Earlier today, I spent altogether too much time getting lost in one of the strange rabbit holes of the Interwebz... in this case, how the continuing development of social media is shaping not only our behavior patterns, but also our senses of self and our emotional/psychological well-being.
I should start by saying that I am definitely no expert on sociology... but I have been watching the Human Condition — as a "hobby," you might say — pretty much since my college daze.
Since the whole thing first came about, I have always felt that social media somehow represented a "complexification" of our lives. It started simply enough... the early days of social blogging amounted to little more than "online journaling with an audience." You wrote the basic stories of the events of your life and people within your "circle" would occasionally stop by and leave a few words of encouragement or suggestion.
By most measures, these seemed like normal interactions between people, in writing.
Then came MySpace. Then came Facebook. And something changed.
From where I am sitting, it marked a major quantum leap in The Great Dumbing Down. What I mean by that is that the relationship between the effort put into social content and the reward earned (likes, comments, etc) changed in such a way that people would get their "dopamine nuggets" in exchange for far less effort and — in particular — far less thought than previously.
What does that have to do with anything?
One of the things that seems to happen when systems become more and more complex is that we struggle to wrap our brains around how to manage them. And this weird thing happens — originally explored in Rebecca Costa's groundbreaking book "The Watchman's Rattle" — that we start to substitute beliefs for knowledge and facts.
The particularly scary thing about that is the growing number of people who would much rather operate purely at the level of beliefs, rather than deal with the underlying facts and realities of a situation.
Consider the many "movements" we have in today's society that are based on little more than a few opinions, that likely have no roots in any kind of reality, whatsoever. And yet they attract millions of followers.
It becomes rather problematic because simply because someone wants something to be true doesn't actually make it true. It might make you feel good to pray in front of a purple crystal, but it's very unlikely to actually cure your cancer. And that's just a very mild hypothetical...
As I have written here before, these social technologies we are increasingly getting embroiled in are specifically designed to make us some kind of addicted to them... and while we continue to pursue the whole "more reward for less effort" angle like it's a good thing, we remain blissfully unaware that our ability to engage in the kind of critical thinking required to solve the world's increasingly complex problems is being compromised.
"Yeah, we can talk about neighborhood violence, but first let me post another selfie!"
It's not going to work... we need to do better! And running away into the metaverse and refusing to come back out is probably not going to be the answer...
Thanks for reading, and have a great week ahead!
How about YOU? Is there an aspect of social media that's trying to addict us to NOT being able to focus or think? Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!
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Created at 20220214 00:07 PST
0498/1744
The irony is that society is degraded in the last couple of decades, but it became more visible in the last 2 to 3 years, and probably will be even worse in the next couple of years... And the irony is that there are more than ever social platforms and we are all connected better than ever, thus, on the other side, people are more lonely than ever... Instead of connecting people, social media platforms have created even more egocentric people that are putting themselves in the center of the Universe... You said it well with "Yeah, we can talk about neighborhood violence, but first let me post another selfie!"
Another big problem is that people don't know what they WANT, as they are washed out, without opinion, critical thinking... They WANT something to be TRUE but have lost WHY they want it at all in the first place...
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@denmarkguy I have shied away from social media for years. Was horrified of the shallowness of the whole interaction I saw on Facebook. Especially the 'selfie mania'. It has turned into an orgy of showing others how happy and cute or sexy and wealthy we are through those selfies and getting a self esteem boost through likes! I have seen people get so pumped up on likes that they do not focus at all on any REAL achievements in real life. I took to posting my wildlife images on Facebook and Instagram because some of my buddies advised me that it will help me get feedback and get suggestions about my photography. Alas - I found out that suggestions and positive criticism (or even negative criticism) is the last thing that people do. There are mostly like for like and follow for follow kind of shallow reactions.
Perhaps this is only my personal experience and what I experience is due to purely my personal issues or views. However, I tend to agree with you that 'more reward with less effort' psyche seems to thrive there.
Lovely pictures too by the way. Kudos.
What a beautiful flower @denmarkguy
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I think social media has increased virtue-signalling as a substitute for real virtue. It's easier to make some tweets or change your profile picture than to actually work toward progress, and as you noted, the dopamine drip of reactions leaves a feeling of accomplishment, no matter how counterfeit it may be in reality. Narcissism and opinion have definitely substituted for reason in most online discourse.
The mainstream news has either gotten far worse about journalistic integrity over the same time period, or else I just learned enough about propaganda to notice it more. The old reporting standards I learned in school of who, what, where, when, why, and how have been replaced with blatant partisan and nationalistic propaganda on all the corporate outlets. "Equal time" only means two people from different parties shouting nonsense opinions at one another for a segment. I wonder which came first?