Creeps and Geeks Who Use You
Social media tracks everything you read, everything you watch, everything you listen to and most of what you write. They are tracking--not only what you do on their site--but what you do anywhere on the internet. They know where you go, when you go there, and who you spend time with. They know when you wake up, when you go to sleep, and where you work. They know whether you are sick, or pregnant, or if you have a parent with Alzheimers. They know if you buy condoms, what kind of cheese you like, and whether or not you like to cook. They know if you're lonely, if you're in a new romance, or if your marriage is on the verge of divorce. They know what you find funny and what you find enraging. They can predict, not only what youāre going to buy, but the exact day and time when you are about to buy it.
They know if you read the news all the time or if you barely register whatās going on. They know whether you ever talk to people who vote differently than you, or if you never do. They know if you oppose the war in Ukraine, and if you're more worried about free speech or hate speech. They have gathered the smallest nuances about your political views and have recorded the cultural references that resonate most deeply with you. Every time you click or scroll or pause in the middle of a scroll to stare at something a little longer, they record that information and use it to gauge your level of interest. If you type something out and then erase it, they record that, too. Which means, they know even what you decided not to say.
They turn around and sell this knowledge to anyone who thinks that information will be useful in shaping your behavior to benefit themselves.
If a bad actor wants to you to feel worse about a certain politician who you plan to vote for, they can craft the perfect set of posts just for you. To make you feel worse about your candidate, they'll remind you with memes and videos over and over again what you don't like about the politician. They do the same thing with people who are similar to you. Soon, you and all your friends and are reposting negative things about your candidate in your own feeds, even though you're still going to vote for them. The opposition party has just turned you and your friends into unwitting campaign volunteers for the person you didnāt want to win.
If the social media companies themselves prefer a certain candidate, they can swing the influence dial this way or that. Andājust sayingā the last Presidential candidate who wanted to impose privacy laws on the tech companies? She lost.
Politicians could pass regulations to stop all of this, but they have't because they're held captive by corporate donations. For most of them, if they donāt get those donations, they canāt stay in the game. Money is legally considered āspeechā and corporations are legally considered āpeopleā giving corporations the loudest voices in American politics. Tech donates A LOT.
If we want to repair the social fabric and have a functioning political system that actually solves problems, weāll have to take on the tech oligarchs, weāll have to demand regulations on tech and we'll have toāsomehowāaddress Citizenās United. These challenges are bigger than I can even comprehend, but I also think itās the only way. In the meantime, you can delete social media and tell everyone you know what this is doing to us. Raising consciousness is the first step in any social change movement.