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Course: Social media literacy > Unit 2
Lesson 3: How the attention economy distorts our views and our worldWhat do the distortions of the attention economy mean for our future?
Google ClassroomSpoiler alert: It's pretty grim.
What do the distortions of the attention economy mean for our future?
“I really struggled when I looked in the mirror after joining social media – I’m too fat, or I have ugly features, or my neck is too long, or my hair doesn’t frame my face correctly. I overthought every word that I spoke for fear of being unliked by someone. It was always something, and it still comes back every once in a while. I also have seriously struggled with depression and anxiety that I never had before social media.”
–Morgan, Age 14, St. Louis, MO
Morgan’s story from #MySocialTruth is just one of billions of experiences in a social media environment distorted by the attention economy. To understand why stories like this one keep happening around the world, we need to understand the system that produces them.
Stories like this are part of a pattern of experiences that show up again and again in social media. These patterns are the results of mechanisms like algorithms that optimize for engagement, concrete features that define our experience with technology.
These mechanisms, in turn, are the result of ways of thinking within technology companies. Assumptions like “if people are engaging with our product it must be helping them live better lives” are baked into the way that technology is built.
Together, these patterns, mechanisms, and ways of thinking make up a system that has harmed society in countless ways, including:
- Skewing our sense of the world: Algorithms promote misinformation, conspiracies and fake news.
- Undermining our relationships: A focus on short digital communication results in less empathy, more confusion, and misinterpretation.
- Disrupting attention & cognition: Constantly checking our phones leads to loss of crucial abilities including memory and focus.
- Degrading physical & mental health: Social media use has been shown to contribute to stress, loneliness, addiction, and increased risky health behaviors.
- Polarizing our politics & elections: Political influence sold to the highest bidder leads to widespread propaganda, distorted dialogue, and voter suppression.
- Amplifying systemic oppression: Technology built by a small number of privileged engineers often amplifies racism, sexism, homophobia, and ableism.
- Creating challenges for young people: Research shows that harms from developmental delays to increased risk of self harm are particularly prevalent among young people.
Each of these problems is the subject of extensive study. While they may seem distinct, they share a root cause: technology that is incentivized and over-optimized to capture attention from its users.
Want to join the conversation?
correct! when I downloaded social media for the first time, it totally degraded me from "my view" of my life not being good enough because it looked like others' lives were so much better. it's crazy how before I had social media, I was totally fine, but after I got it, I suffered with severe depression for years and struggled with self-harm. the whole "social media" hoax is garbage. it doesn't help our generation, it hurts us. back in the pandemic more people died from suicide and are still suffering from depression and anxiety than the literal virus. why? because they were isolated and had nowhere to go so then went to social media and became depressed and unhealthy. it pushes an agenda on people, and it is not safe for young users.(11 votes)- we need change, America!(5 votes)
Most people use social media and it gets addicting because whenever we use our favourite apps dopamine signals increase in our brains.Dopamine is sort of like a pleasure drug for the brain. but this only happens for a short while. Your brain keeps seeking more pleasure in social media and you keep going back and become addicted.(5 votes)
if social media will cause you so many problems and you know it then why dont you stop using it.(3 votes)
Addiction is very powerful, and social media is very good at taking your time and self-control. We know smoking is terrible for your health, but it's addictive, and addictions are difficult to handle or overcome, especially on your own. It's also difficult to stop using social media if everyone else is using it. You don't want to feel left out or out of the loop amongst your friends, and this is a very difficult feeling to overcome. But it is possible, and gets easier with time, and help from others.(4 votes)
- why do people think it's okay to degrade younger children on the internet(4 votes)
- Why must people criticize others on social media?(2 votes)
- People may openly criticize others as a way to assert power or dominance, or to deflect attention from their own insecurities.(3 votes)
- why do people not realize what they say to others is really harmful in some cases(3 votes)
- How does it look like somebody's got addicted the social media on somebody's phone?(2 votes)
- Most people get addicted to socail media becuase of what the apps gurantee them and some people make i their whole life.(2 votes)
- Once you get on social media you as a human have a built in want to please others and get attention because of our social nature, and because of this you start to be insecure of why you do not get as much attention as the celebrities on social media.(2 votes)