Marin Voice: Revealing to weigh social media’s destruction against benefits

The conventional wisdom among social-media experts is that social media is neither good nor bad. Rather it is how social media is used that determines whether it is life affirming or life damaging.

I worry that these same experts have been reluctant to speak strongly against these technology platforms for fear of being labeled a Luddite. It leads to a “fair and balanced” perspective that, unfortunately, has caused a false equivalency, suggesting that the upsides and downsides of social media carry equal weight.

But, having seen all the ills that social media wrought the last decade, it’s time to state what many know to be true: Social media has become an existential threat to free, civilized and democratic society.

Social media didn’t start out this way. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg started to connect students at Harvard and, later, “bring the world closer together.” That ship sailed a long time ago.

As the so-called Facebook Papers so damningly laid bare, when the leaders of Facebook realized the dangerous ways it was being used, they willfully ignored it and the profits grew.

Many people liken social media to a tool, but it is no tool. Tools are inert, have no awareness or intention and can’t act on their own. The value of tools comes when someone chooses to use them for some specific purpose and the user controls the tool.

But, as founder of the Center for Humane Technology Tristan Harris has suggested, social media is aware. Through its sensors and databases, it knows when users are engaged, what they are engaged in and for how long.

Social media has intention. Its aim is to increase engagement through the use of pings, vibrations, likes, loves, thumbs-ups and other reinforcers.

Social media acts. When it senses disengagement, social media provokes re-engagement through, for example, the feed of followers and “relevant” content as determined by the algorithms created by the social media.

Social media evokes emotions. It manipulates our emotions, causing us to feel happy, excited, angry, disappointed, depressed, dejected and much more.

Social media provokes reactions. In these highly emotional states, it motivates further engagement.

Ultimately, social media is designed to control. “Persuasive technology” was developed for the singular purpose of manipulating the way we think, feel and behave to generate profits for its shareholders.

Please don’t get me wrong; I don’t think that social media is entirely devoid of merit. Social media can be used positively for connecting people, accessing information, educating, inspiring civic engagement, promoting businesses and providing entertainment.

But I think it’s fair to say that the bad far outweighs the good, if not in frequency, certainly in intensity and harm. Misinformation, disinformation, fear mongering, political manipulation, intimidation, bullying, racism, misogyny, invasion of privacy, cyber-threats, addiction and the deleterious effects on mental health are some of the ways that social media hurts people and acts as a cancer on civilized society.

I fear these horrors aren’t unintended consequences of new technology or a flaw in the design. For some in Big Tech, it is proof of concept – affirmation of successful design.

What is particularly scary about social media is that the cat is already out of its cage. Moreover, this cat is not a house cat, but rather a ferocious lion that may be untamable. Is there any legislation, corrective algorithms, or monitors that could possibly put this big cat back?

At the heart of what makes social media an existential threat to civilized society is the evidence that Big Tech doesn’t care. Some appear to prioritize profit over individual and societal harm.

This morally corrupt motivation justifies any and all means to their desired end including, as we have seen over the past decade, evasion, deflection, denial, scapegoating, deceit, manipulation and a wanton disregard for decency and the public good.

The end result is individual suffering and the steady erosion and ultimate destruction of the values, practices and institutions that are the lifeblood of a free, civilized and democratic society.

Jim Taylor, of Mill Valley, is the author of 18 books, including “Raising Generation Tech: Prepare Your Children for a Media-fueled World.” He has a Ph.D in psychiatry.