(Anti-)Social Media: How Social Networks Affect Our Neural Networks

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Quick Facts

  • Facebook over 2 billion monthly active users.
  • Over 4.5 billion likes are generated daily.
  • Five new Facebook profiles are created every second.
  • There are 83 million fake profiles on Facebook. (Or “were” if Facebook’s efforts to combat fake accounts are effective.)

Perhaps the most alarming and well-known example was “Pizzagate,” in which a man showed up to a pizza parlor in Washington, D.C., armed with an assault rifle — to rescue what he believed were sexually abused children hidden away in mysterious tunnels beneath the restaurant. He found nothing of the sort — no missing children and no evidence of a child sex ring being run by Hillary Clinton. Why? Because none of it was true. It was an example of real people in real life getting caught in the middle of a fake news conspiracy storm. Sadly, the bubble of social media is provoking a society of copycats in which we look to others to tell us what to think and believe as true — even when it’s not.

Even apart from the furious spread of fake news, this may have been the nastiest election campaign of all time. Social media transformed it into an environment where pathological behavior continued to dominate all else. Cruelty was amplified, escalated, and even encouraged. It became the norm, and Donald Trump led by example — from the names he called his opponents (“Crooked Hillary,” “Crazy Bernie,” “Little Marco,” and “Lying Ted”), to his hostility toward women and people who didn’t support him. On Twitter and on the campaign trail, as soon as the roar from one outrageous comment died down, he would provoke excitement with another.

Even worse, this schoolyard conduct influenced the same in other candidates and Republican voters. You could see people like Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a former Harvard University law professor, go from being diplomatic to competing in back-and-forth tweets and jabs with Trump. Politics and power was no longer about leadership; it was about followership.

Obama Foundation CEO David Simas may have said it best in a recent interview: “Had Donald Trump said the things he said during the campaign eight years ago — about banning Muslims, about Mexicans, about the disabled, about women — his Republican opponents, faith leaders, and academia would have denounced him and there would be no way around those voices. Now, through Facebook and Twitter, you can get around them. There is social permission for this kind of discourse. Through the same social media, you can find people who agree with you, who validate these thoughts and opinions. This creates a whole new permission structure, a sense of social affirmation for what was once thought unthinkable. This is a foundational change.”

Researchers in the field of cyberpsychology study this phenomenon and how technology impacts human behavior. They discovered a growing number of attention-seekers online that identify themselves as “trolls” — that is, people who spend their time teasing, taunting, and harassing others. According to Dr. Mary Aiken, a director of the Cyberpsychology Research Network and author of “The Cyber Effect,” the motivation of trolling behavior seems to come from a combination of boredom, revenge, pleasure, attention, and a desire to cause disruption and acquire power. The constant use of social media also leads people to care more about themselves, to interact less with others in real life, and to decrease their responsiveness to empathy.

Furthermore, anonymity online has become akin to a superpower and has fueled a sense of detachment that leads to bolder, less-inhibited online behavior. It’s the closest thing to invisibility, and studies show increasing evidence that there is a loss of empathy online because of it. With the ability to hide behind a computer screen, online bullies can isolate themselves from the feelings and rights of others. It’s called the disinhibition effect.

Psychologist John Suler recently investigated characteristics that lead to radical changes in people’s behavior online. In addition to the advantages of anonymity and invisibility, the online ecosystem is sometimes regarded as an alternate universe. Like an imaginary world, it allows us to be who we want to be, to portray only the parts of our life that we want to reveal, and to do what we secretly want to do. Online, the usual rules do not apply. Likewise, the lack of governing or policing on social media also points to more incentive for cyberbullies to lash out without consequences. There’s no one to say, “No, this is going too far.” So, if the world seems suddenly more sadistic, the impacts of cyber effects are the probable explanation.

The thing is, we may be emerging from the foggy haze of shock toward our new reality that takes place on January 20, 2017. But social media isn’t going anywhere. Platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook continue to provide news, and serve as a space for millions of Americans to vent, share their thoughts, and react to the world’s current events. There are also vast societal positives to the unmatched level of social connectivity we experience today and to the good that social networks have done in the world.

For better or for worse, the digital revolution is having a monumental impact on our lives, and being connected is more important than ever. But with that comes responsibility. So, can we all agree to be more cognizant of our social media activity? Instead of letting things such as cyberbullying and fake news gain ground, let’s not stand for it. Do something about it. Initiate a world that’s diversely unified and build an online social network of everyday activists. Research lists of popular fake news sites and report them when you see them on social media, or share fact-checking services to create better awareness. Govern your own social media use and try to unplug once in a while. We owe it to our own brains, emotional well-being, and the real-world safety of all Americans to protect ourselves from the adverse effects social media can elicit. Because if we fail to adjust how we ingest information online, we risk becoming more inept at handling the consequences offline.

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