Social media networks allow us to be constantly connected with each other, share information with our followers and receive the latest news as it happens (Vinnakota, 2017). We have never been more connected than today. However, social media does not only connect, but also divide us. Google is not just a search machine and Facebook is not such a platform to see what other people are doing. Social media networks are designed to create addiction and manipulate our behaviour (Kennedy, 2020). The social media platforms are competing for consumer attention (Orlowski & Rhodes, 2020). Their business model is to keep people engaged on the screen. The platforms are free for users, but the user’s attention is the product with is sold to advertising firms (Orlowski & Rhodes, 2020).
One of the main issues of social media platforms is fake information. A study has shown that fake news on Twitter spread six times faster than real news (Vosoughi, Roy & Aral, 2018). “False news travels further, faster, deeper and more broadly than the truth in every category of information” (Stokel-Walker, 2018). The concept of fake news is not a new phenomenon, but it has become a large problem in recent years due to the ease of spreading information via social media platforms (Alington et al., 2020). Especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, we have seen how fast fake news are spreading and how many people believe in conspiracy theories. Therefore, it is important to be aware of false information and critically assess the authors and sources of the information (West, 2017).
This blog post is inspired by the Netflix documentary ‘The Social Dilemma’ by Jeff Orlowski. I highly recommend all of you to watch this documentary. It is very relevant not only to our studies but also for our daily life with social media. It made me realize how manipulative social media can be and how easily we can get addicted to it. After I watched this documentary, I deleted Instagram (however, it only lasted 3 days). Feel free to comment below and tell me what you think about the topic and how you felt after watching ‘The Social Dilemma’. My main takeaway from the series is that former tech leaders, who invented social media platforms, do not even allow their children use social media.
References:
Allington, D., Duffy, B., Wessely, S., Dhavan, N., & Rubin, J. (2020). Health-protective behaviour, social media usage and conspiracy belief during the COVID-19 public health emergency. Psychological medicine, 1-7.
Orlowski, J. & Rhodes, L. (2020). The Social Dilemma. United States: Netflix.
Kennedy, M. (2020). Review: Put down that phone, urges doc ‘The Social Dilemma’. ABC News. Retrieved 4 October 2020, from https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/review-put-phone-urges-doc-social-dilemma-72875929.
Stokel-Walker, C. (2018). Fake news travels six times faster than the truth on Twitter. New Scientist. Retrieved 4 October 2020, from https://www.newscientist.com/article/2163226-fake-news-travels-six-times-faster-than-the-truth-on-twitter/#ixzz6Ztmr0kwg.
Vinnakota, R. (2017). How Social Media Divides Us. The Aspen Institute. Retrieved 4 October 2020, from https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/social-media-divides-us/.
Vosoughi, S., Roy, D., & Aral, S. (2018). The spread of true and false news online. Science, 359(6380), 1146-1151.
West, D. (2017). How to combat fake news and disinformation. Brookings. Retrieved 5 October 2020, from https://www.brookings.edu/research/how-to-combat-fake-news-and-disinformation/.
The side effects of using social media are strong if you don’t know how to use it properly, and you will let it manipulate your behavior and mind in the end. In fact, I think people have discussed this sort of issues for a long time, but still haven’t found the greatest solution on regulating the social media platforms. Thankfully, many organizations or governments are trying to take actions in solving these problems. However, I think the most important thing is that people have to educate themselves and their children on using these platforms. Personally, I agree that we should learn from those tech leaders, not letting children to use social media before a certain age, because the social media that we experiencing right now, can easily damage children’s minds and educate them in a wrong way. Social media is certainly one of the greatest places for sharing, and promoting yourself, but you always have to aware of your behaviors and actions, don’t let it control you easily.
Wonderful post Laura! Seems like the documentary has really influenced your mind for the better. I think it is good to be aware about all of this, but at the same time I would not think it would be necessary to delete such applications. Yes I agree it is made to be addictive but its purpose also serves to connect people. Therefore, I think it really depends on us individuals and are self-control. With the use of the internet we can obtain so much information, so fast, so I really believe we should know how to use these applications wisely.
Hi Laura-Sophie!
Very nice read! Fake news is a growing phenomenon we’re seeing more and more. What is your take on fake news influencing politics, like the US elections? We’ve seen large ‘fake news’ influences on the 2016 elections, and it is likely that fake news is influencing these 2020 elections as well, especially with the covid-19 news you mentioned.
You also mention the fake news spread on Twitter. Twitter and other social media platforms have recently implemented new measures to stop the spread of fake news, like displaying flagged posts as fake news, or WhatsApp limiting the allowed senders for forwarding posts. What do you think about this?
I have also seen the Netflix documentary. The thing I found the most interesting is the many ex-employees they interviewed, some of them having being really high up in the company they talk about. In my opinion, not allowing your children to use social media is a bit excessive… I am sure you can set up some limitations so that they are still able to socialize with their friends, especially during these Covid-19 times!
Thanks for your post Laura. The fact that you managed to only withstand downloading instagram again 3 days says enough about the addictive effect that social media or really any media has on all of us.
You’d think that it could be harmful enough that the platforms are selling our data but maybe even worse: all our data can be used to analyze our thinking and acting so that the platforms can improve themselves into being even more addictive.
The current relevance of fake news and social media as facilitators is underlined by an example of yesterday here in The Netherlands with one fake message that spread all over Dutch whatsapp within an hour. It is so important to be critical when reading any news.
Also a big thanks for the tip, i’ll check out the documentary for sure!
One question for you still: what’s your main source of news?