Are Social Networks A Bubble Of Ideological Manipulation?
Social networks are too recent a phenomenon to know exactly the weight of their effects. We do know, however, that they have worrying effects on our mind, our emotions and our lifestyle. It is also evident that they involve mechanisms of ideological manipulation not always visible on superficial analysis.
For social networks – as businesses – human behavior is a commodity. They have the capacity to study it in order to know it, understand it and change it. Mainly to modify it. With the ideological manipulation that directs people towards the market and consumption, we also find ways to make us think differently on a political or human level.
Many wonder if social networks exert ideological manipulation on us, capable of entirely changing our view of reality. Judging by the evidence on this, the answer is yes. The mechanisms employed are so subtle that it is impossible to detect them. This point is very dangerous because networks change our minds and we cooperate with them to do so. If we are not aware of what they are doing to us, how can we resist them?
The ideological manipulation bubble
Social networks put you in a bubble, without you realizing it. They build a story of reality specially created for you – they know your fears, your needs, your tastes, your desires. At the beginning, you decide which pages you want to follow or which topics interest you. A robot is attentive at this point and, based on these details, sends you various information.
Then the algorithms decide for you. They tell you which contacts you’ll frequently see and which posts you should find while browsing. Just because one of your contacts doesn’t appear in a specific place in your network doesn’t mean that their last post is very old. The system just didn’t select their posts to appear in your daily updates.
The same thing happens with content. Don’t tell yourself that the news or information you see is the most current or the most important. This is just a careful selection based on your tastes and preferences. And, of course, on how the market can pick you up. In other words, it’s likely that you end up believing that the world looks like what you see on your network when it doesn’t. You just have access to a small bubble created largely by a server.
Reasons to be careful
Have you heard of Jaron Lanier? He is one of the great figures of Silicon Valley, the Mecca of computer systems in the world. In fact, he is one of the most brilliant computer scientists who ever existed. And he’s extremely critical of social media. Previously, he believed that the Internet was the last bastion of democracy. Today, however, he considers the network, and social networks in general, to be a factory of absurd and tribal leaders. And, also, a factory of idiots.
Lanier wrote a book that became a bestseller. His name is Ten Reasons to Immediately Delete Your Social Media Accounts. Each of the reasons corresponds to one of the chapters of his book. Here they are :
- You lose your freedom to decide
- Networks are a form of madness
- They stupefy people
- They manipulate the truth
- Social media take away all the importance of what you say
- They destroy our capacity for empathy
- They make people unhappy
- In addition, they seek to make you lose your economic dignity
- They prevent the genuine exercise of politics
- Social media hate your soul
The reign of resemblance
Why do Lanier and other great thinkers like Zygmunt Bauman claim that networks make people silly? Could this be an exaggeration? Unfortunately, everything seems to indicate not. The Internet does not connect us to each other, but to each other.
This means that it favors the development of micro-dictatorships. Small spaces inhabited by virtual beings which serve as confirmation of certain ideas. We have become more radical and stubborn with social media. And also more simplistic. We think we are smarter and better when we are not.
Staying in a bubble thinking it represents reality makes us foolish. This drastically reduces our panorama. We even end up believing that we are always right and live as if we are the masters of reality. This is the main symptom of our contemporary ignorance and the main consequence of the ideological manipulation of networks.
Our thoughts We all know that there are several ways to manipulate someone: blackmail, insults, bad humor, etc. But there is another form of mani …
