Social media is bringing us down, but community-powered entertainment platforms can pick us back up.
Buckle up kids, it’s time for a history lesson. Remember when everyone loved the Internet? When we logged on through landline phones? It only feels like yesterday we thought Jeeves was actually a real dude on the other end of a terminal manually picking out search results. Wait, was that just us?
How could we forget those puppy-love years?
The crackle of the dial-up tone sounded like alien technology taking us to another dimension. We were being transported into the future and, even if the destination was a not-so-fantastical Geocities website or Hotmail account, there was still a certain magic to it. It was empowering. It was another world.
Sure, what we could actually do back then was fairly limited. The Internet was primitive, but its potential was palpable. The World Wide Web was a place of endless possibility and that sweet 56k modem was our noisy little Delorean.
Then Web 2.0 rolled around and, in the beginning, it still felt exciting. We were seeing some of those lofty predictions come to light; accessing vast swathes of information and connecting with people the world over at breathtaking speed. It was nothing short of incredible.
Today, the Internet feels less of a mystical binary future-world and more an actual part of us. We carry it in our pockets. Tuning in, all day, every day. It is where we spend most of our time and now holds a fierce monopoly on our attention. The lines between online and offline have blurred to such a point that it’s hard to distinguish between them. Some argue that the separation no longer exists. We have become embedded in each other, humans and the Internet.
And as the years pass, the more that initial childlike-wonder with the Internet seems to sour.
Attention Monopolies
What has become increasingly clear is that many of the largest players online (the “Attention Monopolies”) value holding our attention for maxed-out profits over our mental wellbeing. Chasing revenue is one thing, but doing it at the expense of your customer’s health is quite another. It is no surprise that people have begun to speak of the Attention Monopolies and the tobacco industry in the same breath.
These days, we see study after study proclaiming what we have been acutely aware of for a while now: social media has the power to make you feel bad...and it’s really good at it.
We all have friends/loved ones/pet hamsters who have deleted their social media accounts purely based on the way it makes them feel. They want to be spending that time elsewhere, and as a result ‘time well spent’ has become a hot topic in Silicon Valley.
And as the damning headlines grow, even the technocrats are in on the slaughter. Tim Cook won’t let his nephew use social media. Sean Parker has admitted a certain blue company he helped build is exploiting weaknesses in the human brain like a form of digital crack. Investors are demanding accountability. Countless engineers have come forward, riddled with guilt, about what their monster-like code is doing to the world. Technologists are banning their own children from the very things they built.
Let’s rewind for just a second.
They are so afraid of what they created they won’t let their children interact with it. And the worst part is these products have been consciously designed to hook us. They have been built to exploit us and our deepest insecurities, to keep us coming back in search of validation that will never be enough, again and again.
It’s safe to say the Internet has a problem. And when the Internet has a problem, we all have a problem.
Let’s Talk About Feelings
“Research has shown that young people themselves say 4 out of the 5 most widely used social media platforms actually make their feelings of anxiety worse”
Royal Society For Public Health, UK
Depression, stress, and anxiety are all on the rise, particularly in young people. Our kids, planet Earth’s custodians-in-waiting, are most at risk.
There seems to be a correlation between the way we consume media and the deterioration of our collective mental health. And why? Social media has made us all publishers, competing against each other for attention. Our egos are both the engines that drive the behavior and the content itself.
En masse, we have developed a compulsion to present the most fine-tuned version of ourselves on the Internet. Enhancing who we are, to both ourselves and the world. But it’s not who we really are; it is an illusion, a projection of how we want the world to see us.
Hooked on a false form of validation, we will even delete pictures if they don’t receive enough likes, and find ourselves questioning what is wrong with ourselves. The truth is, there is something very wrong with the bigger picture.
From the inception, why was there not more thought put into how these products make us feel?
Let’s Build Things That Make People Feel Better
Wouldn’t it be great if products were built with our wellbeing in mind? If there was a little more consideration for the people using them?
We need tech that makes us feel better about the world we are living in. Online interactions that leave us feeling better than when we arrived. Technology that takes a step back from the self-comparisons, from the self-criticisms, and the trappings of the ego. Products that pull the focus away from building a digital shrine to yourself and give you a wider perspective.
A Case for Anonymity
Anonymity gets a bad rep. Sometimes, this is for a good reason. Anonymity can be a veil worn by trolls, offering immunity from accountability. The problems of anonymity online have long been well documented, and have evolved to new extremes in recent times. On platforms where everything is tied directly to our digital identities, we are arguably seeing the most damage from anonymity. Anonymity masked behind fake accounts, designed to look and sound like genuine people, has been used to subvert our democracy.
What is less discussed are the merits of anonymity. Immunity from accountability cuts both ways. If what we post is no longer tied to our identity, then we can breathe without worrying about people’s interpretation of us. And we are also far likelier to take other people’s opinions with a grain of salt without their identity tied to it.
In a more anonymous Internet, we release ourselves from the bonds of self-validation that have become the norm. We can even make the argument that anonymity actually leads to more authenticity, as we are no longer shackled to these manipulated versions of ourselves. And under the right guidance, we can foster more authentic, positive communities that make people feel better.
If content is no longer tied directly to the uploader, then the follower model becomes almost moot. No longer stifled by influencers, gatekeepers, and filter bubble bottlenecks, the manner in which we discover becomes more democratic. And with the right amount of guidance (not every platform needs to be a free-speech platform), the onus can be about elevating entertainment that makes people feel better, regardless of where it has come from.
Community Powered Entertainment
What is becoming increasingly apparent is that there are different ways to consume the Internet, and not all of them are created equal. As this becomes more of a universal thought, we anticipate a shift in the way we spend our time online.
Recent research suggests projecting less of yourself online and seeing less of your peers is actually better for your mental health. Entertainment platforms (like Youtube, Netflix, and Imgur - ahem, you knew it was coming) are experiences that often leave you feeling better than you did before you tuned in.
What’s the reason? Our hunch is that we tie less of ourselves - and our egos - to anonymous entertainment experiences. You are far less likely to put your life under the magnifying glass after watching a cute cat GIF than when you are scrolling through your friends’ lives on social media.
It gives us reason to believe the less of ourselves we put on the Internet, the greater peace of mind we enjoy. Let’s move away from echo chambers, populated by content with the sole purpose of grabbing as much of our attention as possible. What is the antidote? Maybe, just maybe, a place where the content is collectively chosen based on quality, not by faces nor identities. A place where the best entertainment is democratically decided by the masses. A place where the people get to decide what the magic of the Internet is every day.
To Infinity And Beyond
Technology now moves at a pace almost beyond comprehension. As we reflect on the Internet of the past decade, it is clear we all need to pay more attention to how our platforms and products impact the wellbeing of the people using them.
The Internet is a magical place that has the power to brighten your day. Community-powered entertainment platforms that surface authentic, positive content will help make the Internet great again.
