Well, let me put my thoughts down via crude analogy. I live in Central California where we have a lot of dairies, but I think this will suffice to make the illustration. People who use social media are like cows being herded into a milking parlour. When you are on social media, it is as though you are being hooked up to the milking machines. Now, the cows do get to socialize with their herdmates, and communicate with one another in the manner that cows and other herd animals do, but that is not the purpose of the milking parlour. They were made to get milk from the cows, whether the cows have a good time socializing or not. Likewise, you get to socialize and gather information from your social media platforms, but that is not what social media platforms were put in place for. They are meant to harvest your data and manipulate your behavior in subtle ways for the purpose of marketing you products and services from companies paying the social media platforms for your data.
Of course, where my analogy breaks down is at this point: the cows do not have a choice whether they can go into the milking parlour or not. They are herded in regardless. We have a choice whether to go into the social media milking parlours. And the social media companies achieve this constant feedback loop by making the use of the platform, if not addictive, highly compulsive. As Lanier explains in the above-posted podcast, social media companies use the same psychological behaviorist techniques that casinos do to addict gamblers.
It is by no means breaking news that there is a problem with social media. It has made the political climate in our country worse; it has exacerbated existing ideological divisions; it has given us purely left-wing and right-wing media bubbles in which people can be hermetically sealed into ideological echo chambers more effectively than ever before while online without ever having to encounter differing viewpoints online; it has allowed foreign interference in our political processes from hostile nations; it has made it so that the worst human beings in our societies have an easier time finding one another and communicating with each other and planning acts of terrorism, from techno-savvy Sunni Jihadists such as ISIS to murderous Neo-Nazis in Christchurch.
But even without touching on the political side of the issue, the way social media presently works is filled with perverse incentives. These free social media platforms and applications as we have learned are anything but free. Most of us already know that the owners of these platforms constantly harvest user data and sell them to advertisers, of course. But the problem is that it does not end there: Companies such as Google, Facebook, Twitter and Youtube also engaging in processes to make their platforms addicting and then engage in subtle and widespread behavioral manipulation and modification. I can only imagine that things on social media platforms will only get worse and worse as we draw close to the 2020 Elections.
For those of you who are interested in looking into the issue further, and are doing your dishes or taking a long car ride, I would encourage you to listen to the podcast in which Ezra Klein of Vox Media interviews Silicon Valley luminary Jaron Lanier about the negative effects of Social Media, and why you probably should delete your social media accounts:
So my question to those here is: Who here has deleted their social media accounts? Why did you delete yours? And for those who did not, what makes you wish to keep it?
For those reading my poll on their cell phones, the options are as follows:
1. I have deleted my social media accounts, or intend to do so
2. I have not deleted my social media accounts nor do I presently intend to
3. I have never even made a social media account in the first place
4. I cannot decide whether to delete my accounts or keep them right now
5. Other
EDIT: And yes, I understand the irony of posting a video/podcast hosted on Youtube (a social media platform) on a poll decrying the use of social media.
I have FB which only has long time friends and some family. It's a way to stay in touch which otherwise wouldn't happen. So no, I won't be deleting.
I like your analogy and your op. These platforms ( not my cup of tea by the way) offer valuable services that are hard to replace efficiently and effectively but they do so for profit. These companies have to get something of worth to stay in a business we have already decided to patronize. We as a society stand to lose a lot of instant and broad communication, if social media is successfully undercut and left ineffectual. I think your question should be how can we change the model minimize the ill effects you describe?Well, let me put my thoughts down via crude analogy. I live in Central California where we have a lot of dairies, but I think this will suffice to make the illustration. People who use social media are like cows being herded into a milking parlour. When you are on social media, it is as though you are being hooked up to the milking machines. Now, the cows do get to socialize with their herdmates, and communicate with one another in the manner that cows and other herd animals do, but that is not the purpose of the milking parlour. They were made to get milk from the cows, whether the cows have a good time socializing or not. Likewise, you get to socialize and gather information from your social media platforms, but that is not what social media platforms were put in place for. They are meant to harvest your data and manipulate your behavior in subtle ways for the purpose of marketing you products and services from companies paying the social media platforms for your data.
Of course, where my analogy breaks down is at this point: the cows do not have a choice whether they can go into the milking parlour or not. They are herded in regardless. We have a choice whether to go into the social media milking parlours. And the social media companies achieve this constant feedback loop by making the use of the platform, if not addictive, highly compulsive. As Lanier explains in the above-posted podcast, social media companies use the same psychological behaviorist techniques that casinos do to addict gamblers.
I like your analogy and your op. These platforms ( not my cup of tea by the way) offer valuable services that are hard to replace efficiently and effectively but they do so for profit. These companies have to get something of worth to stay in a business we have already decided to patronize. We as a society stand to lose a lot of instant and broad communication, if social media is successfully undercut and left ineffectual. I think your question should be how can we change the model minimize the ill effects you describe?
I've never had any social media accounts and never intend to.
