Is Social Media Destroying Society? Former Facebook Exec Says 'Yes'

[equality]

Deleted IG, Snapchat and FB. Nothing changed.
FB is definitely declining, at least in the US. The really ironic thing about all this is when influencers who offer nothing but booty shots complain about being seen as a sexual object. If your entire image relies on your ability to spike sexual arousal then you best be comfortable as a sexual object. Nobody is following you because of your witty and creative captions and hashtags.

 

[sooperhooper]

Deleted IG, Snapchat and FB. Nothing changed.
FB is definitely declining, at least in the US. The really ironic thing about all this is when influencers who offer nothing but booty shots complain about being seen as a sexual object. If your entire image relies on your ability to spike sexual arousal then you best be comfortable as a sexual object. Nobody is following you because of your witty and creative captions and hashtags.

Well said. Couldn't have said it better myself.
When do they complain about being seen as sexual objects? I want to see this to get a good laugh.

 

[DCAllAfrican]

Truth behind every joke

 

[sooperhooper]

Because he's only one person liking it vs thousands of people liking it. Numbers.

 

[jaymosenvied]

She's not ugly though

 

[DCAllAfrican]

She's not ugly though

Who.......nvm

 

[sooperhooper]

Currently reading this and it's great so far. One quote that i loved was "Life is more convenient than ever, but convenience has also weaponized temptation."
The fact that we can get anything in an instant has to have some hidden consequence over time.

 

[getback]

I always find it hysterical when an IG thot's post gets reported, taken down and they go on a rant about "their haters" because they have to repost it and start the "likes" all over again

 

[DCAllAfrican]

 

[ninjahood]

. If your entire image relies on your ability to spike sexual arousal then you best be comfortable as a sexual object. Nobody is following you because of your witty and creative captions and hashtags.

hence why broads who built their brand on thirst traps go over like a lead balloon on Twitter.

 

[HankHill]

Even crazier are the chicks who create backup accounts for you to follow Incase the get reported.

 

[marikomorose]

Even crazier are the chicks who create backup accounts for you to follow Incase the get reported.

its their bread & butter

 

[sooperhooper]

A Serial Twitter Follow/Unfollower Explains Himself

"I’m just trying to get eyes on me. It’s a big attention game online... the end goal for me is just be on as many screens as I can."

www.vice.com

 

[datboi81]

Nothing worse than “Deleted at 47K” in a profile.

 

[finessence]

Or..... “200k followers”.....

“someone buy me food”

 

[DCAllAfrican]

1:03:00 Mark'

Bill sits down with former Facebook executive and head of Instagram Adam Mosseri to discuss some of Facebook's criticism, how social media platforms are addressing bad actors, the upcoming 2020 election, innovating Instagram, athletes on social media, and more (1:03:22).

Luka vs. Trae, Kyrie vs. Chemistry, and Canelo vs. Kovalev With Chris Mannix, Plus Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri | The Bill Simmons Podcast from The Bill Simmons Podcast | Podcast Episode on Podbay

Listen to Luka vs. Trae, Kyrie vs. Chemistry, and Canelo vs. Kovalev With Chris Mannix, Plus Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri | The Bill Simmons Podcast, an episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast, easily on Podbay - the best podcast player on the web.

podbay.fm

 

[fluid hips]

Social media media has a lot of pro athletes trying to be more than an athlete. Their athletic career takes a backseat for celeb status.

 

[DCAllAfrican]

 

[sooperhooper]

It's really making people more and more superficial.

 

[ninjahood]

FB is definitely declining, at least in the US.

naw, its just not showing da level of growth that its showing overseas.

da smartest thing they did was buy Instagram thou.

 

[ninjahood]

if ready player one becomes da norm... clothes won't matter, people will spend real money on game items like they do now on fortnight.

 

[H3HK]

How Removing ‘Likes’ From Instagram Could Affect Our Mental Health

How removing 'likes' from Instagram could affect our mental health

Social media appeals to users through a repetitive rewards system, so what happens when it takes away the likes?

www.pbs.org

Today, 500 million people will check their Instagram. And many will keep checking, and checking and checking because humans seem to crave the platform’s visual and social rewards.

But excessive social media use can be problematic, leading tosleep disruption, productivity loss and interpersonal conflicts. While “social media addiction” remains a highly contested term in the scientific community, the similarities between online interactions and addictive behaviors are raising concerns.

That’s why Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, has started testing out a new policy to remove visible likes from the platform. While users could previously see how many likes others had received on their posts, now they will only see the likes on their own photos.

Instagram first started hiding likes in Canada back in May, and has expanded the trials to Ireland, Italy, Japan, Brazil, Australia and New Zealand. The platform started testing removing likes in the U.S. in November.

But while the loss of likes might improve mental well-being, that little heart-shaped button has become a profitable tool for influencers, with 3.7 million brand-sponsored posts made on the platform in 2018. Influencers use likes as a means of attracting advertisers, and now they will have to recalibrate how they do business.

But, Instagram is making this change, even if it hurts business. CEO Adam Mosseri, explained recently at the Wired25 Summitthat anxiety and social pressures that come from the app “are becoming more acute, particularly with young people, particularly in a mobile-first world.” Instagram pointed to these statements after PBS NewsHour contacted the company for an interview for this story.

Here’s how the experts think removing the like button could affect users’ brains and influencers’ clout.

