Every time you open your phone, you’re presented with endless options to connect and stay informed. But be warned, it’s not as innocent as you might think.
When logging into social media apps, most of us are under the impression that we are in control of what we see and read. We follow friends, family, celebrities and influencers by choice, so why would the information we’re getting be any different?
Social media has become so embedded in our everyday lives, but how much of it is our decision? The social media algorithm goes far beyond the individual apps. Websites and search engines are collecting data and information about you and your interests almost 24 hours a day. That information then gets cycled through the sites and is repackaged and presented to you in a way that mirrors your own thinking.
It makes you wonder if your beliefs, opinions, wants and needs are actually your own, or just information you regurgitate due to a social media algorithm? When using social media, we tend to seek out information that agrees with us and our views, also known as confirmation bias. But what if it’s the other way around? What if this information is seeking us and we don’t even know it?
In the documentary The Social Dilemma, social media designers and tech engineers come face to face with the monsters they’ve created. What started off as seemingly harmless ways to connect people around the world via the internet and now social media is collecting your most personal data in the name of profit.
Users of these platforms are rarely aware of it, still thinking they are in control of who can access their personal lives. In reality, they are being herded like cattle into marketing funnels and mass consumerism, all the while believing they ever had a choice in the matter.
Tristan Harris, former design ethicist for Google and co-founder for the Center for Humane-Technology, has made a career out of understanding the business behind social media’s appealing façade.
“Many people call this surveillance capitalism, capitalism profiting off of the infinite tracking of everywhere everyone goes by large technology companies whose business model is to make sure that advertisers are as successful as possible,” Harris said. “When you look around, it feels like the world and is going crazy. You have to ask yourself, ‘Is this normal? Or have we all fallen under some kind of spell?’”
If the spell’s name is “cold hard cash in big tech’s pockets,” then yes, we have. We’ve fallen so deep under this spell that we’ve become dependent on it. We seek it out of comfort and boredom, falling into the trap time and time again, believing the cycle is harmless and without consequences.
Dr. Nancy Ann Cheever, department chair of the communications department at California State University, Dominguez Hills, warns of the dangers of not only connected to profits, but of the consumption of information on social media instead of seeking out vetted sources.
“It’s much easier to just scroll through your social media than actually taking a few minutes to figure out whether that information is accurate or not,” Cheever said. “People know that a lot of the information that they're seeking is not completely accurate, but they don't care. They want their beliefs reinforced somehow.”
The spread of misinformation on social media is dangerous, especially in a year where everyone is constantly worried and attached to their devices like it’s a literal appendage. We seek to be informed and stay connected to the outside world, but how much of that information is factual? Anybody can post anything and slap a caption on it without it being verified and call it a fact. And if your only source of news is through social media, you’re sorely misinformed and expediting your confirmation biases into blissful ignorance.
Samantha Merkel, a senior studying advertising and public relations at CSUDH, says she’s knowingly fallen into the social media trap, but realizes that it doesn’t have to be a bad thing if you keep an open mind and remain curious in the never-ending stream of posts.
“I hate to say it does influence me,” Merkel said. “I find myself wanting certain things because I saw it on a particular page or watching things I would never be interested in. However, on the upside it has made me open my eyes a little more and ask questions about things I usually wouldn’t.”
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