The Matrix Has Arrived: Social Media Promised To Connect Us, But Left Us Isolated, Scared, and Tribal
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About a year ago I began to follow my interest in health and fitness on Instagram. Soon I began to see more and more fitness-related accounts, groups, posts and ads. I kept clicking and following, and eventually my Instagram became all about fit people, fitness and motivational material, and advertisements. Does this sound familiar?
The digital tribe
Eventually, the algorithms expose us mostly to the ideology of one “digital tribe” – the same way my Instagram world became only superfit and active people. This is how one’s Matrix can become the extremes of conservatism, liberalism, different religions, climate change worriers or deniers or other ideologies. Members of each tribe keep consuming and feeding one another the same ideology while policing one another against opening up to “the others.”
We are inherently tribal creatures anyway; but particularly when we’re scared, we regress further into tribalism and tend to trust the information relayed to us by our tribe and not by others. Normally, that’s an evolutionary advantage. Trust leads to group cohesion, and it helps us survive.
But now, that same tribalism – along with peer pressure, negative emotions and short tempers – often lead to ostracizing those who disagree with you. In one study, 61% of Americans reported having unfriended, unfollowed or blocked someone on social media because of their political views or posts.
Higher levels of social media use and exposure to sensationalized news about the pandemic is linked with increased depression and stress. And more time spent on social media correlates with higher anxiety, which can create a negative loop. One example: The Pew Research Center reports 90% of Republicans who get their political news only from conservative platforms said the U.S. has controlled the COVID-19 outbreak as much as possible. Yet less than half of Republicans who rely on at least one other major news provider thought so.
The Matrix does the thinking
Human thinking itself has been transformed. It’s now more difficult for us to grasp the “big picture.” A book is a long read these days, too much for some people. Scrolling and swiping culture has reduced our attention span (on average people spend 1.7 to 2.5 seconds on a Facebook news feed item). It has also deactivated our critical thinking skills. Even really big news doesn’t last on our feed longer than a few hours; after all, the next blockbuster story is just ahead. The Matrix does the thinking; we consume the ideology and are bolstered by the likes from our tribemates.
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Before all this, our social exposure was mostly to family, friends, relatives, neighbors, classmates, TV, movies, radio, newspapers, magazines and books. And that was enough. In that, there was diversity and a relatively healthy information diet with a wide variety of nutrients. We always knew people who were not like minded, but getting along with them was normal life, part of the deal. Now those different voices have become more distant – “the others” we love to hate on social media.
Is there a red pill?
We need to take back the control. Here are seven things we can do to unplug ourselves out of the Matrix:
- Review and update your ad preferences on social media at least once per year.
- Confuse the AI by flagging all ads and suggestions as “irrelevant.”
- Practice being more inclusive. Check other websites, read their news and do not “unfriend” people who think differently from you.
- Turn off cable news and read instead. Or at least put a disciplined limit on hours of exposure.
- Check out less biased sources of news such as NPR, BBC and The Conversation.
- If you think everything your tribe leaders say is absolute truth, think again.
- Go offline and go out (just wear your mask). Practice smartphone-free hours.
- Finally, remember that your neighbor who supports the other football team or the other political party is not your enemy; you can still go for a bike ride together! I did today, and we didn’t even have to talk politics.
It’s time to take the red pill. Take these seven steps, and you won’t give in to the Matrix.
This piece was co-authored with Maryna Arakcheieva, who is expert in digital solutions and marketing.
Arash Javanbakht is Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Wayne State University.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.