Congratulations, you have seen something new, and you are ready to take action because you just had a scary revelation. The new documentary on Netflix “The social dilemma” is a hit. And many people are taking action after having seen and heard the unseen and unheard truth of the manipulative technics used in our technology. And that’s great. You just made some important realizations. You just found out that you are the product. Your attention is traded between platforms and advertisers. You pay massively for supposedly free services. You found out that you are being lied to and manipulated. You are being hacked!
It is never too late to reconsider how we use social media and technology. Are addicted? In which way we are addicted to these technologies? How do they influence our worldview? How do they affect our connections to people and the wider community? How do we understand, and how do we see and consume information? How do we receive our news? And how do we inform ourselves?
“The social dilemma” is the new documentary series that empowers and informs and it’s essential to watch it, I recommend it to everyone. And after you watch that, I recommend you to research a little bit more. It’s not the first documentary, and you can find great resources about this topic. After that, you can read some books and articles on this topic. Especially if you have children, you should invest time and effort to find a clear answer how you will educate you children about these topics and what kind of relationship they will develop with technology and the world. I leave some links below.
How did you grow up?
Speaking about education. I remember growing up in a time without internet. I remember my first phone. Even that, a wireless telephone, was a small miracle even without internet connection. I remember studying at the university, at a time when the only way we could connect to the internet was through the computers we had in our library.
As time moves on, it becomes hard to imagine and to rethink how daily life was. How was it without the smartphone in my pocket and a laptop on my desk and an iPad on my lap? Without checking Facebook. Without looking at Instagram pictures thinking about what I could I post, what I could do, what I could capture or share.
I hardly remember the feeling of being somewhere without the possibility to be somewhere else and without being available. No, going for one week of the grid does not bring that back. The broader reality of our society remains if you are offline. I remember how boring it sometimes was. How scary it felt to be in a place without the ability to reach out.
I barely remember how I looked up information, news or updates. Now I have Google in my pocket to do that. Of course, there was a process of ten to twenty years. We grew into the reality we live in today. It did not happen overnight but years of training, getting used to and… being manipulation. The post-truth divided and by group identity and politics is the result of this development. The world changed.
I remember my first smartphone. I remember a better smartphone and I remember my first iPhone. It’s like a little buddy you had for a while. A topic for another day called “my relationship with my phone”.
Church and Social Media
A second question is: How and what role does social media play in my area of expertise working in churches? That’s a big dilemma in this regard, because the primary purpose of a church is, without going into the detail of evangelism and faith in Jesus Christ, to encourage people to be together, to meet in person to celebrate, to build strong relationships and to invite volunteers to make a positive change. Change like, Volunteering in a soup kitchen, working together and organizing a community event, visiting people at home, volunteering in a nursing home, making time to be there in person.
There are many aspects of church that only work in an offline setting. Yet churches use social media, just like any other organization, to spread the word to be active to invite, to educate, to communicate. It takes a lot of time and a lot of effort and works to achieve this. I assume some of the aims are achieved others not.
- (Let me know if you are interested in a theological conversation about social media and Christian faith in general. )
Organizations like these, need to be there. That is my view. And I think that is not only for the church but for everyone the case. There is a need to be present. The fear of missing out is real; it’s not just a feeling; we miss out. If we are not on social platforms, we, in the current state, we miss out. We miss out on connections and relationships with old acquaintances. We miss out on a conversation. We miss out in some sense, on a part of other people lives. Imagine a 16 or 19-year-old student not connecting with anyone. Is this possible?
The big trade-off
Of course, there is a vast downside. And I think “The social dilemma” describes this well. We have to ask ourselves if trading in our attention, our time and our data is worth the trade of getting a platform to reach out and stay in touch? We are these platform free? And would you be willing to pay for such a service knowing that your privacy is protected and you are not continually being hacked and manipulated to watch more?
There are positive effects of this technology. But they come with the huge downside. Online Platforms are subconsciously manipulating us. They manipulate how we think. They are designed to be addictive.
I wonder, Is this something new? Are we aware that technology is manipulating us? I think mostly we are. And in many situations, we believe they are improving our life. We say that we care about privacy, but actually, we care more about convenience. The tradeoff is immense. And I am sure the documentary reminded us about this aspect. Perhaps we were not confident in which way and on which level this manipulation occurs. Maybe it’s even more frightening or a wakeup call to realize that these manipulative techniques are deeply rooted in the way these businesses are built in the way the function.
Think about Apple. Is Apple a company that deeply cares for our privacy? They indeed advertise this, and I hope they don’t change their strategy. I hope there is no hidden technology that would reveal Apple was doing something else than what they were saying. It happened in the past, for example, regarding iPhone Batteries and the throttling of the processors.
Life feels different now. It is different because we humans are starting to change biologically because of these technologies. Our sleep habits change. The way we read and the way we communicate and even the way our brains work. It’s almost unthinkable to live without connected devices. Yet, we know how the world around us feels without technology, we long for that silence and peace, but it’s almost impossible to disconnect and to be present.
There is another danger the documentary describes.
