We live in a world where some things change quickly while other things change more slowly. Technology tends to change more quickly than our social constructs.
Social media provides a good example of this. In his book Supercommunicators, Charles Duhigg points out that we’ve only been communicating online since the early 1980’s. It’s no wonder that we’re not very good at it yet!
Two issues concern me about our social media usage. First, people tend to post inflammatory content when they’re upset about issues that threaten one or more of their identities. Second, people tend to surround themselves with others who have similar views on threatening topics. These issues play out in slightly different ways on the various existing social media platforms.
To address my first concern, I think we need to develop better social norms for online communication. Some social media platforms have algorithms that encourage nasty behavior to get more views, to get users to spend more time on the platform, and to earn more advertising dollars. As a society, we should have a say in promoting algorithms that encourage users to connect in positive ways. Our social norms are likely to evolve as we spend more time online.
To address my second concern, a combination of approaches may be needed. Again, we should have a say in promoting algorithms that foster diversity in our online networks. Humans have always self-selected the groups that they want to join. Nevertheless, our most effective organizations tend to be those that value diversity. Online groups should be no different. We can nudge each other to improve our self-selection processes, and we can reward social networks that make this easy.
I do have other concerns regarding social media. Studies have shown that heavy social media usage is responsible for making a lot of us feel more lonely. At the same time, I recognize and value the many positive impacts of online social networking in our lives.
While social media is here to stay, the various platforms and the level of our engagement with any of them are likely to keep changing.
This is as it should be.
Leave a Reply