Something I've been coming across mentioned as a point of concern with social media a fair amount recently is attention algorithms. Social media companies get their income through advertising so algorithms are programmed to highlight content that garners the most attention and interaction. Unfortunately outrage and controversy are the things we find the hardest to ignore and not be pulled in by. Therefore we can easily end up in a snowballing, negative spiral where content creators are incentivised to create ever more controversial content in order to compete for views.
A practice that is becoming more and more common is taking other creator's content and posting it without credit to the original creator, an issue that Acidyo covered recently in more detail. Often when this content is stolen it's also cut into shorter form in such a way as to twist what was originally said into something more controversial and often completely different, casting the original creator in a bad light. Even if the original content were to be linked, few would likely bother to even watch that original to gain the truth because in their own mind they've already seen it and few have the attention span for the long form anyway, so they'll prefer what they believe to be a shorter summarised form, especially if it's reinforcing what they want to believe.
The ease of getting caught up in the algorithm's gravitational pull.
The very nature of social media algorithms magnifies negatives and if most of your social life is focused there it can make you believe that it's a majority of people who are awful and not just the occasional highlighted cases that get spammed across the internet.
I post some videos of my climbing activities on Instagram and there's quite the community of climbers from across the world on there. It's generally acknowledged, even celebrated, that the recreational climbing community is positive, inclusive and supportive. Yes you do get the odd A-hole, just like in anything, but they are a minority. This is reflected for the most part on Instagram, but I've noticed some changes in the way some people post when they realise that controversial, negative content gets them more attention. People who are perfectly rational normally get caught up in the hype, whether it's just for the views or in hope of earning from social media.
As an example, a woman who just posted climbs started adding affiliate links on every post once she reached 1000 followers and now her content has changed towards complaining about sexism within the climbing community. When questioned about it she hasn't actually experienced that in reality, merely come across it in virtuality. It brings in a lot of likes and shares to her posts, though. I've noticed the interaction on her posts has dropped, however, so is it even converting to purchases from her affiliate links? I suspect not and it will likely be benefiting the platform monetarily far more than her.
What's particularly saddening is to read what I can only describe as anti male rhetoric coming from someone who seems like a perfectly lovely woman when talking one on one and who also has a husband. Many of the original people who used to interact on her posts have stopped and the few comments she gets now are from the ones who further beat down on men, perpetuating that negativity.
I also ended up connecting with a transgender woman climber who climbs at the same gym as me, but we haven't met in person. They are easy to talk to when talking about climbing and we can connect over this shared interest the same as with any other climber. However, they recently seem to have figured out that transgender based content gets more likes, which would make sense because it's certainly a highly controversial topic these days. So more of their recent content is becoming activism oriented, along the lines of how transgender climbers should be accepted, with a side of criticising the "bad behaviour" of men in climbing. Yet again when questioned about it they don't seem to have experienced the issues they're bemoaning in the gym. The gyms here are actually really inclusive and even do sessions especially for women including those identifying as women and none binary.
When the transgender climber shared a video of their kid climbing with the caption "trans kids belong in climbing" a local mother expressed concern and recommend a youth programme at a city gym which she found to be very inclusive, to which they responded that the kid was in a youth programme they were very happy with at another gym. I'm pleased that they were honest in this regard rather than trying to claim discrimination at that gym, but it highlights how easy it is to get the wrong impression. For example, the first Instagrammer I mentioned and this transgender climber have connected as well and bounce off each other on the issue of discrimination. You've got to wonder what impressions they must be giving each other on their home gyms and the people who go there.
I have never encountered any discriminatory behaviour at the gyms here and the supposed "men behaving badly" behaviour being complained about is more a lack of awareness that others might be waiting to get on a climb that they are hogging (easily done when you're engrossed). This is something I've also experienced from women and, not surprisingly, even more so from children. For some reason when it's coming from men it's interpreted by women that these men must think they're superior to us and maybe sometimes it is a bit of that, but mostly it's not.
The problem with social media algorithms is that they target what you respond to and magnify it. If you are someone who reacts and responds positive things then the algorithms will feed you more of that. It will even prioritise positive comments when you go to comments section. So for me I'll get positive and uplifting comments at the top then as I scroll down I'll see comments bemoaning how horrible the comments are on the post and wonder what they're talking about. I'll have to scroll much further down to find the negative ones. On the other hand, someone who responds and reacts to negative comments and posts will get those prioritised, probably get riled up by them and start responding back to them, signalling to the algorithms to increase that negative aspect. I fully understand how easy it is to get sucked into that cycle. It outrages me too, but I purposely avoid responding in order to stop my feed devolving into a negative doom scrolling spiral.
Immediacy and reaction
The issues with social media have a knock on effect in the real world. Everything online comes to us from across the world immediately and we can't help but to react immediately. It used to be that by the time news reached us we usually had a full story behind the events with a balanced viewpoint. Now a video is uploaded immediately after it's filmed, if not as it's being filmed, with no context and no back story. It often comes with a narrative that the poster wants to project as well, usually one that will elicit the most reactions.
When someone attacks us online our immediate reaction is to respond and defend ourselves, which usually only serves to escalate the situation, cause further animosity and division and give power to the one attacking. If we leave it for a day or two to assess more calmly whether it actually needs addressing then the chances are that it probably doesn't and people will have moved onto other things anyway. As Morgan Freeman suggested, the best way to get rid of racism is to “stop talking about it.”
Author and podcaster Coleman Hughes noted that racism had been declining for decades until 2013 when it began to increase again, coinciding with the start of social media and iPhone cameras. Being bombarded with division happening on social media day in day out it's no surprise that we can start to feel like this is the reality that surrounds us as well, even when we're not experiencing that. People can end up looking for discrimination or oppression in every little word or action around them. If you can't obviously see it then it must be in micro aggressions or it's subconscious, systemic discrimination.
It's happening in just about every environment too. I recently read an article from a Millennial woman about how Boomer parents "harmed" Millennials with what they thought were "well meaning" things they said which were actually "word violence". She listed and disected 10 things her parents said that caused her anxiety and I found myself giggling as I read through it, because she was reading far too much into everything and none of these things should have in any way been construed as negative by any emotionally balanced person. Although it's admittedly sad that her mental health has gotten her to the point of trying to find causes like this to blame for it.
This strange focus on dividing the generations does seem to have come in with the Millennials, which may explain why Gen X (many of whom also had Boomers parents) got overlooked if Millennials were just so focused on their own "traumatic" upbringings. I think most of Gen X were happy not to be dragged into it anyway. 🤣
What will our future look like?
Thankfully most Millennials straddled a world that was still mainly in reality with a door stepping into the digital realm, but for those born into this new millennium who haven't experienced a world without the digital world at their fingertips, will they be as able to separate the two? What does the future hold for our children and grandchildren? Will it be a world where everyone feels isolated and feeling fear or hatred towards everyone around them?