering ads can influence millions of voters and can affect elections. During the investigation, Cambridge Analytica claimed to have collected 5,000 data points on 220 million Americans for the 2016 elections. Amongst their clients that won the elections are spread out from 32 countries with the highest positions in the government including the 45th President of the United States.
If there’s anything that the recent political activities in the United States has showed us, it’s how powerful social media can be. We are divided now more than ever because of the social media algorithms that personalized our content based on what the algorithms considered interesting to us individually. We no longer have the ability to be curious or to have an unbiased news that we can all see, agree, or disagree with. We are seeing different things facts or false information. The social media leaders, although there’s a lot of work to be done, seems to at least started understanding on how dangerous their platforms can be when a person can use social media as their stage promote violence , hate, and influence these people to act. The collective decision of several social media companies to ban someone from the top government official that promotes violence, makes me feel hopeful as a social media user. We are all still learning about these machines and we are all becoming aware of the power of them.
Social media was created with the intent to help connects us, network, and have an online social life. It‘s been helping us through this pandemic to keep up with family and friends that we can’t be physically close with. Sharing our lives, thoughts, and making us feel connected in a time where it’s almost inevitably just as easy to be and feel isolated. Social media are great tools. They’re also addictive and can be toxic, but imagine a world where social media is well thought of. Something with zero tolerance when it comes to hate and violence. If it has algorithms that catches false information and blocks them. A social media where we go to and share our thoughts and ideas, not to vent and get into a comment war with someone we don’t even know. A place where we can be who we are, and not a place that celebrates the likes and numbers of followers that we have and made us feel like those are some sort of needed validations. A platform where we can be relaxed to read on contents, be in discussions, explore our curiosities without getting an emotional trigger. A place where we can all connect and grow as humans. Just imagine, an online way to get us more connected and closer.
