How Social Media Turn Societies Upside Down

The principles of successful communities are inverted by social media.

Reviewed by Lybi Ma

Successful real-world communities follow a few basic rules that maintain civility and order. These rules are neglected in social media. Indeed, they may be turned completely upside down. That is why social media may increase anxiety and loneliness.

Simple Rules for Simple Communities

In properly functioning communities, every individual is valued regardless of ability, or social status. A child is as deserving of attention as an adult and an old person gets the same consideration as a young person, and so on. There is universal basic respect.

The second principle (universal civility) is a practical ramification of the first. Because every person is deserving of respect, the community practices universal civility. This means that members of the community greet strangers with the same consideration as they would greet an acquaintance.

Universal civility works best in a community where most of the individuals know each other but typically breaks down in large cities where one encounters mostly strangers.

The third principle is a willingness to follow rules that reinforce cooperative behavior and punish bullies and cheats.

A functional community is easy to recognize because its members are well-integrated, and happy. Social media networks clearly fail this test. Indeed, the longer young people spend online, the lonelier they report themselves to be (1). There is something terribly wrong with social media (2). The problem is that they are run by an engagement algorithm that ignores the principles of successful communities.

Enter the Engagement Algorithm

Social media are failing their users because they are corrupted by money, by the profit motive. This is implemented by the engagement algorithm that runs social media content feeds. The engagement algorithm is good at monetizing social media attention but undermines, even inverts, the three rules of successful communities.

Large media companies like Facebook monetize sensationalism, hate and antisocial expression and behavior. Forget about universal civility and basic respect! Their platforms also lack the social control mechanisms that maintain civil relations in real-world communities.

These issues can be illustrated by the triggering of a genocide in Myanmar, in 2016. At this time, the Internet was new to the country and access was largely through Facebook. Government propaganda was treated as though it were reliable journalism.

Around the globe today, news coverage is skewed towards coverage of interpersonal rivalries, scandalous rumors, and conspiracy theories because this is the content that attracts readers. The engagement algorithm promotes petty rivalries and hate speech more generally. In the process, it is turning the rules of simple communities on their heads.

Turning the Rules Upside Down

The main problem is that the worst actors receive the most attention. This is partly due to basic human psychology. The child who throws the most, and worst, tantrums gets rewarded with a monopoly of parental attention and the underlying psychology is similar on social media.

The most effective way for parents to deal with tantrums is to give the child a time out during which they are punished by withdrawal of parental attention. The engagement algorithm does exactly the opposite.

We should not be surprised that key voices on the Internet are of people behaving badly whether it is wealthy actors squabbling over their divorces, scantily clad influencers, politicians insulting each other, or a person spinning the most unhinged conspiracy theory. (Conspiracy theories are alive and well despite some recent efforts at fact-checking).

Real-world social interactions are organized very differently. People who behave obnoxiously are avoided like the plague. They become pariahs and their reputational damage brings real-world consequences.

While uncivil people are punished in real-world social networks, those who are kind and civil get rewarded. They are greeted warmly in public. They get engaged in conversations and are invited to join in leisure activities and social occasions. In real life, attention mechanisms operate almost exactly opposite to how the engagement algorithm works.

Real-world bullies and cheats are treated harshly. They are socially punished and exposed to the rigors of law enforcement. Online bullies operate with near-complete impunity, however. They go unchallenged because potential opponents would face the same kind of abuse.

Internet trolls often operate under a cloak of anonymity – whether by hiding under fake profiles with spoofed identities, or by using virtual private networks that make them impossible to trace. This shields them from reprisals. There is no protection for young people who experience anxiety and depression in a society dominated by virtual communities (3).

Can social media be fixed? It is hard to say because they have been a law unto themselves. There are really just two options. Either we cure them, or we quit them.