How Social Media Influences and Controls us in our Daily Life
Hey guys, It’s been some days since my last post. Hope you’re all doing well. This time rather than going into Cyber Security, let’s delve into one of the most common things!
Social media became a major part in our daily life, Surprisingly enough It plays a part which has negative impacts rather than positive ones, how? you may wonder. Let me explain it in simple terms.
The effects are so subliminal and minute that you wouldn’t even feel it when you’re being misled.
For example, we can take Instagram, the most used platform for almost every activity, be it sports, entertainment and digital media, Instagram has it all. Now, what’s wrong with Instagram? it’s just an app isn’t it? That’s where we’re making a mistake.
Instagram has the most sophisticated amount of Machine learning Algorithms, they aren’t AI, they work purely on how you spend your time on the app. Let’s say, you open the app and see some reels, the reels are visually enticing and attractive, Have you ever seen a bad video in Instagram reels? with a bad distorted resolution and audio? I’m sure you haven’t. They simply doesn’t exist. If they do, they would be having almost no attention from the public. The algorithm works by carefully analysing your watch time, and catering to your emotional needs.
let’s say, you view a complete reel and like the reel which is related to cricket, now the upcoming reels would be based on entirely cricket, such as memes, popular cricketers’ content, etc. It learns from your behaviour and makes your attention span constantly up.
The whole content in the platform is indexed into different different categories. Now, the amount of categories is infinite, like there are literally millions of things that could be there. So yes, It’s purely automated, no human intervention/supervision is needed.
The content is made especially for you to be glued to your phone, be it Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat. They all work on the same principle. Their end goal is to make you watch and spend as much as your time possible on their platform.
Now, coming to posts from friends/peers and your own posts, the number of likes is directly proportional to your mood, If the likes are low, you wonder what’s wrong? and probably feel a sense of down feel. That’s how they simply control how you feel.
It shouldn’t be like that. We should learn to enjoy our own company and solitude and away from other peoples expectations. Social media makes us addicted to such opposite lifestyle.
Dangers to Women
These are just a few things that I’m aware of and wanted to discuss, there are many other bad things that are connected to social media such as Identity theft and especially if you’re a woman and openly post about your daily life and images of yourself publicly, any Person with malicious intent can download those content and use them for ill purposes. You might say “My account is private!” A perpetrator can send follow requests to your known friends and act as one of them and eventually send you the same. She team and police department exists, but prevention is better than cure.
End notes
I highlighted Instagram because of it’s wide usage and the sheer amount of content and information that is being posted everyday. It is astonishing how well they are being made, yet we aren’t aware of these negative things. The negative things simply outweigh the positive ones in the context of social media.
So, I just suggest everyone to spend less time on these platforms and spend more time on your personal and professional goals and more importantly spend more time with your family.