Anti-Social Media

Facebook, Twitter, Tik Tok, Instagram – all of these platforms were originally designed to make us feel connected, but are they really bringing us together, or are they being used to drive us further apart?

Whether it’s the US Election, Brexit or Black Lives Matter protests, social polarisation seems to be more apparent than ever. While the news that we see has always had bias, never before have we been in a situation where we can actively avoid seeing opinions that we don’t agree with. Is there someone on Twitter who is making comments that make you angry? You can block them. An old school friend on Facebook advocating a political party you don’t agree with? Unfriend them. We can now control the news we see so that we only understand it from the point of view of people who we have a mutual set of beliefs with, so it’s no wonder we’ve created a sense of otherness about people who we seemingly have nothing in common with, leading to suspicion, fear and sometimes aggression.

The recent Netflix documentary ‘The Social Dilemma’ put it best when senior figures from social platforms revealed that the software is free because the users are up for sale. Advertisers can buy the opportunity to promote themselves directly to those who most fit the profile of their typical demographic of client, with the big social networks having access to so much data about users that they can determine the likelihood of an advert resulting in a sale with increasing accuracy. However, advertisers aren’t just people who are looking to sell physical products. They are political parties, governments, newspapers and TV networks looking to draw more supporters. Targeted adverts are used to subtly change behaviours and opinions, and social networks are rapidly becoming smarter at profiling users at a rate of change not seen in any other industry with sophisticated machine learning.

Coupled with apps that are constantly vying for our attention with directed push notifications and red dots that suggest there’s something urgent that needs us to react, it’s fair to say that technology companies are eager to manipulate our time and sell it to the highest bidder. These features that initially were designed to be helpful are now used to exploit our human psychological vulnerabilities, using innate responses against us.

This is no more evident than in the success of the ‘like’ button, which is featured in some form or another on every social platform. Validation of our opinions or actions is not a new concept and was historically a useful tool that humans used to create order and community in the localised societies that they lived within. But validation on a global scale from faceless accounts has begun to conflate the truth, particularly when it’s now possible to give people hurtful criticism without having to deal with the human reaction to it. American surgeons have reported that they are seeing an increasing number of patients who want to look like themselves through a Snap Chat filter, having received positive reactions online to photos they’ve posted of heavily edited images, diminishing the value they place on their natural appearance.

An entire generation have now grown up with smart phones but the harmful impact of this is astounding. In the UK, hospital admissions of girls age 10-14 as a result of self-harm increased by almost 93% from 2009/10 to 2013/14 – 2009 was the year that social media became available on smart phones. Although it can seem impossible to separate a teenager from their phone, the dark impact of social media on self esteem is clearly evident in a modern society that continually places value on appearance over character. This has led to higher levels of depression, anxiety and even suicide in increasingly young children. Connecting with people through social media also means that children are losing the ability to connect in person and foster real friendships, exacerbating a sense of loneliness and reliance on online attention.

With technology’s grip on our lives becoming ever tighter, here are a few things you can do to help stay in touch with reality:

  • Use the screen time monitoring function to track your usage and set yourself limitation goals
  • Leave your phone in another room until fixed times in the day to avoid persistent notification checking
  • Turn off all notifications on your phone to avoid passive usage
  • Follow social media accounts of people whose opinions you trust but disagree with to get a more balanced view
  • Be critical of the information you’re reading – does the author have their own biases that could mean they’re framing information inaccurately?
  • Agree a daily limit with your children on screen time as well and have a night time device amnesty

Further reading:

  • 'How to Break Up With Your Phone: The 30 Day Plan to Take Back Your Life’ by Catherine Price
  • ‘Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now’ by Jaron Lanier
  • ‘Filling the Void: Emotion, Capitalism & Social Media’ by Marcus Gilroy-Ware
  • ‘Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy’ by Cathy O’Neil
  • ‘Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World’ by Cal Newport