What is it designed for?
The solution to these problems is using places that are built for them. So if you are using a place built for business it might not be good for public discourse. If you are using a place built for extreme privacy it might also not be good at connecting you with a large amount of people. I have come up with four areas:
- Business
- Discussions
- Relationships
- Ourselves
The thing is when we use these applications in ways they are not designed and used for that is when we're harming society and that is harming ourselves. You wouldn't have a political discussion at a drunk party... At the same time if someone criticized you at a drunk party - would you take any of it seriously?
What is Instagram Designed For?
Instagram was designed to share photos and videos. It was created to be engaging and addicting. It has dopamine driven algorithms that specifically target you to come back for more and more.
What is Instagram Not Designed For?
In-depth conversations, debates or complex discussions. It was not designed to build healthy friendships or relationships.
What do people use Instagram For?
People use Instagram to share their lives, art, memes and body with their followers and other people. You can post something and people can comment on it and learn more about each other. You can kind of use it to connect with people, but because its mostly consumerism and strangers online - it's mostly fake connections. Your followers are not really your friends. Many people will also just use it for attention and external validation. But it's mostly financed through organizations that need to sell their products and now have a large audience they can pander to.
How is Instagram Harming Society?
Instagram pressures young girls to show sexualizing pictures of themselves in order to have "high status" or to be seen as "cool" or "valuable". Of course all of it is distorted and fake. Since everyone is practicing false confidences this leads to feelings of low-self esteem, anxiety, and depression, because people get their entire validation off an Instagram post. The only way to be cool is to have a lot of followers - is to have the high status - is those "likes" - to be young and to be stupid.
How can Instagram Help Society?
It can help connect people with other people. It can show you more information about other people.
Snapchat
What is Snapchat Designed For?
Snapchat was designed as a messaging app where photos and videos are sent instead of text and AR filters and lenses can be added to enhance the subjective value. Stories allow for sharing of photos and videos with friends all over the world.
What is Snapchat Not Designed For?
In-depth conversations, debates or deep discussions. It was not designed to build healthy friendships or relationships.
What do people use Snapchat For?
People use Snapchat to send photos or videos to each other. Especially among groups of friends. Filters and lenses are used for entertainment and humor. It's also used for external validation. Sometimes people will just post stories to attack specific people or destroy reputations which I find really disgusting. They are creating useless drama to get subjective validation because they can't find other ways to actually derive meaning from their life which is really sad. Kids and teenagers will also send nudes to each other on it (Basically CP). Imagine being in charge of looking at the Snapchat data. Or even worse imagine if a data breach happened. Jesus Christ.
How is Snapchat Harming Society?
Snapchat's design encourages shallow interactions and external validation through appearances leading to increased anxiety, stress, and depression. There is also a lot of fake behavior and hyper consumerism with people seeking attention by posting idealized versions of themselves (like Instagram). Also, teenagers will send nudes to each other on it. Yes teenagers are that stupid.
How can Snapchat Help Society?
Snapchat offers visual communication. It can be a really fun way to connect with others through the AR filters. I am really excited to see what AI could potentially due to enhance AR. I am sure they are well aware of what new AI tools are capable of it. Should be fascinating.
Twitter (X)
What is Twitter Designed For?
Twitter is designed for sharing thoughts and opinions in short concise messages known as tweets. Users can share photos, videos, and news and engage in others by tagging them or mentioning them.
What is Twitter Not Designed For?
In-depth discussions, complex conversations, arguments, or nuanced ideas due to its 280-character limit.
What do people use Twitter For?
Following and engaging with others. News. Sharing information quickly. And quickly communicating with others through short messages.
How is Twitter Harming Society?
Twitters fast-paced nature can lead to the spread of misinformation, fake news, online harassment, abuse, and the creation of echo-chambers, that reinforce extreme ideas which in-turn polarizes and divides society. And yet, it is used by world leaders, presidents, prime ministers, and top major CEOs. They all rely on Twitter as a tool for public opinion, for public discourse. They use it to communicate with each other. To have arguments with each other. Our leaders are using systems which are terrible for public discourse and good communication, and they use these systems to enact policies, to learn more about the world, and to implement ideas. It is upmost insanity. What does it say about us and our value system when we refuse to admit this? What does it say about our leaders, our educators, and our parents when they can not admit this is an issue? Maybe our leaders and policymakers shouldn't be using systems which is garbage for communicating.
How can Twitter Help Society?
Twitter can spread important information fast which can be helpful in disaster like scenarios.
What is Facebook Designed For?
So Facebook originally was designed for social networking, connecting people with their friends, family, and relationships. It allows for people to share their thoughts, opinions, and experiences through texts, photos, and videos. And build organizations through groups, pages, and events. The Social Network. It also manipulates people and collects user data to target advertisers.
What is Facebook Not Designed For?
