Guest Editorial: The Social Media Machine

In the recently released Netflix documentary "The Social Dilemma," Tristan Harris, President and Co-Founder of The Center for Humane Technology was quoted as saying, "If you aren't paying for the product, then you are the product."

Sex trafficking, black market organ sales and slavery are all considered deplorable by our society, yet more than two billion people are being marketed and sold every day, consensually, and we barely notice.

Roughly forty people are designing algorithms meant to hijack the thoughts and habits of billions of people, and are completely unregulated while doing it. And the worst part, they know what they're doing is unethical, and even killing people, but they chose to turn a blind eye. They are doing business in a market that is made entirely of human futures and the data that comes with them.

This documentary features the very people who have founded, invested in, worked for and even designed the software for tech giants like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and more. In the film they are all trying to tell us the same thing: our very society is being purposefully targeted and destroyed by major corporations at unprecedented speeds, for unprecedented amounts of money.

Still, it is the case that youth think social media is harmless and adults think they can control it and keep themselves and their children safe. The reality is the very creators of these algorithms that are tracking your EVERY MOVE are saying you need to wake up. They have realized the dangers and are begging you to open your eyes and realize the real-life consequences that are facing each and every one of us. Yes, this includes individuals who don't have social media accounts or even smart phones. Your elections, your taxes and most importantly your relationships are at stake, whether you have social media or not.

Any business in the history of man would jump at the chance to guarantee their ad would be successful. This means successful predictions of outcomes, and these predictions are made based our data. Advertisers are paying big for your life, your attention, everything they can squeeze from you.

"It's the gradual, slight, imperceptible change in your behavior and perception that is the product" said Jaron Lanier, the Virtual Reality founding father. In the film The Matrix no one in The Matrix knows that they are plugged in. They are having their own thoughts, making their own decisions, living their lives...Right? No, they are a small cog in a big machine that is sucking the very life from them for its own good. In our reality, that machine is social media, run by artificially intelligent systems, sucking everything they can from us for the richest of the rich in this world.

They know when you are depressed, anxious, or lonely. They know what they need to do in order to get you to pick up your phone. Once you have it in your hand they will show just the right content to keep you on it. When your attention slips they know, and start sending out new notifications and content to suck you back in. You are, as they say in the documentary "a voodoo doll", and they know just where to poke to trigger your behaviors, emotions and attention. Your attention starts slipping from Facebook, so you refresh your feed a couple times, they see this. Suddenly there is a political ad, a news story about riots and unrest, pictures of you and your best friends, they've got you. You are angry, laughing, sad, whatever they need you to feel to stay connected.

Older teen girls are 62 percent more likely to self-harm than they were ten years ago, and 70 percent more likely to commit suicide. Younger teen girls are 189 percent more likely to self-harm and 151 percent more likely to end their lives.

These skyrocketing rates align perfectly with social media being on mobile devices. Fake news spreads six times faster than factual news. We think "How could people believe these things?" Well, that's what THEIR news is saying. We all get our own personalized truths. People are killing each other over fake news, they are destroying their communities, losing friends they once loved and breaking families in half and it's designed that way.

A divided nation is a profitable nation in the social media industry.

The social media giants are testifying at our nation's capital, to our own senators and representatives, and trying to convince them that they ALONE have the solution. They claim they can self-regulate. It is lies. The only solution is us pushing for change.

We as communities must push for regulation of these companies, for ownership of our own data, for massive changes in the ways these companies are taxed, etc. That is how we fight back, for ourselves, our neighbors and our children. The depth of this plight can't be contained in one article so I impress upon you, turn to the machine itself and start Googling things like, Surveillance Capitalism, Data Mining and Persuasive Technology. More importantly, message that person who unfriended you, apologize to the person you attacked on social media and spend time face to face with the ones you love.

You can never get your precious time back, so give it to your loved ones, not to the billionaires who are trafficking it each and every day.