Social Media

So I’ve been going through some mental anguish lately. I may share the details of what’s going on down the road. Anywho, as we do nowadays, I was looking around on the internet for help. Sometimes finding things helpful, but mostly not. Then I return to some social apps like Facebook and Reddit. Well social media and their algorithm got my number. Serving me up ads targeting people that are going through what I’m going through. With extremely triggering content. It affected me so much, I couldn’t believe it. It was truly shocking and I realized right away what was happening. I had read stories about this happening to other people. Especially when the social media companies went in front of congress. There were some promises made about trying to do better. Last night, it was clear that those promises hadn’t been kept.

I think somewhere along the road, the good-natured intentions of this technology went right out the window. I felt that there was a sense of evil in this algorithmic manipulation of content. I, or random user that fit my profile, was specifically targeted with extremely triggering content that related to the deeply personal and troubling issue I’m going through. It’s all around selling programs, products, classes, etc. So the language is designed to be triggering, so that as many affected men as possible will pay for whatever course, product, etc is being sold under the guise of solving their problems. Preying on the reader’s deepest fears to make a buck. The algorithm then looks for patterns about what men are googling in hopes they can find some answer, some salvation, some light at the end of the tunnel, then surfaces ads / content in a completely separate application. It’s like when we’re having a conversation with a friend about shoes, then we see facebook ads for shoes. Like is my phone eavesdropping? I’m sure we’ve all had that thought.

The truth is that people’s journey through the interwebs is tracked. Websites searched have tracking pixels which, facebook then uses to surface ads based on our browsing history. To ameliorate this, adjust facebook privacy settings to make ads generic, not based on your browsing history. Routinely delete cooking and clear browsing cache. Use a Private or Incognito window and a search tool like Duck Duck Go.

The algorithm could be altruistic. Could be used to better society. But there’s no money in that with ad spend. What’s the ROI, right? Content people aren’t freaking out spending whatever is needed for that next class that would resolve their issues. I’d like to imagine a world where a “happybook” type platform could exist. A place where people could go and search for help, and what they need to soothe their angst starts popping up in their feed. Digital Valium. Digital Zen. Digital Peace.

I ended up curating reddit heavily, and then deleting facebook from my phone entirely. I just think it’s better for me.