In-depth discussions or debates, but rather for quick updates and social interaction. Although it has features for commenting and sharing information it is not built for nuanced or complex ideas and conversations that can leading to higher critical thinking skills.
What do people use Facebook For?
People use Facebook to stay in touch with their friends and family, share updates about their lives, access news, promote businesses and events, attack others, spread opinions, spread propaganda, spread false information, and push political agendas. You can imagine billions of people using this to get more informed about the world and how problematic that would be considering it's not built for discussions or conversations.
How is Facebook Harming Society?
Ah, yes the boomer Facebook algorithm.
Facebook spreads misinformation and fake news. It creates algorithmic filter bubbles that only expose people to reinforcing beliefs which allow for manipulation. It encourages an idealized version of oneself with posts that portray a perfect image that is not real (like Instagram).
When I look at the older generation of boomers I do not see a generation that is capable of leading the younger generation. I see a whiny, petty, sociopathic and narcissistic generation still stuck in their high school or college years still trying to relive some status through their children by posting all their photos or videos of them online. Does it ever occur to them that maybe their kids and babies do not want their personal pictures shared with the entire world?
It gets even worse with Facebook groups. Groups of boomers just harassing whoever does not share their beliefs and posting literal garbage.
But the real issue is when we use this place as a place to get informed and to make decisions. The Cambridge Analytica scandal really highlighted this. An organization basically manipulated millions of people to think a certain way. If organizations can manipulate large swarms of people to believe in certain things because people are dumb enough to get their entire world view from a post - then how is a democracy or a government going to survive when the leaders of these tools can influence and manipulate how millions of people think? When society uses these tools to get educated then what does it say about our society?
How can Facebook Help Society?
It's great for business. It allows organizations and people to share information all over the world.
YouTube
What is YouTube Designed For?
YouTube is a platform for sharing and watching videos with a wide range of content available from educational to entertaining videos. It's easy to use and businesses can use it to promote their content to users. It also has algorithms built in that addict you by showing similar videos which can be really annoying if you clicked on a video you don't like.
What is YouTube Not Designed For?
Youtube's comment section is not meant for real interactions or complex discussions. Lots of Youtube comments are made by little kids and little kids are typically very stupid, so it's hard to take any of it seriously.
What do people use YouTube For?
Entertainment, Education, and Business. Good side providing more of an informed view about something that could potentially help society and themselves. A bad part is people just using it for manipulation, attention, and money just like all of social media. There is a very fine line here.
How is YouTube Harming Society?
A lot of videos are just geared towards manipulating children to get the highest view count possible to make as much money as possible. So with that you don't get the best content in the world. You get highly manipulative fake content with fake people. Some particular videos can influence the ways kids think in ways that are not good. I can think of the Elsa gate disaster and how truly disgusting that was.
General false information that is not true can influence how millions of people think when the information is presented in a certain way because people are very easy to manipulate (like all social media).
And yeah, the family vlogs are weird. Much, much worse than the family Facebook baby photos. Imagine having parents record your life daily every day and post all the crap online. Imagine having that happen during those awkward teenage years. Imagine having narcissistic parents obsessed with social status or social media drama or Tiktok videos. Jesus Christ.
How can YouTube Help Society?
YouTube has provided access vast amounts of information and knowledge in a video format which was previously unavailable to people. Most people would not read a 40,000-word essay, but if take that essay and put it in a video you can share that information to so many more people around the world. There is good and bad with this, but we have never had a tool quite like this in history.
Tiktok
What is Tiktok Designed For?
Is designed as a video sharing application that specializes in short form videos. Users can create, share, and discover entertaining content personalized for their interests and viewing history. The app has an extreme highly addictive scrolling feature.
What is Tiktok Not Designed For?
In-depth discussions or complex debates due to the format of short videos.
What do people use Tiktok For?
Entertainment, Education, Political Messaging, Propaganda, Attacking others, Useless Attention, Destroying Reputations, etc.
How is Tiktok Harming Society?
Tiktok is like a really addictive drug. There are reasons for this but the psychology is fascinating. Imagine having millions of short videos pushed to you on anything you want. People do not care about anything other than the app, which is very dangerous for their mental health. The ability to be disciplined and to work hard and to have attention spans, to have actual goals, and to read and absorb information over a long period of time (like reading a book). It takes away from that.
Tiktok sends all users' data to China. Supposedly its not just data within the app but also data outside the app (so other data you have on your phone). Apparently this was known for years but because the U.S. does not have security and privacy laws that protect its citizens from big companies harvesting user data we gave Tiktok a free pass.
So hundreds of thousands of organizations and corporations are supporting this Chinese spyware milking as much money as humanly possible from hungry addicted kids and teenagers. This should not surprise anyone. Money will ALWAYS come first before anything in our money driven capitalistic society.
