{"id":873,"date":"2019-08-23T02:21:38","date_gmt":"2019-08-23T07:21:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lindagorchels.com\/blogs\/?p=873"},"modified":"2019-08-22T21:26:57","modified_gmt":"2019-08-23T02:26:57","slug":"are-social-media-platforms-exploitative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lindagorchels.com\/blogs\/are-social-media-platforms-exploitative\/","title":{"rendered":"Are Social Media Platforms Exploitative?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

How much time did\nyou spend on Facebook this week? How about YouTube, or Twitter, or any other\nsocial media platform?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

My guess is it\u2019s\nmore than you care to admit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my post on a regenerative attention economy<\/a>, I mentioned the\nconcern of former Google staffer Tristan\nHarris. He said\ntechnology is downgrading humans by preying on our animal brains<\/a>. Sounds kind of harsh, doesn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before I go any\nfurther, let me clarify that I am NOT anti-technology. I was using the internet\nbefore the web came along. I enjoyed easier access to new information and\nconnections. And I saw a lot of value in technology, mostly from the internet.\n(That was when \u201cYou Got Mail!\u201d was a big deal.) So perhaps it\u2019s best to start\nby differentiating between the Internet and social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Different\ntechnologies and ownership<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The internet is a\nglobal, connected system of computer networks. (In fact, the term internet is a\nportmanteau of interconnected network<\/a>.)  It distributes\ndata to, within, and between computers and other devices. No one \u201cowns\u201d the\ninternet per se, but many private, nonprofit, and public organizations\ncontrol the infrastructure of servers and equipment. Google, Microsoft, and\nothers operate as middlemen in the connections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Social media are\nthe websites and apps dedicated to interaction and engagement that \u201clive\u201d on\nthe Internet. Prominent examples of social media include Facebook, Twitter,\nInstagram, YouTube, WhatsApp, and Snapchat. The companies who own these\ncomponents of the Internet make a profit from hooking users into spending time\non their platforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You give\nsignificant privileges to these companies for access. Perhaps it enables you to\nreconnect with old friends, interact with like-minded people, and share\nexperiences. And it was a free choice. Your choice. True. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other\nhand, many believe technology has shifted from a crowdsourcing,\ncommunity-building force for good to a divisive, exploitative force for profit.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Social media, in\nparticular, has the negative potential to divide us, tap into our insecurities,\nand exploit our addictive tendencies. This happens when we become obsessed with\nfollowers, likes, and comments.  We try to ignore the negatives while we\nenjoy the positives. But maybe we need to re-examine the negatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tech\nInsider Views<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Several\nindividuals within the industry (such as Tristan Harris alluded to earlier),\nalong with those who follow the industry, have raised many concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sean Parker,\nNapster co-founder and former Facebook president, said the following about the\nmotivations of social media companies in a 2017 article in This Week in Silicon Valley<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c[W]e needed to sort of give you a little dopamine hit every once in a while, because someone liked or commented on a photo or a post or whatever \u2026 It\u2019s a social validation feedback loop \u2026 You\u2019re exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology \u2026 [The inventors] understood this, consciously, and we did it anyway.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Matt Haig, author\nof Notes on a Nervous Planet, in an opinion piece for The Guardian<\/a>, stated: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMore and more, it\u2019s clear these platforms create divisions, exploit our insecurities and risk our health. They\u2019re as bad as the tobacco industry.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In a 2015 speech,\nTim Klapdor<\/a>, Innovation Technology Officer at\nCharles Sturt University in Australia said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo, who owns your data [when you provide it on social media sites]? Who and how do they define your identity? When you\u2019re no longer in control of your data, what\u2019s really going on? Quite frankly it\u2019s Exploitation. What\u2019s happening is that once you\u2019ve put your data in these companies, they use this to test and experiment on you. You become part of their universe and domain, a resource they can utilise in a purely cynical and exploitative manner.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Hence, the Dilemma<\/strong> of Social Media Addiction<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

How do we\nmaintain the positives while eliminating the negatives? Is it even possible? Or\nmaybe we can at least manage it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my mind, the\ninternet has characteristics similar to the environment. None of us \u201cowns\u201d\nthe whole thing. But we might own some part of it. We are all affected by it,\nand bear some responsibility for the effect of our actions.  Just as\nbusinesses, governments, and individuals play a role in protecting the\nenvironment, perhaps the same is true for the internet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Businesses (large\nand small) have missions, policies, and goals regarding digital strategy. Are\nthey also obligated to consider the consequences of their actions? Tristan Harris believes that tech giants<\/a>, in\nparticular, have the responsibility (and capability) to cause positive change\nto happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Congress has also\ncomplained about tech giants.  Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), for example, has\nproposed legislation to counteract elements of social media he deems addictive.\nHe told NPR<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe big tech platforms have adopted a business model that takes our private information without telling us, sells it without our consent, and then it tries to use exploitative and addictive practices in order to get us to spend more time on their platform, so they can take more stuff from us.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Then there are\nthe rest of us. How can we avoid exploitation and potential addiction? <\/p>\n\n\n\n