Crazy little thing called: Social Media

Crazy little thing called: Social Media

By: Lauren Trinitapoli 1/12/2022

Many will say that social media shouldn’t be changed for moderation or restrictive purposes, but that only shows how attached to, manipulated by, and addicted to this resource our society is.

Tristan Harris, a technology ethicist, specifically commented on how “These technology products were not designed by child psychologists who are trying to protect and nurture children.”

Millions of people are addicted to social media and their phones and haven’t enjoyed nature or real human connection in a long time.

Evidently, these products were not designed by or probably even looked over by psychologists who are trying to protect or nurture anyone.

Given that big-tech companies haven’t done anything to change their products,What does that say about the ethicality behind their social media platforms?

One question that might come up in response to this information is, if genuine connection between people of various nationalities, cultures, and demographics isn’t high on their list of goals, then what is?

As addressed in the documentary, The Social Dilemma, most social media companies have three main goals: engagement, growth and advertising. The engagement goal is to get you on their platform and keep you there. the longer you stay on the social media site the more companies can advertise to you. This is what makes them money, and if you like their platform enough, you’ll recommend it to your friends which grows their user base.

All of this is accomplished through the use of the “attention extraction model” which is essentially a system designed to keep the user addicted and coming back for more. Notifications, activity of others they might know, even political disputes might be used to keep one spiraling down the rabbit hole of social media.

So if these companies’ goals are to make money through the use of others’ time, they’re not really thinking about the mental, emotional or physical wellbeing of their users.

This leads back to the original point--social media should be redesigned by people who aren’t so deep into this system that all they care about is finding new ways to make money off of users. It should be redesigned by those that recognize the fact that our society and our children are being shaped by social media and its effects, and want what’s best for the people.