Lennart Dany | 23 Sep. 2020
The core idea here dates back to some of the earliest philosophers, most notably Rene Descartes. Descartes was one of the first to argue that, perhaps, the boundaries between our dreams and reality are much more interwoven than we believe them to be. After all, it is only based on what we do know that we can judge what is normal and therefore should constitute our reality. The image added to this text is a famous early representation of this notion. There are people living in a cave, some are not the way out and others are already enjoying the sun in the outside world. Those deep down in the cave, however, are tied with rope to the cave wall. They view only the shadows thrown against the wall by some of the gatekeepers. Descartes’s point is that the men deep down in the case will be content with their situation, not knowing what lies outside. Having only experienced the cave with its shadow all their life, they have no yearning for any other reality than their own.
The popular science-fiction movie Matrix, first released in 1999, rapidly gained a reputation for being one of the most revolutionary works at the time. Not only did the film feature some of the latest filmmaking technology, but it also addressed long-established philosophical questions in a fascinating visual representation.
The overarching theme? Humans live in a fake reality without knowing about it. They are plugged into a computer program, which makes them believe our old world still exists, all while an alien computer species has already taken over the planet earth. Yet, humans living in these computer-generated realities feel content, do not question their reality, and live what they believe to be a normal life.
Okay, from a science-fiction movie to old philosophers. Why all this fuzz about fake realities? While the ideas I aim to address in this blog post are centuries old, they have never become more relevant. Today’s breakthroughs in media marketing, algorithmic computer calculation, and an ever-increasing consumption of social media pose a threat to a usually shared reality between you and the person next to you.
As algorithms become better at understanding individual consumers and computing power increases to make these tasks easier, faster, and exponentially comprehensive, our worldview is threatened to become increasingly limited. To blame is not merely digitization itself. Rather, it is the way in which today’s algorithms are designed. To explain, a short excerpt from an author far better equipped to explain the matter:
“Even though most Americans continue to describe themselves as holding balanced views, we still naturally gravitate toward certain content online. Over time, algorithms turn slight preferences into a polarized environment in which only the loudest voices and most extreme opinions on either side can break through the noise. (…) For the biggest brands in social media—think Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter—success is defined by the hours users spend engaged with the content and measured in advertising dollars our attention generates. Social media companies, therefore, rely on adaptive algorithms to assess our interests and flood us with information that will keep us scrolling. The algorithms ignore the recency and frequency of what our friends are posting and instead focus on what we “like,” “retweet,” and “share” to keep feeding content that is similar to what we’ve indicated makes us comfortable”. (Seneca, 2020)
While the goal is not to paint an evil one-sided picture of social media, perhaps we should practice a little more awareness when we choose to engage with a particular type of content. As we consume the same type of content over and over again, the algorithms become ever more effective in showing us the content we want to see. Perhaps, drawing a connection to the fairy tales of a science-fiction movie seems dramatic. On the other hand, our world has never been more polarised. Political views in the United States, as well as Europe, have been diverging in tandem with increasing online media consumption and conspiracy theories have spread like wildfire.
While this is by no means a scientific evaluation, we should all be wary and protective of our reality. Although according to Descartes, we can never be sure of what constitutes reality, we should at least be protective of a shared perception of the world. Without it, the new age of globalization and digitisation becomes prone to failures we may never anticipate, as we make our first steps into a vastly different world.
To wrap it up, you can find some solutions that have been designed to tackle this issue:
Search Engines:
https://info.ecosia.org/privacy
Video Content:
https://www.dailymotion.com/us
References
Seneca, C. (2020, August 17). How to Break Out of Your Social Media Echo Chamber. Wired. Retrieved September 23, 2021, from https://www.wired.com/story/facebook-twitter-echo-chamber-confirmation-bias/
