Social media have now permeated all aspects of life. They have become part of our interactions
with family, friends, and our communities. They have been
integrated with work and commerce, dating and sex, health
and well-being, information gathering, and spirituality.
It is an appropriate time to reflect on the extent to which they fulfil their promise improve human interactions and community.
Because of their communicative abilities, their institutional
arrangement, and the
ways we use them, social media
produce effects and create issues that cannot be dismissed and ignored. Contemporary
events and research are revealing significant effects of social media and the issues they pose for society.
The critical issues surrounding social
media use and policy efforts involve authenticity of the communication, artificiality of community, individual behavioral and
cognitive issues, narcissistic and dangerous behaviors, and anonymity and anti-social
behavior.
Authenticity of the communication
Concerns about two types of
authenticity are raised in social media use. The first involves the genuineness
of the involvement and participation in activities and events. The second
involves the extent to which one’s true self and character are revealed and the
influence of external influences on that revelation
Although social media allow communication, they tend to reduce participation in and authenticity of experience by imposing
themselves on experiences, sometimes becoming more important the experiences themselves. Their mere use interferes with
absorption of the experience, atmosphere, and emotions and the processing their
meaning and significance. This limits observation, contemplation and
significance of experience.
Authenticity
is also challenged because much social media activity
involves performance and image creation. This involves presenting an image of self that one would like others to perceived. Most social
media posts show us as happy, active, enjoying life, interesting, and successful.
This raises issues of whether we are who
we say we are; how accurately we portray ourselves and our emotions; and if we
present ourselves or who we would like to be?
Artificiality of community
Artificiality involves movement away
from naturalness and originality. It involves construction of something through
imitation and affectedness that is not as genuine or pure as that being
contrived. There are significant issues surrounding the genuineness of social
media communities that call into question its success at creating community.
Social media
create a false sense of closeness and community. We may have many acquaintances on
social media, but most of us have few true friends there. There are few real intimate interactions using social media.
Community is also challenged because social media separate as well as
bring individual together. Rather than making us part of larger
communities, social
media fragment us into smaller groups.
This creates communities
and groups based on group and interest affinity. These
narrow communities tend
to produce “echo chambers” of opinions and ideas rather than exposure to
diverse ideas and opinions. We don’t expose ourselves to different people and ideas. We pay attention to and hear only comfortable opinions
Individual behavioral and cognitive issues
Social media have been associated with
many behavioral and cognitive issues by social science and health researchers.
Social media use is associated with reduction
in physical activity and this is especially a problem among teens. This issue tends to lead to
depression and weight gain
Social media use is associated with reduced
attention span and Interferes with listening and learning. It promotes short
attention spans to mediated content and tends to heighten attention deficit
disorder.
Researchers
have shown that social media can intensify existing psychological conditions
such as obsessive compulsive disorder, addictive compulsion, narcissistic
personality disorder, body dysmorphia, social anxiety, social isolation, depression,
and voyeurism. Although social may not be the cause of the conditions, social
media use creates conditions that makes them
worse.
Narcissistic and dangerous
behaviors
Social media
promote narcissistic and dangerous individual behaviors. They induce and
reward narcissistic exhibitionism
in which individuals make themselves the center of attention, intrude on
activities and events, act selfishly, and disregard the suffering of other.
This is seen in photos people take and share of themselves at accidents,
fires, and tragedies.
Social media
can lead to risky behaviors, such as hanging from high buildings or cliffs.
Their use reduces awareness of surroundings and each year thousands of
people die walking into paths of vehicles, being attacked by animals they are
photographing themselves with, and by using social media while driving.
Other forms
of unsafe social media behavior observed include sharing too much information, trusting
anonymous relationships, addictive symptoms, and sexting and sexcasting.
Anonymity and anti-social behavior
Anonymity involves being unidentifiable. When anonymity
exists, it reduces the bonds of community, connections to others, and social
obligations. It produces impersonality and diminishes the sense of responsibility for one’s
actions.
Anonymity increases bad behavior in digital media. It releases
individuals from the restraints of social norms, makes individuals more willing
to make negative and outrageous statements, increases willingness to use
language not normally used, and creates ability to threaten and attack without
disclosure of source.
Social media thus create a hospitable
and less observable environment for bullying, extortion, and stalking. Women
are particularly harshly targeted online and in social media by other women and
men. Their physical attributes adjudged and maligned, mental abilities
denigrated, threats of violence and rape are made after they express opinions
on issues, and coordinated attacks are sometimes made by multiple parties.
Social media
have also become vehicles for hate speech, trolling, and threats
against racial, ethnic and religious minorities and those with opinions that
others disagree.
Social media create enhanced potential for manipulation and
propaganda because source of information or advertisements are often
uncertain or less evident and because of difficulty checking accuracy or veracity. Social media are especially problematic
because they rapidly spread and repeat messages. Such repetition of misinformation or false
information leads to its acceptance by large numbers of people.
Increasing policy intervention and demands
These issues and use factors are
creating significant public policy challenges globally. For the most part,
digital platforms are without responsibility or—in some cases—shame. Most perceive themselves as common carriers. Most don’t believe they have responsibility for, or they are uncomfortable with, determining how people use their platforms or what they say. Many social media executives have difficulty seeing or admitting the
effects of their activities.
Social media thus create a conundrum involving the values of individual
expression and desires for a noble social ethos, a nurturing culture, and the
maintenance of social order. Demands for regulation of social media are increasingly globally, mainly because existing
policies, laws and regulations are often not suited for effectively dealing
with challenges and issues that social media pose.
The greatest efforts are focused on child
pornography, extremist uses and posting, hate speech, and copyright violations.
Germany now provides fines up to $60 million for not removing hate speech
within 24 hours of notification, the U.K. is trying
to establish a 2-hour
take down time for extremist posting, and the U.S. Congress considering
measures to control political advertising on social media.
Increasing
efforts are also being made to address stalking, revenge porn, bullying, and encouragement
of suicide.
There is
growing social pressure for self-regulation by social media. This is being
promoted as corporate social responsibility activities because uses of the
platforms are increasingly important to their own reputations, share values, and avoiding
regulation. Primary issues companies are trying to address are harassment and threats,
portrayals of suicides and encouragement of suicide, fake news, manipulative
advertising, and false accounts.
This brings
us back to the question: Are social media improving human
interactions and creating community?
The answer
is “Yes but….”
Yes. They
make it easier for individuals to communicate and create narrow communities in
ways not possible in the past, but it comes at a cost....A good part of the communication is
disingenuous, artificial, and socially detrimental.
Social media are relative new to society,
but this is not the first time new technologies and new communication
opportunities have appeared in society and posed new social issues. History has
shown that it takes time for society to adjust to the transforming developments
and the challenges they create. It takes time for the implications to be
understood, for new institutional and economic arrangements to develop, for
their values and norms to be established, and for policy and regulation to
appear.
That understanding is developing and responses are underway. The overall trend for social media and
the internet is now one of it becoming tamed, commercialized, and constrained. The
degree to which they become so and how it will affect their abilities and
effects remain to be seen, however.
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