Why People Get So Attached to Social Media

When we get a notification that one of our social media posts has received some type of interaction — whether that’s a like, comment or share — it’s uplifting.

“We’re hardwired to find social interactions rewarding,” said Dar Meshi, a cognitive neuroscientist at Michigan State University.

This social reward system activates the ventral striatum, a part of the brain that focuses on decision making and reward-related behavior. It’s the same area that’s fired up when people gamble, enjoy a slice of cake or have sex, and cognitive neurologist Ofir Turel thinks this is why checking social media is so enticing.

“Every time we think about it or see someone else using social media, our brains are trained that social media is an enjoyable activity,” said Turel, who works in the Department of Information Systems and Decision Sciences at California State University Fullerton.

Meshi described these online engagements as pleasurable social experiences, just like when a listener nods their head in agreement when you’re speaking or someone gives you a compliment.

Imagine if every time you go to a bank, you get your balance, but you also see the balance of other people. It will cause most people to feel annoyed or dissatisfied with what they have…
— Ofir Turel, cognitive neurologist

Another attractive feature of social media is that when we post, we don’t know how many likes we’ll get and when we’ll get them. Turel said because of our fear of missing out, we tend to check social media more frequently because we don’t know when this new information will appear.

Behavioral psychologists B. F. Skinner and Charles Fersteruncovered this habit decades ago — in pigeons. They randomized when the birds would receive rewards after pressing a button, and found that pigeons would press the button thousands of times in hopes of receiving a reward. Turel compared the pigeons’ compulsive behavior with humans persistently checking social media apps.
“Sounds crazy, right?” Turel said. “But we as humans are not very different from that.”

Turel believes that younger Instagrammers are more tempted by social media’s reward system because of brain development. In his words, the brain’s reward systems develop very quickly and mature at a young age, he said, but the mental regions that manage self control don’t finish developing until later on. This may lead to excessive social media use, Turel said.

“They have a very mature accelerator, but the brake system is not mature yet,” Turel said. “For example, they go on social media and they want to see one video, and they’re sucked in. Two hours later, they realize they’ve watched 200 cat videos.”

Does This Ever Count as Addiction?

It’s not so simple.

Although it may not be as severe as well-researched types of addiction, Meshi said repeatedly checking social media for online interactions still activates the brain’s reward system similarly to other addictive behaviors, like a gambler pulling the lever at a slot machine.

But there are several key distinctions between problematic social media use and a substance addiction.

Compared to the consequences of drug addiction, which can completely destabilize a drug user’s life, leading even to criminal behavior, Meshi and Turel agreed that the negative effects from social media use are minor.

Additionally, Turel said that withdrawal symptoms differentiated social media overuse from other types of addiction. Disconnecting from social media may cause irritability, but addiction withdrawal symptoms can be physical and severe, like sweating and shaking.

How Will Influencers Cope With the Changes?

Though the loss of the like button might not make a massive difference for users with smaller followings — say, under 1,000 followers — Evan Asano, founder of the influencer marketing agency Mediakix, said the change could alter how influencers do business.

“Likes have been the standard of measurement up until now” Asano said. “It’s an easy standard to measure engagement.”

When brands select influencers to market products, they pay attention to the influencer’s engagement rate, or ratio of likes to followers. Chances are, the more the audience engages with an influencer’s post, the more valuable the influencer is for brands.

Asano said the industry will need to find a new metric for gauging influencers’ worth, which could be comments, but argued the new policy might not have a huge effect. It might simply change how advertisers and agencies gather metrics. For example, Mediakix can independently track its influencer business numbers in a campaign database.

“Instagram is growing like crazy still,” Asano said. “It’s great having people express themselves rather than posting the same type of photo, because that’s the one that gets the most likes.”

So What’s the Takeaway?

Under the new policy, likes would no longer be visible to others. Only the profile owner would be able to see like counts on their own photos.

“The idea is to depressurize Instagram,” Instagram’s Mosseri said. “We’re trying to reduce anxiety, we’re trying to reduce social comparisons.”

As it turns out, Turel said that losing the ability to see how many likes your fellow ‘grammers get could greatly impact how we use the app. By removing likes, Instagram also takes away reference points for users to compare their numbers to others.

Turel believes this could make Instagram a safer environment; one Michigan State University study published earlier this year found that excessive Facebook users were more likely to make riskier decisions — in this case, gambling and with losing more money in a simulation.

“Imagine if every time you go to a bank, you get your balance, but you also see the balance of other people,” Turel said. “It will cause most people to feel annoyed or dissatisfied with what they have, and that would prompt them to engage in riskier behaviors.”

Left: Neuroscientists say younger users are more tempted by social media because the brain's reward system develops quickly and matures at a young age, but the mental regions that manage self control don’t finish developing until later on.

 

[ALNotSure]

I find the memes about war tacky and classless. It’s like people have no conscience and can’t have better judgement.

 

[sooperhooper]

I find the memes about war tacky and classless. It’s like people have no conscience and can’t have better judgement.

It's not "like"... People have no conscience and likely don't have better judgement.

 

[cosmiccoffee9]

It's not "like"... People have no conscience and likely don't have better judgement.

nah I don't think it's that (completely)...I think it's that most people alive today didn't live through the last big war when pretty much every city in Eurasia was burned to the ground and a couple cities actually got nuked.

wasn't a damn thing funny about that ****, but people can have short memories.