Social networks have mutated - now they are arranged completely differently, and you did not notice it. No, nothing specifically happened to you. But adolescents, entering any popular "social network", fall into the trap - big IT companies manipulate them. Children are turned into laboratory rats.
How did social media work even ten years ago? Vanity fair, exhibition of achievement: one spent vacation in Thailand, another went to a concert, the third read a book. It's great: you look at others and show yourself. The user, mired in routine and gray routine, envies his friends, not realizing that he is shown only a facade - and behind him the same boredom.
This phenomenon has been called "Facebook envy", it leads to "Facebook depression" - when it seems that everyone around you is good, except yourself. Such emotions are relevant now, but they cannot be compared with the heap of problems that have fallen on teenagers around the world.
We are mainly talking about young people: they are more interested in virtual success and are easier to engage in all sorts of provocations. How social networks rule the lives of millions of children.
Laboratory rats
In 2017, internal Facebook documents were released. The Australian, in turn, published an internal company report. From the 23-page text, it turned out that the social network invites advertisers to focus on the behavior of teenagers so that they can get into the audience as accurately as possible. In particular, Facebook offered to show ads to users who are "not sure of themselves" or right now feel "useless", "worthless", "losers". Including adolescents - for example, 13-year-olds who have barely discovered social networks.
Promotional video:
How did Facebook define emotional state? According to a report by The Australian, the engine tracked messages, photos, interactions, and internet activity in real time. So it was possible to better understand children in order to slip them targeted advertising.
At the same time, Sean Parker, the first president of Facebook, admitted that the social network should consume more human time and attention. Feed users with micro-doses of dopamine, which is produced when someone likes or comments on a post.
Sounds cynical, doesn't it? Not only do they earn on the emotional state of children, they also make experimental animals out of them. They feed them with likes so that they don't leave the social network and make a profit for the company. But there is one problem - Facebook is far from the best example of a manipulative mechanism. Moreover, young people leave Zuckerberg's brainchild. According to research center Pew, 44% of users aged 18-29 have uninstalled the app after a data privacy scandal.
From "like" to "periscope"
Where are today's children "hanging out" now? First, there are three nearly identical apps: Like, Kwai, and TikTok, formerly Musical.ly. We wrote about these social networks and the customs prevailing there. In short, these are services for high-speed video editing and uploading. Teenagers usually dance, sing and grimace to hit music; the most popular are watched by hundreds of thousands of people. There is also Periscope, which is about the same, but in the form of broadcasts. And also known in the Western world Snapchat - there you can exchange videos and pictures that disappear after watching.
Great emphasis on video. "Random" tape that shows videos including beginners. And a very, very, very sticky reward system. For communication, all these platforms are poorly suited, but it seems that users do not need it - the main thing is to get a ton of likes and views.
For the sake of virtual encouragement, children go to stupid and dangerous actions. For example, in Kwai, girls strip for the camera and dance in their underwear to songs about alcohol and illegal drugs. Associations with striptease do not bother the performers - after all, there will be more viewers, which means - subscribers and likes. In "Periscope" the boundaries of what is permitted are even wider: while hunting for views, girls completely undress, and the spectacle can already be qualified under Article 242.1. “2,000 viewers and I will do everything,” two 11-year-old friends once said live, and they didn’t lie: when a thousand onlookers came to the stream, the “bloggers” began to take off their clothes.
And what does the reward system have to do with it?
An important point is that the children themselves are not to blame for anything. Even those who will "do everything." They just fell into the trap of big corporations. After all, in social networks, users not only communicate, but also achieve certain goals. They chase likes, "friends", game points and levels, because it stimulates them, makes them happy and successful - much easier than boring studies.
Why do teens need all these achievements? In a lecture at the British School of Design, media philosopher Dmitry Soloviev gives a simple explanation.
Like is equivalent to a smile, a compliment, active listening, a couple of kind words. For insecure teenagers who need social approval like no other, these strokes are especially important.
In general, this has always been the case - long before the invention of the Internet. However, the "new social networks" have learned to direct the race for social approval - to make sure that its participant never stops, does not leave the race. How? Using the example of games - including mobile ones.
“Players are not laboratory rats, of course, but there are learning rules that apply to both humans and rats,” and this is already the statement of game designer John Hopson, PhD in behavioral sciences and brain researcher. 17 years ago, he told Gamasutra how to get users to play constantly. Unsurprisingly, Hopson also worked on Xbox Live, a service that introduced the very concept of "achievement" into circulation.
At some point, employees of large corporations realized that this experience can be applied to the promotion of conventional services. In 2009, Nokia Research employees implemented game elements into the Nokia Image Space photo sharing program. The case turned into a separate trend - gamification: when certain bonuses were promised for certain actions.
Go to Periscope. Wait for someone to like you. What will you see? That's right, a colorful explosion in the lower left corner. The service seems to tell us - "look, look, SOMEONE LIKED you, YOU ARE COOL!" With about the same fanfare, you move to the next level in some Clash of Clans. The social network shows your success with all its might, showering with a heap of special effects. But - up to a certain point.
It was not for nothing that we mentioned that in all "new social networks" the algorithm randomly displays newcomers to the main page. This is to ensure that everyone gets a handful of attention - and a starting dose of coveted likes. However, then the stream of "free" views dries up - and for the sake of a new portion of attention you have to work. Children put in more effort, but they don't achieve their goals. Together with other problems, this leads to depression, low academic performance and even attempts to injure oneself, writes Republic.
And what to do?
They started talking about the problem - for example, the shareholder Apple. The open letter raises the question of the need for smartphones in teens' lives - is there a reason for depression? Mark Benioff, CEO of Salesfroce, a company engaged in the provision of cloud services, also spoke out.
But what to do now while the manipulating machine is running? Rip the mask off her, says child psychologist Richard Fried, author of Wired Child: Reclaiming Childhood in a Digital Age, in his Medium article.
And it's time for parents to understand that the child is drawn to virtual success for a reason. If he lacks something in real life, he will compensate for it with likes, views and the number of viewers of the stream on Periscope.
Author: Kasya Krasavina