The article, The Internet Is a Force of Nature. It’s Our Job to Civilize It. By Jason Dorrier, forces on the aspect of our trust in the internet. He explains that the whole idea of the internet was the aspect of it being free. Whether that is freeing for us or actually free in the sense that it doesn’t cost anything or the old slogan “Information wants to be free.” But, like Dorrier points out, we have learned that nothing is free and we have since learned that the internet comes at a price. He continues to explain that four main roots in which we have lost all trust with in the internet; network effects, web inputs, the attention economy and platform dynamics. In conclusion, Dorrier suggests that in order for us to “take the power back” we need to inver the dynamic of the internet. (https://singularityhub.com/2019/08/25/the-internet-is-a-force-of-nature-its-our-job-to-civilize-it/)
In the video by Center for Humane Technology (CHT), under week 2, called Humane A New Agenda for Tech, Tristan Harris, a co-founder of CHT and a ex-Google employee, is giving a talk about the social issues that the internet has created.
During the video, he makes a point about a study that says that “only half of Americans say they have meaningful, daily face-to-face social interactions.” Then he goes on to explain about how a few years ago on YouTube, if you were watching dieting videos it would then recommend anorexia videos. That this is how the internet and the web was wired and that everyone just thought it was okay. How free internet has caused a lot of issues overall and that it’s not really free. He concludes by explaining how major figure heads within the internet world have recognized that there is a problem with the human downgrading aspect of it and that we need to and will fix it. ()
In the article, The People Behind Your Tech Addiction Are Now Trying to Curb It, by Miles Schneiderman, talks about how technology has bee effecting young people. He explains how the whole point of technology and smartphones and tablets was to capture and keep attention and that it is doing an amazing job at that. But that aspect of technology is harming our society. How kids, ages 0-8, almost all, 98%, live in homes with some kind of mobile device, compared to a few years ago when only around half did. How this is causing addition in young kids ad teens, which is something that we’ve never seen before. They understand that they can’t demolish the addiction because the devices were made to be addictive but they do know that they can lesson it and that is what they are trying to do. (https://www.yesmagazine.org/happiness/the-people-behind-your-tech-addiction-are-now-trying-to-curb-it-20180628)
In the video, PLUGGED IN: The Toxicity of Social Media Revealed, they are talking about how social media has effected the mental health of teens. They explain about suicide rates have gone up very much with in teen girls and teen boys. And that they know that it is directly form social media and the amount of time that is spent on it in kids of that age group. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHzwMLx-rKc&feature=youtu.be)
With my research I think I want to focus on ways to improve social media to help with mental health, without taking away from the business aspect of social media. This is interesting to me because when instagram announced they were taking away likes, I first thought that it was a good idea but then I thought about how the businesses and brands won’t be able to do as well because they rely on likes to know how well their products are doing and to figure out how to partner with for ads.
- https://childmind.org/article/is-social-media-use-causing-depression/
- https://www.allpsychologyschools.com/psychology/social-media-psychology/
- https://marketinginsidergroup.com/content-marketing/why-social-media-is-important-for-business-marketing/
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2018/05/11/how-social-media-can-move-your-business-forward/#b9293fb4cf2b
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2018/11/16/new-research-shows-just-how-bad-social-media-can-be-for-mental-health/#21e325e27af4
- https://later.com/blog/hidden-likes-instagram/
- https://www.prweek.com/article/1592304/ditching-instagram-likes-will-require-brands-become-sophisticated-influencer-marketing
This article, written in July 2019, came out after Instagram announced that they were expanding their like-free test to several more counties. This test had started in Canada but now was going to be expanded to Australia, Brazil, Ireland, Italy, Japan and New Zealand. The author of this article, Taylor Loren, talks about the reason Instagram decided to do this and the mental health benefits of a like-free Instagram. Loren then gets onto the hot topic of the effect of a like-free Instagram for influencers and brands. She comes at it from all angles and is very unbiased in her writing. Some people say that this will be helpful for influencers and then can be more free. Others say that there will be more ads on instagram since brands can’t work with influences as much. And a lot of people are saying that brands will just have to get more creative with their tactics. (https://later.com/blog/hidden-likes-instagram/)
In this Forbes article, written by Atanu Shaw, the discussion of the importance of social media and brands is talked about. I think that this is a good thing to look at when we are talking about mental health, because Instagram is so important for brands, no matter the size. This article breaks down the static’s of social media platforms like, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Youtube. It is a marketing department stand point on how important social media is. (https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2018/05/11/how-social-media-can-move-your-business-forward/#209bb7e64cf2)
After reading these articles, it more confirmed by feelings toward this subject. As someone who runs two business social media accounts as a sort of internship, I look at the whole social media thing from the business point of view and not from the everyday teen point of view. This being said, my stands on this is much different from someone else my age. But, although I do look at it differently, I am still very aware of the effects that social media has on mental health within my generation. What I found interesting, or learned from reading, these is how many influencers are excited about a potentially like-free Instagram. I thought that they would be mostly against it. But the people that were interviewed for these articles were very much excited about the change and the challenge that will come from it. My fear is that it will cause other issues that we don’t know about yet. And will a like-free Instagram just turn into VSCO?
With my new understanding, something I might suggest to help with this mental health problem but also help the businesses is to not have likes on instagram but another way to check engagement for businesses without non-business people knowing about it. This way the business can do their job and check out people but the everyday users can still use Instagram without the anxieties that are attached to it.
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