Is It Time to Rethink Social Media?
Introduction
On October 5th, Frances Haugen, a former data analyst at Facebook, testified before Congress. She alleged that Facebook is knowingly participating in a harmful and toxic culture by exploiting its users yet refusing to make changes. According to her, 'Facebook's products harm children, stoke division and weaken our democracy.' Her testimony came during a global Facebook outage, but there has been much general discourse about the tech giant's misuse of users' data and privacy over the past few years. While the average Facebook user may not pay much attention to leaked data, let us delve deep into how social media has changed the world for youngsters.
Social media was still a growing phenomenon when we were growing up from the early 2000s to the 2010s, with Facebook just starting in 2004. Moreover, in Bangladesh, the internet was not as readily available, and the ones who had access had to endure slow bandwidth and endless buffering. Due to this, our leisure period usually included a range of activities, from reading books and painting to other physical activities such as playing outside. We may be the last generation to remember what it was like before the internet and social media took over. The new generation of kids who spend time watching TikTok videos and doing Instagram challenges was not born back then.
The adverse effects of social media
While this may seem like a nostalgic moment to revel in our childhood, the increased use of social media and its screen time has changed the course of human minds forever. Is this situation familiar when you open Facebook to check a notification, but several hours pass, and you keep scrolling and scrolling? It is not just you. The app is designed that way. The algorithm leads to short-term dopamine-driven feedback, which makes users addicted. Dopamine is a hormone and a neurotransmitter that influences our mood. The former Facebook Vice President of user growth, Chamath Palihapitiya, has said, "The short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops that we have created are destroying how society works." This model has messed with our attention span and concentration levels, leading to us scrolling endlessly. Facebook's newsfeed prioritizes user engagement. Thus it is filled with content tailored to the users' desires to keep them scrolling. It keeps us hooked by exploiting human psychology.
The consequences of this exploitation have been widespread, affecting the newer generation who grew up with social media and those who did not. Even users who grew up in the pre-Facebook era and used to be bookworms now have difficulty reading books due to their brains incorporating the short-term dopamine feedback. In short, it makes it harder to concentrate. From doing coursework to reading for recreation, users are distracted by a slew of notifications that encourage them to log into the app.
Impact of social media on the newer generation
Moreover, Tiktok, an app commonly used by Gen Z, specializes in 6-second short videos, thus making them accustomed to this format from a young age. Not even toddlers have been spared, as YouTube Kids' channels have steadily gained momentum over the past few years. For example, Cocomelon, a popular kid's entertainment channel, features colorful iconography over nursery rhymes to grab toddlers' attention. It is learned that the colorful illustrations act as an over-stimulant. Kids' brains get dopamine from screen time, making them addicted. Therefore, kids lose interest in other activities as they get preoccupied with using gadgets. Moreover, when they are stopped from using the screen, they may have withdrawal symptoms and start acting irritable. Jerrica Sannes, a child development specialist, has concluded that "Millions of children will grow up with poor self-regulation skills, attention, and behavioral disorders."
The funny thing is that our generation collectively acknowledges this situation as we riddle social media with memes about our inability to concentrate. However, memes are nothing but a coping mechanism.
A whole new problem due to social media
As if messing up an entire generation's attention span was not enough, social media has also targeted other vulnerable points, which will drive up user engagement. A new problem is usually seen in young girls as body dysmorphia. Body dysmorphia is defined as a mental health condition in which a person spends much time obsessing about 'flaws' in their appearance. It works like this: Instagram will knowingly put posts from models and influencers with airbrushed features owing to the various filters on your Instagram feed because they know it drives up engagement and screen time. The user will look at the photoshopped photos and compare themselves, obsessing over their 'flaws' of not looking as airbrushed, leading to a loop of false comparisons. According to Frances Haugen, Facebook was aware of and had researched the effects of such content but chose to prioritize its interests. In a leaked survey, Facebook found that 13.5% of U.K teen girls had their mental health become worse after they started using Instagram. According to another study, 32% of teen girls said they felt worse about their bodies after using Instagram. This has given rise to cosmetic surgery, as many teens and young girls want to distort their looks to resemble the 'Instagram Filter' face.
The repercussions of misrepresented content on social media
The number of people seeking cosmetic surgery has risen over the last decade, but it hit an all-time high over the last two years. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons released a report stating a 7% increase in requests for cosmetic surgery. Another survey reported that 72% of the patients who came in for plastic surgery did so to "look better for selfies." While it can be argued that Instagram mirrors real life, and photoshopped bodies can be found in magazines and billboards, it has increased the visibility of such content. This, paired with Facebook's algorithm to keep you scrolling, has made an entire generation live in a loop of insecurity and false comparisons.
Conclusion
Overall, the picture painted by social media seems quite depressing. A growing number of people have quit social media. While it may look like times are changing, the truth remains that social media has become a fabric of our reality. Even though it has long-term detrimental effects, most users will choose to stay connected, as we have internalized it as a part of our lives. The younger generation and those to come will be growing with it, and there are no plans to slow it down. Facebook's recent plans to rename it “Meta” and create a 'metaverse virtual reality seem very dystopian. So, we have an unhappy generation validated by likes and comments and with a decreasing attention span by the day. However, it is okay as we know how to cope just by looking at memes on social media.