The social problem
It is not just a personal addiction but a collective problem. The era of post-truth and fake news, as well as alternative facts, has dawned. It’s almost impossible to agree on anything. As we can reach 4 billion people at any time, we always find a large enough group that reinforces whatever belief or fact we think we have.
Furthermore, platforms show us what we already know. It’s like centric circles that only serve what we already are interested, in. That might be convenient because you never have to watch an advertisement that you are not interested in because the algorithm will only show you what you like and perhaps buy. This, on the other hand, will make you want to watch longer and probably spending more. Imagine yourself playing a game against the super awesome computer, both of you competing for your attention. Do you think you will win that game? You are battling the incredible supercomputer who knows you by know in an out, do you stand a change?
Moreover, the information you are served usually reinforces what you already know and what you approve of. For many people, social media, YouTube, and search is already the primary source of news and information.
A shady deal
Noah Yuval Harari asks an interesting question when speaking about Post-truth in 21 Lessons for the 21st century: “Suppose a shady billionaire offered you the following deal. I will pay you $30 a month, and in exchange, you will allow me to brainwash you for an hour every day, installing in your mind, whichever political and commercial biases I want. Would you take the deal? Few sane people would say yes. So the shady billionaire offers a slightly different deal. You will allow me to brainwash you for one hour every day and in exchange, I will not charge you anything for this service, it’s Free. Now the deal suddenly sounds tempting to hundreds of millions of people. Don’t follow their example.
The second rule of thumb is that if some issue seems exceptionally important to you make an effort to read the relevant scientific literature. And by scientific literature, I mean peer-reviewed articles book published by well-known Academic Publishers and the writings of professors from reputable institutions. Science has its limitation, and it has got many things wrong in the past. Nevertheless, the scientific community has been our most reliable source of knowledge for centuries.”
A digital self and regulation
You also should listen and watch to the conversations between Sam Harris and Tristan.
In their podcast, Tristan was speaking about this notion of a “digital self”. A Digital identity that would be necessary to have if we would take seriously our social media interactions, which we don’t. Because on social media, there is a mix of real people and fake people, real accounts, and fake accounts. Yet we assume that there, at the other end, is a person, that’s like me just wanting to share and connect and discuss. We rarely think that on the other side of our screens there could be a government. That there are thousands of employees oversees with thousands of accounts who are writing daily false facts with a certain, for us unknown, intention achieving two things: That we are manipulated by the platform itself as well as by the content we read it.
So what can we do? Do we just shut down everything and be with ourselves, offline? Is that even possible in our time and the modern workplace? Probably not.
Perhaps being offline will be suitable for a while. It definitely will show how addicted we are to these technologies because we won’t be able to think. We will have cravings, and we will go through a withdrawal period. We will lack concentration, and we will feel stressed losing out on dopamine highs.
But we can certainly learn a couple of things which we could apply. Personally and Collectively.
Tips how you can use technology better
So here are some tips what you could do. By the way, please share your favourite advice.
First, if you don’t need those social media accounts on your phone, delete them from your phone and check them only on your computer. If you need them on your phone because for example of work, then put them somewhere else than on your home screen. Maybe in your app drawer or perhaps further back.
Then turn off all notifications. If you have to check Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, then you will check it without them notifying and thereby interrupting you constantly. Keep only the most important notifications, then you know, if your phone is ringing, you get a notification it will be an important one.
Another tip. Set specific times when to watch and for how long. Maybe use some restrictions. Many phones have those features. Restrict your time using particular apps. Or perhaps you set them in your calendar, and you very mindfully check those apps ONLY for a specific period at a particular time.
Here’s another tip: Stop scrolling and only interact with the articles or with the posts of your real friends shared. Have you notices: the most relevant posts always appear right at the beginning of your feed. The further down you scroll the more automatically generated posts you will see.
And that leads me to another tip for you: please STOP sharing things and write your posts.
I hate my feed when it’s full of shared pictures and full of strange shady articles from a pseudo-scientist! When I check my feed, I want to see stuff from YOU! If its Instagram, I want to see pictures. If its Facebook, perhaps something you experienced today. If its Twitter, why not your thoughts about something from your life? If I want to connect with my friends on Facebook, I wish to see those post, not cat videos my friends shared. Please think twice every time you want to share something and post instead of your thoughts, comments, images etc. And please stop advertising whatever you want to sell if we all would do more of that our platforms would be a much more excellent place to be.
Here’s another tip. Don’t take your phone into your bedroom. And after a specific time of the day just shut down all technology at least one hour before going to bed. That will improve your sleep and general wellbeing. And when you wake up to wait at least one hour before checking your phone. That will allow you to think first before reactively acting on what you saw online.
Collective challenges and what we could do
Collectively we have the tackle the big problems. One advice is to get politicly involved and vote for the right parties by doing our research. Be active in promoting the right policies. And your government should reinforce policies, privacy regulation and exercise oversight without spying themselves on you.
Please don’t be stingy and pay for services knowing they don’t sell you something you don’t want.
When you share news research them first.
We have to ensure that we live in countries and societies where these companies are regulated, they have oversight, and that all governments are representing our best interest. That’s why we vote for them.
Links:
Summary
Yuval Harari 21 lessons for the 21st century
Peter Demuth 