The Dark Side of Social Media + What to Do About It
Social media, on the surface, is a wonderful tool that allows us to connect in ways we couldn’t have dreamed of before. We can stay in touch with family and friends from virtually anywhere in the world without much thought, small businesses to startup and operate in ways they otherwise couldn’t, and we are granted instant access to information in ways that were utterly unimaginable before. Social media has changed the game in ways that have made the world we live in unrecognizable from how things used to be. And while there is a ton of good that has happened because of it, we can’t entirely ignore the dark side it’s also created.
The Dark Side of Social Media
The 2020 Netflix documentary, The Social Dilemma, sparked a conversation regarding the impact social media has on the world as former social media executives and developers explained the dark side of these apps. There were a ton of notable points they made, but here are a couple ones that really stood out. Firstly, they outlined that “there are only two industries [that call] their customers ‘users’. Illegal drugs and software.” Secondly, they reminded us that “If something is a tool, it just sits there waiting to be used. Social media is not a tool just waiting to be used. It is demanding things from us.”
HOW IT WORKS
To understand the real impact social media has on our lives, we need to first understand how it works. Despite being free to use for the user, social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok are highly profitable corporations. Meaning, while they are promoting connection and communication, they ultimately are in the business of making money, which they do through selling advertising slots on your feed. The longer you stay scrolling through their social media platform, the more ads you’ll see, which means the more advertising slots they can sell, and the more money they can profit. The goal is to keep you on their platform for as long as possible because that means they can sell advertising slots on your feed. For example, when you scroll through Facebook, you are seeing the ads Facebook sold, thus making them money – if you switch to Twitter, you are now seeing the ads Twitter sold, thus making them money instead. To keep your attention for as long as possible, they’ve created algorithms that learn your behaviour to figure out your current interests and predict your future interests. Their goal is to keep you hooked and coming back today, tomorrow, and forever.
LET’S TALK ABOUT THE ISSUES
Social media has presented a variety of issues. Since they have a pretty good idea of what we’re interested in, we now expect instant gratification as soon as we log on. We know that there will likely be some sort of reward waiting for us, which could be anything from a like on our post, an update from a friend or family member, or a news headline covering some topic we’re interested in. And since we’ve now learned to expect this sort of thing, we can quickly feel FOMO (or, the fear of missing out) when we aren’t online, causing us to log back on for more instant gratification. This can also make it extremely difficult to step away from social media, as we can quickly feel like we’re out of the loop from what the rest of the world is up to.
Another major issue that arises is in terms of the type of content we’re seeing. Social media gives us a glimpse into the lives of others – it’s a piece of the puzzle but not the full picture. On social media you can show off any area of your life – you’re in control of the narrative and can make it look any way you want. This means it can quickly appear like everyone is living the perfect life, complete with the perfect relationship, the perfect family, and the perfect tropical vacations. Some people even take this a step further by completely altering their lives entirely to create a false narrative or use apps to alter their appearance entirely (this is especially common in younger folk). So as a social media user, when you scroll through your feed, you’ll likely be met with glimpses of everyone else’s perfect lives, but you will be left unsure about what’s real and what isn’t.
Also read: Let’s Talk About Slowing Down
Let’s put these pieces together. Since social media is designed to keep our attention for as long as possible, we can feel like we are missing out when we aren’t online, so we log back on and are immediately immersed in this edited version of life. And even if we realize that this isn’t necessarily real life, we can still easily find ourselves comparing our lives to the digital representation of the lives of others. This can make us want to share our own highlight moments, which causes us to want to log back on to see who’s liked our posts. It’s a cycle, and it’s extremely difficult to break.
What to Do About It
Social media is still relatively new, which means we are still learning how to live in harmony with it. Some people believe we should be calling out social media companies to hold them accountable for creating a safe environment, which is an important step. But change takes time, so in the meantime, it’s important to work on yourself, too. Start by identifying the sort of content that sparks negative emotions while you’re scrolling. When you do post, take a moment to be honest with yourself about our intentions behind your post. Finally, set limits around what you choose to share, when you share, and your overall social media usage.
Get comfortable taking breaks from social media. Put your phone down, tuck your computer away, and spend time living in the physical world. Go outside, prioritize building meaningful relationships offline, and remember to live your life for yourself. Because as much as social media has been able to benefit our lives, it also creates issues in ways we couldn’t have previously imagined.