Have You Deleted or Will You Delete Your Social Media Accounts?
It is by no means breaking news that there is a problem with social media. It has made the political climate in our country worse; it has exacerbated existing ideological divisions; it has given us purely left-wing and right-wing media bubbles in which people can be hermetically sealed into ideological echo chambers more effectively than ever before while online without ever having to encounter differing viewpoints online; it has allowed foreign interference in our political processes from hostile nations; it has made it so that the worst human beings in our societies have an easier time finding one another and communicating with each other and planning acts of terrorism, from techno-savvy Sunni Jihadists such as ISIS to murderous Neo-Nazis in Christchurch.
But even without touching on the political side of the issue, the way social media presently works is filled with perverse incentives. These free social media platforms and applications as we have learned are anything but free. Most of us already know that the owners of these platforms constantly harvest user data and sell them to advertisers, of course. But the problem is that it does not end there: Companies such as Google, Facebook, Twitter and Youtube also engaging in processes to make their platforms addicting and then engage in subtle and widespread behavioral manipulation and modification. I can only imagine that things on social media platforms will only get worse and worse as we draw close to the 2020 Elections.
For those of you who are interested in looking into the issue further, and are doing your dishes or taking a long car ride, I would encourage you to listen to the podcast in which Ezra Klein of Vox Media interviews Silicon Valley luminary Jaron Lanier about the negative effects of Social Media, and why you probably should delete your social media accounts:
So my question to those here is: Who here has deleted their social media accounts? Why did you delete yours? And for those who did not, what makes you wish to keep it?
For those reading my poll on their cell phones, the options are as follows:
1. I have deleted my social media accounts, or intend to do so
2. I have not deleted my social media accounts nor do I presently intend to
3. I have never even made a social media account in the first place
4. I cannot decide whether to delete my accounts or keep them right now
5. Other
EDIT: And yes, I understand the irony of posting a video/podcast hosted on Youtube (a social media platform) on a poll decrying the use of social media.
I use social media. Facebook and instagram. I use them to keep in touch with old friends and family - share pictures - ect. Social media is very easy to control. If someone is posting things you don't want to see, simply remove them. The other thing I constantly see people crying about is privacy which I don't get either. Why would anyone post something online in a social media platform and expect it to be kept secret? Things are so simple. If you don't like the content of someone - don't have them on your list - don't post private information online. Social media isn't the problem; stupid people are the problem.
It is by no means breaking news that there is a problem with social media. It has made the political climate in our country worse; it has exacerbated existing ideological divisions; it has given us purely left-wing and right-wing media bubbles in which people can be hermetically sealed into ideological echo chambers more effectively than ever before while online without ever having to encounter differing viewpoints online; it has allowed foreign interference in our political processes from hostile nations; it has made it so that the worst human beings in our societies have an easier time finding one another and communicating with each other and planning acts of terrorism, from techno-savvy Sunni Jihadists such as ISIS to murderous Neo-Nazis in Christchurch.
But even without touching on the political side of the issue, the way social media presently works is filled with perverse incentives. These free social media platforms and applications as we have learned are anything but free. Most of us already know that the owners of these platforms constantly harvest user data and sell them to advertisers, of course. But the problem is that it does not end there: Companies such as Google, Facebook, Twitter and Youtube also engaging in processes to make their platforms addicting and then engage in subtle and widespread behavioral manipulation and modification. I can only imagine that things on social media platforms will only get worse and worse as we draw close to the 2020 Elections.
For those of you who are interested in looking into the issue further, and are doing your dishes or taking a long car ride, I would encourage you to listen to the podcast in which Ezra Klein of Vox Media interviews Silicon Valley luminary Jaron Lanier about the negative effects of Social Media, and why you probably should delete your social media accounts:
So my question to those here is: Who here has deleted their social media accounts? Why did you delete yours? And for those who did not, what makes you wish to keep it?
For those reading my poll on their cell phones, the options are as follows:
1. I have deleted my social media accounts, or intend to do so
2. I have not deleted my social media accounts nor do I presently intend to
3. I have never even made a social media account in the first place
4. I cannot decide whether to delete my accounts or keep them right now
5. Other
EDIT: And yes, I understand the irony of posting a video/podcast hosted on Youtube (a social media platform) on a poll decrying the use of social media.
I don't even wish people happy birthday anymore on Facebook because they may be dead.
You do realize that all social media is is a variant of internet message boards, right?
The difference here is that we aren't in an 'echo chamber" where everyone agrees. Here, hardly anyone agrees with anyone else, hence the term "debate." Not only that, but we use psuedonyms here, so are unlikely to meet someone in the real world who thinks we're evil due to our political beliefs.
I have all sorts of accounts facebook, linked in, twitter, twitch, and some others. I got them all one time or another because I was doing something or other and the website or person or what have you required me to have such and such account. I put mostly bogus info in them. Otherwise I don't use them all, they just send me emails about how lonely they are and wish I would use them. Said emails end up in the junk folder.
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