The algorithms have gone mad, social media platforms are screaming for your attention pitting friends and family against each other for their gain.
These sites consist of nothing more than feeds of frivolous information to keep up with friends and family. The site owners however were not satisfied with just connecting people, they began demanding our attention to check the sites multiple times a day. Grandmas posting memes are not compelling literature. Many people check in, just over fears of being bored or stuck alone with their thoughts for a few minutes. The platforms poke us for attention via our phones, via email, and I’m sure they’d reach you in your dreams if it meant you check your feed. The real problem however, is that they promote the posts with the most discussion and discourse, encouraging arguments between friends and with people you may have never met. All in the name of spending more of your time viewing their site and it’s adverts you barely notice. Driving those who have become addicted to the attention they find in comment battles, into a mental hell hole that can only be gotten out of by getting off the platform.
It’s a social dystopia, where ignorantly pass over the problems and act like the world is all funny gifs and cat memes.
We don’t see the addiction, because we’re bad at seeing mental health issues. Noone has been shown how, or takes the time to self-reflect. We say our condolences after a friend kills themselves, where else? On social media.
Socializing person-to-person, or putting time aside for conversations just doesn’t happen as much anymore. We’ve become complacent when at an arms reach away we can shout our feelings onto the internet. We yearn for that next hit of social acceptance when we wake up, before bed, at meals and while on the toilet, because we have forgot how to be without it. Without normal social interactions, without self-reflection, we don’t see how badly this leach has embedded itself into our lives.
The platforms train it’s users with electronic votes, likes and comments. Meaningless things to be addicted to, but addicted none-the-less. The platforms reward you for the posts with the most discussion or discourse. The more discourse your posts get, the more the platform features it at the top of timelines (in turn granting it more likes/shares/comments), pushing the users to compete for space on your friend’s timelines with the already highly commented/shared posts from others.
You don’t get a voice, or a seat at the table, unless you’ve forced your friends into a debate.
Pavlovian training comes to mind. Except, this time the bell is given to the dogs, and the scientists provide more rewards based on how violently the bell it rung. Entering a room of dogs who have associated violent behavior with greater rewards, the sadistic scientists would be wise to keep an eye on their fingers when extending their hand to a pup sufficiently skewed violence.
But it’s not the dog’s fault.
The function of the platforms is not to connect people but to train them. They want us to post things that get people “engaged” or visiting the site again, and again, not caring that the higher engagement comes at the cost of interpersonal connections… If anything the platforms have broken people apart. The users are trained that if you want more clicks/followers/featured posts, then you better do what gets more clicks and comments.
Like young pups quickly learning that the most violent dogs get the best treats, we all see when the most grievous interactions flood your notifications tab; that is how the platform wants us to act. The discourse on these platforms is out of control, so many people want to argue and threaten people online because they’ve been trained to do so. There is no care for nuance in the discussion anymore, or layers to a person’s character, we’re destroying our civility and humanity over getting more likes.
It’s unethical and needs to stop, the best part is also the hardest: it’s within your power to stop it, just get off the platform.