Social Media

I have accounts on Facebook and Instagram, but I have felt uneasy about social media for a few years. It’s addictive, distracting, filled with stuff I don’t really care about, and feeds into my narcissistic tendencies. Additionally, I am fully aware that my data is going somewhere and I don’t like that thought. This leads me to frequently ask my wife, “Should I just delete my accounts?”

Yet, I like to post every now and then. It’s convenient to be able to send a direct message if I want to reach someone. Occasionally, I see an interesting or educational post. And hopefully, I can post something positive and encouraging.

So I log in and log out. I don’t check it daily. I also turn off all notifications.

My negative feelings toward social media were recently confirmed by a documentary called The Social Dilemma. The documentary is based on interviews with people who have worked for companies like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest. Here are a few of the points they make about social media.

• Users think it’s free but it’s not. It is monetized by companies who pay to run ads.
• Users are the product—people who give up their information and attention. In other words, social media is designed to create a specific kind of person—one that companies find especially appealing and worth spending millions of dollars to reach.
• It’s addictive. The algorithms are designed to keep each user’s attention. Even the creators, the people who know how it works on a psychological level, have a hard time controlling their screen time and many do not allow their children to use it.
• It’s manipulative. Each person’s feed is unique to them, making them especially susceptible to specific ads and products.
• It’s powerful. One person cannot outsmart thousands of engineers armed with their algorithms and data on our past behavior. That data includes our time spent on each ad, every comment, every like, etc.
• It’s replacing real social interaction.
• There is a correlation between the birth of social media and a rise in teenage depression and suicide rates.
• It’s divisive. It keeps feeding each person things that person wants to see based on previous behavior. Over time, this leads to us not hearing anything other than what we want to hear. When asked what he fears as a result of social media, one interviewee said, “civil war.”
• It can be easily exploited to destabilize countries, and in particular, democracies.
• It cannot discern truth. The algorithms cannot separate truth from fiction.
• It is especially effective at spreading lies. According to one study, lies spread six times faster on Twitter than the truth. The filmmakers don’t explain this phenomenon but my guess is that lies are simply more interesting and eye-catching for people scrolling through their feeds. And there are no checks built into the system. While news organizations have a publication process with editors and standards that each piece must meet, social media has billions of individuals who can post whatever they want instantly.

And yet the root of the problem is not social media. The root of the problem is us. We are the ones liking and spreading lies on Facebook. The difference is that this new technology enables us to reach a massive number of people.

But doesn’t innovation always lead to a moment of upheaval? What happened with the printing press in the 1500s? Wasn’t that also a tool that could be used for good or evil?

Unlike printed media, social media is not a passive tool. It is actively collecting data on everything we are doing and storing that information indefinitely.

What is the solution?

Individuals in the documentary offer a variety of advice.

• Delete your accounts.
• Turn off notifications.
• Don’t allow your children to have accounts until they are in high school.
• Fight for regulation on social media. Currently, these large Silicon Valley companies are regulating themselves.

What do you think?

Les Bridgeman

After graduating from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, I served as a high school Bible teacher in Asia. I enjoy traveling, writing, and playing the drums. My latest book focuses on Paul’s work as a tentmaker and what it means for today.