Dear Friends,
Last year, my family created a mission statement to help direct how we spend our time and energy. Our vision: Be Happy. Our Mission Statement: To have flourishing and healthy individual and family lives with the ability to pay for education, a pleasant home, and meaningful economic prosperity sufficient for savings, surplus and sharing with those who we are capable of helping. And now I have to ask myself, “Does social media align with any of this?”
Clearly, the answer is no. Social media does not, on balance, add to collective happiness. It doesn’t add any value to me or my family. It doesn’t add to flourishing. And it is undermining public health.
About a year ago, I began to research some aspects behind the social media infrastructure and science. It was very disturbing.
For example, I learned that Facebook runs continual social-science experiments on you. These unethical experiments have control groups of hundreds of thousands of people. “We show, via a massive (N = 689,003) experiment on Facebook, that emotional states can be transferred to others via emotional contagion, leading people to experience the same emotions without their awareness. We provide experimental evidence that emotional contagion occurs without direct interaction between people (exposure to a friend expressing an emotion is sufficient), and in the complete absence of nonverbal cues.” This was published in a peer reviewed journal . The editorial board even discussed weather or not to publish it given the ethical breaches. https://www.pnas.org/content/111/24/8788
Social media companies are well aware that they can create behaviour change in the aggregate. The idealists float the idea that we can connect everyone on these platforms, and perhaps construct a happier, healthier society. But what is actually happening?
Fake news spreads faster than truth on social media. Perhaps, like me, you think to yourself at times, “Well, I’m fairly clever. I can see through it all. I can control it.” And maybe you can. But for myself, I have reached the point where I don’t want to feed the machine any more. It benefits from my data; if I investigate or add a reaction to a fake article, it provides fuel for it to spread further. This is a lose, lose situation.
As politicians and social media owners discuss the future of these new institutions, we are watching the old institutions burn down. In the current climate of the George Floyd murder, we watch all aspects colliding. This again exposes the ongoing and unjust racism in American society where those who are supposed to protect and serve are killing some of its citizens. On the one hand, video footage uploaded to these platforms is exposing the murderers and offering a powerful voice to the victims. But it doesn’t stop at that, does it? It doesn’t lead to justice and resolution. The same platforms offer various counter-narratives. Some from white supremacist groups. Multiple conspiracies and counter-conspiracies. And these platforms provide political leaders a format to promote whatever message they choose. Even inciting violence.
These are propaganda machines.
Personally, I find the platforms are engaging and informative on many levels. They pique many interests that I have. They are perfectly aligned to suit my interests and biases. They are also designed to be addictive.
On the whole, do I think these technologies are adding to the collective betterment of the world? In a Utilitarian calculus, are they adding to the collective flourishing and happiness and health? From a Platonic perspective, do I see more happiness in myself? More happiness in my family or community at large? A more Just State?
In the American pragmatic tradition, the answer is a profound and glaring no. We have emerged from a public health catastrophy to see riots break out. I was horrified to watch yet another murder on video. Others have weaponised similar components of race. Riots are live streamed. Reporters are arrested live on Television.
Similarly, public health has been undermined. The opioid Epidemic, where we saw life expectancy in the USA decline for the first time in several generations, cast doubt on public insititution and health authorities. Currently, on Facebook, there are more anti-vaccination nodes in community sites than those of scientific expertise. Models therefore predict more people will distrust expert advice, and obtain information from conspiracy theorists in several year’s time. This is all unfolding during a pandemic, where we saw both the US and China battle each other’s conspiracy theories and propaganda.
So, upon reflection, Facebook is not a medium that reflects my values or my family’s values. It doesn’t promote flourishing. It doesn’t promote public health. It is not a medium that makes me a better citizen; if anything, it is a propaganda outlet. A tool for what looks more and more authoritarian and dystopian.
And yet, despite knowing this I can spend hours a day on the site. Wasted hours. And I’m contributing to it all by participating in it. I could be using the time to read up on current events from reputable sources to remain informed. I could be adding economic value to society, and distributing this to causes and people I admire. I could be pursuing more time with my friends and family. Pursuing goals. Contributing to my profession. Or just organising my means to vote these horrible politicians out in upcoming elections.
Those few hours per day are better spent on other projects that align with better outcomes. And, while my individual efforts may not actually be all that important to collective society, I can at least take action now to say, “No, that’s not an institution I want to help construct. That’s not a society I want to help build. You can’t have my attention. And you don’t get any more of my data.”
okanythingwhatever 