Brock's Blog

Social media has a myriad number of ills. What are some of them? Can we fix social media and reform it? Analyze some of the social media (that we’ve covered in class or ones you are familiar with from outside of class).

Social media is very addicting and is designed to keep users on the website/app as long as possible. They give users an unconcious feeling that they are missing out on the 24/7 work or social cycle. Social media often presents users with a false sense of reality, especially for teens who are forced to look at photoshoped models with millions of likes. It also allows bullying or other forms of harrassment to exist beyond face-to-face interaction. I think that we can fix it if we impliment different policies that address these issues. For example, Instagram removed the ability to see the number of likes on a post and users can specifaclly hide their own like numbers so that the pressure of having a well recieved post is removed. There are also time features that can restrict how long a person is using a specific app as well as turning off notifications so that a users isn't plagued 24/7 with the idea that they are "missing out".

I think that in Jaron Lanier’s interview, Lanier makes some reallly good arguments. He has worked in the tech industry for a long time and so he is primed to see all of these algorithms from a different perspective than most. I think that what he said about manipulative programing and addictive algorithms was 100% true and we need to push companies to edit their buissness model. I also believe that the solutions he presented were correct and the first step in that is being aware of the problem and limiting social media access to one's self. As I said earlier, we also need to push for more humane social platforms that aren't designed to keep users sucked in an have their data mined for advertisment. I liked the proposal of a completly public social platform, much like a library, as then the focus doesn't need to be on monatary growth. It's a complex solution that has many differnt miny problems, but if we aim to tackle one at a time, I think we can make our online world a better place.