At any moment we can connect with or talk to anyone across the world. We can form relationships with people we would have otherwise never met and form bonds over common interests or connections. All of this is due to social media. So if social media seems to be opening the world to us how could it be a bad thing? On the surface, our social media platforms seem to be doing a service to our society, but on a deeper, more hidden level, it may actually be providing quite a significant disservice. 

This disservice is mostly due to the fact that social media is not designed for “us,” the consumer. Social media is paid for by advertisers. For social media companies, our attention is what they make their money off of. They sell our attention to advertisers and they do so in a very intentional way. Based on things we have liked, looked at, or shown interest in, our advertisements change accordingly. This, in itself, is not a bad thing, unless you have an issue with the amount of data collected about you. There only becomes an issue when the AI then uses our information to only show us certain posts.  Instead of expanding our world to new knowledge and ideas and all sides to an issue, we end up only seeing the side of things that we support or show interest in. We are never shown anything new or anything that conflicts with things that we have shown interest in. It is in this that our social media accounts become specialized to us that we end up limiting our worlds. We are living in a tiny social bubble of our own creations and interests, never seeing the opposing side or different viewpoint. 

This is the main reason we have all become so divided. People are driven apart by social media instead of together. It can drive a wedge that just grows deeper and deeper the more we use social media. There is constant fear and confusion and misinformation that spreads and gets passed off as truth. From an outside perspective, “fake news” should not be something we are dealing with. We live in a world with such easy access to information, yet with every click, we are further from the truth. 

Social media shapes our thoughts, feelings, beliefs, ideas, morals, and so much more. AI controls what we see, what we are exposed to, and what ads we see and may purchase. Not all of the social media is bad, but the consequences of limiting our social space have become immense and could be our undoing. It is our job to regulate ourselves and break our social media addictions, in order to find a more well-rounded holistic view of the world and our lives. 

References:

Ali, Harris S, and Fuyuki Kurasawa. “#COVID19: Social Media Both a Blessing and a Curse during Coronavirus Pandemic.” The Conversation, 22 Mar. 2020, theconversation.com/covid19-social-media-both-a-blessing-and-a-curse-during-coronavirus-pandemic-133596.

Cooper, Anderson. “What Is ‘Brain Hacking’? Tech Insiders on Why You Should Care.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 9 Apr. 2017, http://www.cbsnews.com/news/brain-hacking-tech-insiders-60-minutes/.

Foer, Franklin. “How Silicon Valley Is Erasing Your Individuality.” Perspective, 8 Sept. 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/how-silicon-valley-is-erasing-your-individuality/2017/09/08/a100010a-937c-11e7-aace-04b862b2b3f3_story.html?%20utm_campaign=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_source=offscreenmag_com&utm_term=.2954e7663a67

Orlowski, Jeff, director. The Social Dilemma. Netflix/TheSocialDilemma, 26 Jan. 2020, http://www.netflix.com/title/81254224.

Solis, Brian. “Social Media Is Making the World a Smaller Place…Maybe Too Small.” Medium, 18 June 2017, medium.com/@briansolis/social-media-is-making-the-world-a-smaller-place-maybe-too-small-f4d55f1a6a0c.