The documentary “The dilemma of social networks” (Netflix) reveals an alarming panorama about the consequences of misuse of new communication technologies
Screen addiction, generalized depressive symptoms, and behavioral manipulation for commercial purposes. To what extent have certain advances for humanity become detrimental to our coexistence and quality of life?
“The dilemma of social networks” is created, produced and directed by those who, occupying senior positions in companies such as Twitter, Google, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube, helped build the “computer monster” that today is part of the daily lives of millions of people.
The documentary is based on a concern: perhaps we have been naive about the consequences of the tools that we ourselves have created This is so to the point where many of those who created these sites and social networks currently recognize themselves as “addicted” to these tools.
They feel regret and fear for having been part of this process, and these feelings are joined by the feared suspicion that certain things are getting out of hand for humanity, and that in a certain sense we are conducting ourselves on a social level in accordance with the old parable of the “monkey with a knife”.
An interesting aspect of the documentary is that it avoids any “conspiracy” temptation by revealing that ultimately “there is no bad guy.” What, then, is the problem?
The birth of “Frankenstein”
With the Internet industry, the most subtle, complex and effective marketing mechanisms have been created in the history of mankind. Billion-dollar markets are managed through the Internet.
If you are an entrepreneur, you will know that never before has it been possible to predict with such accuracy the audience to which you want to target a product or service you offer, the moment in which you do so, as well as shape the behaviors of your potential consumers.
Now, how is this achieved? Very simple: great predictions can only be made from having a lot of data. The more information you have about users, the more certain you are that your advertising will work
Many believe that Google is simply a search engine. What they often overlook is that the business model of these companies is based on finding out as much as possible about our tastes, behaviors and tendencies, all of which is registered in each of our actions on the web
To put it simply, what tools like Facebook Ads do (in the same way that recommended YouTube videos work, for example) is segment audiences in an ultra-specialized way, considering age, sex, geographic location, interests and others. variables. For what purpose is this done? Very simple: in order to attract potential customers for certain products offered by advertisers who are the ones who, ultimately, hire their services.
And this brings us to the “dark side of the business”, that is, to the questions regarding the ethical limits involved in this process.
Manipulation is the key to the matter
If we live in a big city, we will surely not be unfamiliar with the following image: when entering a public place (such as a means of transport or a bar) we see 90% of the people absorbed in the screen of their mobile phones. Possibly on a smaller scale, within a family group, something similar happens on a daily basis.
As the documentary puts it, “it seems that the world has gone crazy or that it has fallen into some kind of spell.” What happens, among other things, is that Those who designed the system did so with the aim of capturing the user’s attention at the highest possible level
The system is programmed to perfect itself in this sense and provide us with pleasure. It is as if we were pointing these artificial intelligence engines at us to relearn better and better what would provoke a “successful” response from the user.
In other words, you give the computer a command: “I want this result.” And then the computer learns to do it (that’s where the term “machine learning” comes from). So, Every day the system improves by choosing the right ads in the right order so that you spend more time interested in these contents.
What the documentary reveals is that Internet users (and today, who isn’t?) we have become, without realizing it, the consumer good itself To put it simply: “If you don’t pay for the product, you are the product.”
What is an algorithm?
As well explained in the documentary, “algorithms are opinions in code.” They are not objectives, they do not correspond to any reality but are configured according to a certain definition of success and this definition of success is none other than profit.
An example of this is seen in how search engines “fill in” information about certain topics depending on where on the planet you are searching from or depending on what Google knows about your interests and tastes.
For example, if you search on Google: “climate change is…” depending on various factors, you will find that it is a threat, that it is inevitable, that it is a farce, and so on…Another example is the famous “fake news.” ” which, according to studies, multiply six times faster than real news. We know this because of certain substances that were supposed to magically be able to cure COVID-19.
In other words: If you have a tendency to believe in conspiracy theories, the system will encourage you to find content that supports these theories If you have an affinity for a certain political party or have expressed hatred towards certain minorities, what the algorithm will do is not show you any truth but rather “stir up your ghosts” in order to capture more and more of your attention.
Hence it is said in the documentary that These processes are rapidly corroding the social fabric Well, if each person is shown the truth that makes them up, they are linked with people who think the same and they are given arguments that justify their beliefs (reaching absurd extremes such as flat earthism), this explains why there are more and more crises in the world. democratic systems.
Author: Guillermo Miatello, director of the Academy of Psychoanalysis Madrid SL.
