Social media channels are powerful tools that are impacting our society, both in positive and negative ways. The problems related to them include fake news, online bubbles, online bullying, attention engineering, misuse of personal data, and addiction. Overuse of social media platforms can lead to depression, anxiety, and loneliness.
In this rapidly changing world of technology, social media platforms were created and massively used without much analysis and consideration of its effects on people and society. Now we are facing a lot of problems that seem to be surprising most people using social media. It is time to analyze, reflect and deal with these issues. Social media has proven to have also a very positive effect of bringing people together and giving them agency (as seen in movements like the #MarchForOurLives and #MeeToo), so yes, there’s still hope. But social media must be fixed.
How are we designing the next generation of social media?
Some resources:
Book List: • Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products (Nir Eyal) • Persuasive Technology: Using Computers to Change What We Think and Do (Interactive Technologies) (BJ Fogg)
Article List: • The Center for Humane Technology manifesto: http://humanetech.com/
• https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/17/16903844/time-well-spent-facebook-tristan-harris-mark-zuckerberg
• Is social media bad for you? The evidence and the unknowns. — BBC — http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20180104-is-social-media-bad-for-you-the-evidence-and-the-unknowns
• RSA — The new rules of persuasion (http://captology.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/RSA-The-new-rules-of-persuasion.pdf)
Thinkers to follow: • Tristan Harris • Dr. BJ Fogg • Nir Eyal • Kristian Simsarian