ìNothing vast enters the life of mortals without a curse.î – SophoclesThe Social Dilemma, directed by Jeff Orlowski, is a documentary drama about the hazards that come with the use of social media; the tech experts in the film are criticizing their own creations.The three main points brought up in the film: Social media is essentially selling the usersí attention to advertisers, social media is used to create political polarization and the effects of social media on the younger generations. The tech experts provide few solutions to the problems they exposed, but their main ideas are to realign the financial incentives of the tech companies and to put some form of law or regulations in place to protect the users.Tech companies have three main goals. 1) Engagement: drive up usage, keep people scrolling; 2) growth to keep them coming back and inviting friends and getting them to invite their friends; 3) advertising as the other two are happening, making as much money as possible. Each of these goals is powered by algorithms that determine what to show each individual to keep those numbers going up.If someone is not paying for the product, that someone is the product. Jaron Lanier, the founding father of Virtual Reality and a computer scientist, expounded, ìItís the gradual, slight, imperceptible change in your own behavior and perception that is the product.îTristan Harris, a former design ethicist at Google and co-founder of Center for Humane Technology, explained how social media can be so addictive. ìPersuasive technology is just a sort of design intentionally applied to the extreme, where we really want to modify someoneís behavior. We want them to take this action. We want them to keep scrolling. Using positive intermittent reinforcement, so you donít know when youíre going to get it or if you’re going to get something, which operates just like the slot machines in Vegas.îìThere are only two industries that call their customers ëusers:í illegal drugs and software.î- Edward TufteJeff Seibert, a former executive of Twitter and Serial Tech Entrepreneur, said, ìEverything you are doing online is being tracked, is being measured. Every single action you take is carefully monitored and recorded. Exactly what image you stop and look at and for how long you look at it.îThe tech experts in the Social Dilemma film said the news feeds people see on social media are based on the computers calculating what is perfect for each individual person. A bi-product of this calculation is political polarization, where the algorithms only recommend one viewpoint consistent with each individual’s beliefs.Roger McNamee, an early investor in Facebook and a venture capitalist, describes it: ìOver time, you have the false sense that everyone agrees with you, because everyone in your news feed sounds just like you. And once youíre in that state, it turns out youíre easily manipulated, the same way you would be manipulated by a magician.îJustin Rosenstein, a former engineer at Facebook and Google and the co-inventor of the ìlikeî button, describes the difference in perspectives, ìThen, you start to think, ëHow can those people be so stupid? Look at all of this information that Iím constantly seeing. How are they not seeing that same information?í And the answer is, ëTheyíre not seeing that same information.íîArguably, the most detrimental side effect of social media is the impact in the lives of the younger generation. Gen Z, people who were born between 1997 and 2012-2015, is the first generation in history to have social media in middle school.Jonathan Haidt, PhD, NYU Stern School of Business social psychologist and author, reports startling statistics. ìSince 2009, the U.S. hospital admissions for non-fatal self-harm, per 100,000 girls, is up 62% in girls age 15 to 19 and 189% in girls age 10 to 14. The U.S. suicide rates, deaths per 1,000,000 girls, is up 70% in girls age 15 to 19, and up 151% in girls age 10 to 14. That pattern points to social media.îHarris said, ìItís not that itís just controlling where they spend their attention. Itís when social media starts to dig deeper and deeper down into the brainstem and take over kidsí sense of self-worth and identity.îLocally, two Falcon mothers offered their viewpoints on the effect of social media on their teenagers.Jennifer Martz said, ìDefinitely concerned about Instagram and Facebook just because the content can just get out of control so quickly. Those are the big two.îKristina Nass said, ìTikTok, Instagram, Snapchat ó I think all of them to be honest. (I am concerned about) the people that can see the posts that donít know who my kids are, the followers, my kids donít always know these people.îWhen asked about rules and regulations placed on their childrenís phones and social media accounts, Martz said, ìThere is limited time that she can use the phone, thereís no contacting anyone past 10 in the evening whether itís social media or phone, all social media accounts have to be approved by me; and, if itís not an account I can monitor then it is an account she cannot have. Thereís no deleting of texts on her phone, thereís no deleting of chats on any internal messaging.îNass added, ìThey werenít allowed on certain sites, and they didnít get Facebook until they were a little bit older.îAs for social media affecting their children, Nass said, ìMy oldest, no; my youngest yes.îHindsight being 20/20, Martz and Nass were asked if they would have made changes when their teens were granted access to social media accounts. Martz replied, ìIt was always my stance that she didnít have it because of maturity and responsibility level. If it were up to me she wouldnít have got it until now. But because there is unfettered access, there was absolutely no way to put 100% control over it.î Nass said, ìI would have waited until they were older for sure.îSeemingly as an answer to the growing concern brought to light by the Social Dilemma, YouTube and Instagram have sent out a notice to their users about an updated terms of service outlining what the platforms can and canít have on them, including restrictions on how old one can be to have an account.Next month: The NFH will follow up with input from an addiction counselor and a school counselor on the effects of social media on children and teens.For security reasons, the author of this true story will remain anonymous.
