Our Social Dilemma- Is This the End?

Nov 7

Introduction

The Social Dilemma is a Netflix documentary where former (slightly spooked) Silicon Valley employees that have turned over an ethical leaf caution the public of the urgent dangers of social media. Their testimonials confirm not only privacy breaches and data mining fears among users, but also explain how data is used against us to influence real life behavior. Behaviour that is beneficial to advertisers at the expense of users’ well-being.

According to experts in this film, data collected from what we search, click and like is used by companies to build a business model that predicts human behavior-that predicts us.

Persuasive Technology

In a survey of over 700 people conducted exclusively by WeUnlearn, 552 participants admitted they might be addicted to social media, 42.6% said they spend over 3 hours on social media, while 33% spend over 5 hours a day.

The business model applied by these companies is clearly working. But how has it managed to succeed?

Researchers at The Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab developed a separate discipline specializing in the psychology of what persuades people and built that into technology.

Persuasive technology was designed to elicit certain behavior from human beings that ended up giving birth to the ‘refresh’ and ‘endless/infinite scroll’ features on our social media feeds.

The way that social media works is that every time you pull down the page, there just might be something new for you to look at. This is a clear implementation of the psychology of positive intermittent reinforcement.

Not surprisingly, gambling is an example of intermittent reinforcement. The reinforcement is intermittent because it causes a positive and euphoric response in the brain that in some circumstances can even lead to a gambling addiction.[1]

However, having outlined the dangers of social media usage is not enough. It is important to acknowledge that the majority of users are not unfamiliar with the scope of harm here. In fact, 78% of our audience agreed to social media causing more harm than good via an Instagram poll. When asked in our survey if their mental health/body image was ever negatively affected by social media, 57.8% participants replied affirmatively, 24.6% were undecided and 17.6% said ‘no’. And yet, only 25% said they wished social media didn’t exist. What then, is going wrong? Is our toxic relationship with social media unsalvageable?

The Dilemma Trinity

One thing the documentary did right, was explicitly lay out the three sub-dilemmas that ultimately form our social dilemma: 1. the mental health dilemma, 2. the democracy dilemma and 3. the discrimination/ algorithmic dilemma. [2]

a. The Mental Health Dilemma

Why do we post to social media in the first place? “We have a basic biological imperative to connect with other people that directly affects the release of dopamine in the reward pathway in our brains,” says Dr. Anna Lembke, an addiction expert at Stanford University in the documentary. In another place, she explains how such companies exploit the brain’s evolutionary need for interpersonal connection. [3]

We rely on social media to fulfill our basic human needs for fulfilment, self-esteem etc. better understood by Abraham Maslow’s theory of human need. Learn to unlearn. [7]

But where else do we look to fulfill that need? What if the answer is to look inwards? Imagine doing things not for the ‘gram but for the inherent pleasure or purpose of it? Studies have shown how only good things happen when we stop seeking validation from social media. You live your truth, gain more confidence, find your purpose and develop a growth mindset.[4]

b. The Democracy Dilemma

Although it is foolish to ignore the unique historical and political context of societies that have led to the crises of democracy today, social media has no doubt played a vital role in exacerbating divisiveness and hyper-polarization. “Algorithms are invisible, but they have an outsized impact on shaping individuals’ experience online and society at large. Indeed, YouTube’s video-recommendation algorithm inspires 700,000,000 hours of watch time per day—and can spread misinformation, disrupt elections, and incite violence. Algorithms like this need fixing.”[5]

Imagine a world where no one believes the truth. Are we staring at the destruction of objectivity?

Unlearn the echo chamber effect

Also called “myside bias,” confirmation bias is the natural human tendency to seek, interpret, and remember new information in accordance with preexisting beliefs. Social media is designed specifically to profit from this bias, creating an echo chamber out of our feeds. [6] The echo chamber effect occurs when you only encounter information or opinions on your feed that reflect and reinforce your own. A way to escape this is to follow people online that have different perspectives- even ones that we might disagree with. A differing opinion is certainly different than a hateful one, but it allows us to have a broader view of the world.

Watch from 0:00 - 2:17 to understand how social media has led to intense societal divisiveness.

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