Opinion: Our “Social Dilemma”
“There are only two industries that call their customers ‘users’: illegal drugs and software.”
– Edward Tuftle
We live in a world where expansion and growth have come through the advent of new technologies. In the past twenty years, new technologies have exploded into our lives and with that exponential growth of technology came the trillion-dollar giants of social media sources like Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat.
These social networks have complicated side effects.
If you’re not familiar with the new documentary on Netflix, “The Social Dilemma,” let me explain what it has illuminated to me: humans are in trouble. We are in big, huge, scary, terrifyingly real trouble because of our ambition and constant dissatisfaction with what we have. We need more money, more growth, more followers and more love than what we have. We think the grass is always greener on the other side, but as it turns out, the other side isn’t as green as we think it is: maybe the other side is burning.
Social media networks that you and I use every day, have three goals: keeping you engaged and interacting with your screen, growing the product and making money. According to “The Social Dilemma,” these goals are met through algorithms on our devices, including nudges to get on our screens through app notifications. While social media and app creators’ intentions were not malicious, the result of these algorithms is negative. Social media networks have created a world with declining self-worth, unhappiness, political polarization and a decline in real human connections.
There have been so many studies done to show the negative effects of social media. According to the Pew Research Center, about 70% of people use social media and 97% of teens ages 13-17 use at least one major online social media platform, at upwards of nine hours a day. While the time spent on these sites is alarming in and of itself, it gets worse.
According to Emma Chamberlain (on her podcast Anything Goes) on Instagram, “you chose your best moments, you know your angles … and so, Instagram is not real life and that’s the point-blank period of it all … social media is just very fake, but what I’ve found is that there is an art in the illusion, right? There’s something fun about the illusion, even looking at other people’s illusions that they’ve created.”
The trouble is, kids on social media are not cognitively prepared to understand that posts on social media are inherently manufactured. This “illusion” is arguably the source of dramatic increases in eating disorders, self-harm and suicide in our youth.
According to “The Social Dilemma,” hospital admissions for nonfatal self-harm in the United States is up 62% since the growth of social media in 2009 for young girls ages 15-19, and it’s up for younger girls too. Worse yet, the suicide rates for girls ages 15-19 is up 70% since 2010. In the words of Tim Kendall, former president of Pinterest, “these services are killing people and causing people to kill themselves.” If that’s not chilling enough, let’s take a look at our expansive political polarization.
One of my biggest concerns as an American is the dramatic increase in polarization due to social media and search engines. With the evolution of technology, social networks have created algorithms that change what we’re looking at on our screens based on where we are and what we’ve enjoyed in the past; our engagement is being tracked and recorded to better predict what’s more likely to keep us on our devices for longer periods so social networks can make more money.
There are several issues with this invasive tracking, but one of the biggest ones is that it leads to a polarized view of the world. The political videos and explanations you see might be vastly different from the ones that I see. This system promotes and reinforces extreme viewpoints. Just take a look at our two options for president this election: polar opposites. Why? Because the people in America are growing apart and engaging in extreme politics online.
According to “The Social Dilemma,” fake news spreads six times faster than real news. Our social media networks are inherently biased towards false information. Conspiracy theories, gossip, rumors, fake news — all of it is being reinforced by what we’re watching on our screens every day. Thus, we are growing less unified and more fractured by the minute.
Our social dilemma is a big one. We now have a generation of kids who grew up with social media and had it in middle school. We are statistically more depressed, more anxious, more fragile, more afraid than any other generation before us. This is a real generational change, one that doesn’t happen very often and one that no one understands exactly how to deal with.
The fact is, humanity is meant for more than scrolling through Tik Tok, Instagram and Facebook. We are here to connect, not to WiFi, but to people. Here to play soccer, to paint, to tell stories and to bake. To laugh, to dance, to cry and to be vulnerable. While I’ve been spending my time on my phone, I’ve been missing out on opportunities to meet some of the coolest people who live right here in Logan.
The only remedy seems to be getting off of screens, social media and other networks. However, if it was that easy everyone would already be off of social media. The suggestion in “The Social Dilemma” is a simple one: turn off your app notifications. Not all of them, but the ones that aren’t as urgent — Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest are all examples of apps that you don’t need urgent notifications for.
It’s a simple but big step for humanity on the way to beat our addiction to social media, to decrease suicide and self-harm, to fight political polarization and finally start connecting with people again.
Emily White is a third year student studying English and broadcast journalism.
emily.white@usu.edu