I was so excited when I read the two textbooks on General Theory of Communication... they all came back.
Audience Commodity Theory: The main product of mass media is the audience's attention. Social media packages the audience's leisure time (attention) to advertisers. "If you're not paying to use the product, then you're the product, and the gradual, slight, imperceptible change in your behavior and perception is the product."
"When creating the 'Like' button, our whole motivation was: 'Can we spread positivity and love in this world?' Fast forward to today and teens get depressed because they don't get enough likes, or Likes can lead to political polarization, things we couldn’t have imagined at the time.” And the sole purpose of social media today is commercial gain. Optimize algorithms, cater to, lure addiction, and increase user stickiness. The world is becoming more polarized, people are becoming aggressive, angry, vain, and disingenuous. "An entire generation is more anxious, more vulnerable, more depressed. They are more risk-averse. The rate at which they get a driver's license has been declining. The number of people who have had a date or any other form of romantic interaction is falling rapidly." Depression and anxiety tendencies have multiplied, and suicide rates have multiplied, and the starting point of growth is the year when social media logs onto mobile platforms. It’s really painful for me to see this. I have a lot of friends around me who are socially phobic, diagnosed with anxiety, depression, have attempted suicide, and take medication regularly. To what extent is it due to the influence of mobile social media?
I am surprised that there are so many high-level bosses (founders, investors, technical engineers, ethical designers, CEOs) who have worked in Silicon Valley in the film who are willing to step aside to discuss this issue and devote themselves to the cause of reform. Of course, social responsibility may only be considered at the top level. Of course, it is impossible for the operating dog who is counting on the growth of users in that month to jump out and say that we need to restrain the addiction of the product! Previously, a classmate Wenqing was crying and running away after an eight-day internship in a certain place. "What is it? It's just making false propaganda for the garbage big v", but isn't everything "propaganda"?
The performance of the algorithm recommendation in the film is anthropomorphic, but it is understandable, because it may need to be exaggerated to make some people realize the seriousness of the problem more directly. Another video focused on the rumors about the new crown on various platforms. Of course, I will not be naive enough to think that there should only be "right" and "true" information in the world, but that one really showed me that it collapsed, why do we Living in such ignorance, why is ignorance so easily spread, I am so uncomfortable. "Truth is boring." Social media doesn't know what truth is, it just recommends things you tend to see. But we should have a basic consensus on some truths.
At the end of the film, there are some suggestions from the big guys: "Turn off all notifications on the phone", "Leave the phone outside the bedroom half an hour before going to bed", "My child can't use social media until high school", "I will pay attention to some I don't identify with people because I need to understand different perspectives and information." A lot of it is really impossible. Because even if you know the rationale behind it, all the manipulations, you can't help but keep checking the news and scrolling down to get new videos. Only one size fits all, only one size fits all? I need to grow without being manipulated as much as possible, develop a mature, awake, discerning, defensive, self-healing brain, and then jump into this cannibalistic abyss, maybe so.
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