Social media platforms have sold our attention to advertisers. At one point, when profitability options were being considered for platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, a subscription model could have been an obvious choice. Users would have paid $15/month or so to have access to ad free models. Platforms wouldn’t be as incentivized to manipulate attention, because they’d be making money regardless. As users, we’d still reap the rewards of being connected to friends. Think of a gym model. A gym doesn’t care how often you’re coming to workout as long as you’re paying them monthly. In fact, they may actually be happiest if you come less.
Instead, what we’re left with is a model that encourages stealing attention through means of behavior manipulation, cultivating addiction, rousing up strong emotionality, discouraging reflection, and alienating us from the physical world. The data is clear. The whistleblowers have come forward (e.g., former Facebook product manager, Frances Haugen, former Google design ethicist, Tristan Harris, former Facebook Director of Monetization and President of Pinterest, Tim Kendall, and even the designer of the infamous Facebook “like” button, Justin Rosenstein). Question is, do we want to do something about it?
Staying imprisoned with the cell door ajar
So why was this my most liked story? Why, as I escaped from a proverbial digital prison, was everyone else applauding with their own cell doors wide open? It’s because these platforms have done a tremendous job of utilizing behavioral manipulation techniques to convince users that they have no other choice. In fact, the choice has been made for us. We’ve learned from the Social Dilemma documentary that graduates of B.J. Fogg’s Stanford Persuasive Technology lab were hired at many of these tech companies to help ramp up user “engagement.” In other words, they figured out how to utilize intermittent reinforcement techniques to drive up the bottom line for shareholders at the user’s expense. While Mark Zuckerberg is able to wax poetic about the virtue of a “more connected world,” we’re left feeling less connected than ever, with little or no control to do something about it.
So what? And what now?
At the very least, I think this deserves space for critical thought in each of our minds and hearts. At the very most, we must consider departing some of these platforms until fundamental changes are made to monetization models (Jaron Lanier argues for this in Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now.
Over the coming weeks, I’ll be writing more on the subject, offering breakdowns by platform as well as arguments for full deletion or moderation (to the extent it’s possible). I’ll offer references to other books and writers on the subject as well.
In conclusion, I’ll leave you with a thought…
When we drive down a highway and pass by a billboard, there isn’t anything tracking how we respond to that billboard. Billboards further down the road aren’t manipulated in real-time so that we are more likely to stay driving on the highway. The billboards are static. Our digital on screen billboards are reacting in real time via an algorithm designed to keep you from doing anything but looking at the screen. Want to do something about it?
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