Culture reflects what we value, and sometimes (most of the time) we intentionally craft our culture based on what is important to us, what we value. Sometimes (many times) the needs of basic human survival trump spiritual growth. Traditionally, family and community were intrinsic to human survival, so values pertaining to family and community became intertwined in our culture.
But now . . . we’re turning it over to social media and the algorithms that drive it.
I’ve always felt we have a big problem with the military purchasing weaponry from private for-profit companies. The reason is that they are driven by the need for more profit, which translates to more weaponry. Which means they will do what they can to coerce, cajole, manipulate, and stimulate the need for more weaponry. Which means perpetual war. Their objective is in conflict with the objective of peaceful coexistence.
But I digress. But not really. Social media algorithms are very similar. Social media conglomerates (as they have become) have a legal obligation to deliver more profit to their shareholders. Which means they need to coerce, cajole, manipulate, and stimulate more inventory for advertisers. Which means more users interacting for increasing amounts of time.
Thus, the algorithms have been designed with one objective in mind: stimulating more engagement. It’s not about the nature of the engagement. It’s not about the quality of engagement. It’s not about how much it engenders kindness and generosity. And it’s certainly not about how much love is spread in the world. It’s just ad inventory.
I’m not saying these empires are “evil” necessarily, as they’re doing what our financial culture has encouraged every young entrepreneur with energy and vigor to do, which is to come up with ever more creative ways to generate profit. Just like those engineers and physicists that originated the defense contractors.
Which by the way, we ought not to call them “defense contractors” because that is not what they are. They are war and destruction generators. Maybe we could call them “masters of destruction.” That might be more accurate.
Anyway, the point is, the genesis of the masters of destruction and the “culture obliterators” as I’m calling the social media companies, is that they are merely following a course dictated to them by a culture hell bent on profit — profit to the demise of humanity and our very existence. One can merely look deeply and honestly into the argument over global warming, aka “climate change” to see that we’re arguing over the greatest existential threat to humanity ever, instead of changing our culture and economic model to adapt to a changing world.
When it comes to social media, I would go so far as to argue that the algorithms that drive them are more destructive to humanity than even the masters of destruction. At least when it comes to war, we can perceive the human suffering wrought by their efforts so visibly that there will always be a large contingent who will be abhorred by it and will be willing to pass laws to prevent it, or at least keep it in check.
But when it comes to the invisible algorithms doing their work of generating “engagement” at all costs, the result is that any engagement is good, even if it’s based on lies. Even if it’s based on division. Even if it’s based on hatred, fear, judgement, or self-righteousness.
Media, as in the actual media, is similar but not nearly as destructive. The old saying if it bleeds it reads has served as an axiom for the industry since its inception. And while there are plenty of media outlets that exist primarily to gain viewers and readers through manipulation, there are also a great many that do not. The difference is that actual media is fundamentally driven by humans, not algorithms. And many of those humans have a passionate desire to adhere to a particular level of standards. Meaning objective and informative. Do they get it right all the time? Of course not, but they are not algorithms, they are people.
Algorithms have no feelings, no heart, no soul, no conscience. They were created by engineers who were driven by the need to generate engagement. No one said to them, go create an algorithm that advances human understanding and compassion. No one asked, can we create an algorithm that makes us better humans? Or can we stimulate more love in the world through an algorithm?
They were merely told to stimulate engagement. Any engagement, so long as it produces more advertising inventory so the company can increase its profits. Just as those engineers that run the masters of destruction companies are driven by a desire to go make ever more sophisticated weaponry that the military will drool over.
One iconic movie and one Star Trek episode illustrate this perfectly. The famous 1971 Stanley Kubrick film Dr. Strange Love, which frames the effort to develop and deploy nuclear weaponry with tragic humor. Then, in 1988 The Arsenal of Freedom episode of Star Trek the Next Generation in which an entire civilization destroyed itself through the commercialization of weaponry. The episode was seen as a commentary on the sale of F-16 fighter planes to Iran.
But social media is more devastating even than war, because it is changing what people believe and the way they think. And it’s doing it without their knowing. Disagreement, argument, trolling is not what’s important to the algorithms, so long as people remain on the platforms, commenting or insulting, liking or even cursing.
The algorithms also reward the edification of ego. For example, the “10 Year Challenge” in which people post photos of themselves from 10 years prior and compare that to one from the present. It’s very much about look at me. There are feeds of some individuals featuring mostly photos of themselves, with a plethora of comments about how beautiful they are. It’s all about attention and approval. And we (collectively) through the normalization of social media have accepted and even embraced narcissism to the extreme. But it garners engagement, so the algorithms encourage it.
The “masters of destruction” have done a good job of perpetuating war, and now the “culture obliterators” are doing an excellent job of normalizing meanness and division. But there is no committee, no government agency, no board of wise elders making decisions about how it works. It is a mere mathematical formula.
Sure, there are positive aspects of social media. Maria enjoys sharing inspirational quotes and graphics. People sharing inspiring stories, stories of triumph. It’s a way of staying in touch with loved ones, keeping informed of things we’re interested in. But it comes with a potential to distract us from what’s important and even lead us down rabbit holes of fear, anger, and judgement.
What is the answer?
MeWe was a good first try at an alternative social media platform, but sadly has not proved compelling enough, and has even become a haven for those kicked off other social media platforms. Bitclout is another interesting effort in a better direction. It’s based on blockchain and there is no advertising. But the name “Bitclout” is not very accessible and the platform is a bit too techy for most people.
My vote is for some group of inspired software engineers to come up with an open-source social media platform. Make it free and donation based. Maybe even a DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) could run it, with the sole focus being, how does it advance human consciousness.
How do we take back our culture? Talk to software geeks (pros) and implore them to start a DAO for an open-source social media platform to take over. Root it in blockchain so it will remain decentralized. And let’s get involved in this collectively. Let’s support it by switching over once it’s online. Tell all our friends and family to do the same. And most importantly, let’s intentionally craft our culture based on what is most important to us.
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Glenn, great job. I like reading your thoughts. Very insightful and to the point.
Thank you!
Wow. How insightful. And depressing. The only prob w a new platform is that marketeers will find it and use it to sell stuff. Which incentivizes algorithms etc. I think something needs to be done to get people to search onward for happiness, not outward at material stuff...