And to be honest it really doesn't matter anyway. China basically has millions of little spyware programs built into every facet of our technology anyway. Oh, well.
Also, I need to talk about the sexualization that Tiktok has on our culture. I mean all of social media has pretty much has sexualized the culture. I will make another blog post on the impact that social media has on sexualizing young kids. And yeah Tiktok has got to be a breeding ground for pedophiles (along with Instagram and Snapchat). Disgusting.
And going back to the Young and Stupid Attitude allows kids to severely harm themselves. There are numerous examples of young kids dying from doing stupid Tiktok trends or whatever. Imagine doing this crap to maybe "fit in" or be seen as "cool" by culture. Imagine millions of school children constantly filming each other.
Tiktok 'Influencer' enters someone's home
And of course who could forget about the Suicide Challenge
How can Tiktok Help Society?
Tiktok can make corporations and businesses more money. It can give people more subjective value through short entertaining videos. It may be able to teach people more about the world in a video format.
What is Reddit Designed For?
Reddit was designed for sharing and discussing a wide range of topics and interests. It provides a space for users to engage in discussions and build communities around common interests.
What is Reddit Not Designed For?
Deep discussions, arguments, and conversations. It's more for light forms of discussions.
What do people use Reddit For?
People use Reddit for news, to see what a bunch of people think, share knowledge, and stay up to date on news and thoughts.
How is Reddit Harming Society?
Reddit allows for echo-chambers to occur (more so than really any other social media app I've talked about). Where communities can have their own rules and their own moderators and from that you can get really toxic behavior, harassment, group-think, group biases, doxing, harmful beliefs, dumb beliefs, and circle-jerks. It's really focused on addicting you for that subjective value, for that manipulation, and because of that the discussions are not constructive - they are more destructive. And you get crappy criticism like ad hominin attacks (like twitter). Some Subreddits will just attack people over and over and over again.
Note this is just one of many examples
And it's worse than traditional groups in the sense that you have that aspect of constant circle jerking and the kid bully mentality.
How can Reddit Help Society?
You still have light discussions, connecting communities, and chatting with people. And that is nice you can read forums without having an account. But a lot of other forums do the same, so I really do not see a point in it other than it's the most popular.
4chan
What is 4chan Designed For?
4chan was designed as an imageboard website where people can submit their ideas freely without censorship. There are still rules in place, but it allows a lot more freedom to express ideas than a lot of other places. Even though technically there is no manipulation algorithm built in and even though it's not financed by businesses, due to the nature of how it is created the most toxic and offensive content gets bumped to the top and that is what you see. And with extreme ideologies it gets really toxic and stupid quickly.
What is 4chan Not Designed For?
Organized discussions, conversations, and advertising (it's the exception in that regard).
What do people use 4chan For?
Sharing memes, trolling, news, or discussing sensitive topics they might not be comfortable to discuss IRL.
How is 4chan Harming Society?
Basically like all of social media, the more attention you can get - the more successful you're. However, on 4chan you're anonymous, and the replies are unfiltered. So basically the more polarizing and controversial the thread is, the more its bumped to the top. And because stupidity is rewarded (see a pattern here?) people naturally start thinking and believing in stupid things. Eventually they might even act upon it.
The anonymous nature of 4chan allows people to get away with more extreme ideologies and harmful behaviors, which can result in online harassment and doxing. It's terrible for arguments and public discourse, but because you don't have censorship you can not get controlled narratives unlike Reddit where they have echo-chambers. But people can still make bot posts and spam threads.
Doxing on another application (like twitter), might not be that bad. But doxing on 4chan... Oh, boy.
How can 4chan Help Society?
4chan can allow people's to discuss topics that they might not be able to discuss in their own country (like an authoritarian country) or IRL. However, if you want to do this there are much better alternatives out there. The 4chan community is disgusting and overrun by bots anyway.
Discord
What is Discord Designed For?
Discord was designed as a real time voice, video, and text communication between individuals and groups. It was originally designed for gamers to communicate with each other.
What is Discord Not Designed For?
Public posting or sharing news, content moderation, text discussions or arguments. I mean texting isn't really the best way to discuss important topics. Calling is better, but still not the best.
What do people use Discord For?
People use discord to connect with others who share their interests whether its gaming, classes, or simply meeting new people online. It can also be used for texting calling individuals or organizations.
How is Discord Harming Society?
Discord is used as a grooming site. Some older individuals can go on their and basically try to groom kids to follow their sexual ideology on a discord server. Imagine how many kids are getting groomed on these discord servers.
Discord is also spyware. And when I say spyware, I don't mean that it collects the user data that you give it or whatever - I mean it collect your data on your devices and other apps. Yeah, I don't feel comfortable having logs of my texts or voice conversations logged to a particular company. Imagine having hours of sensitive personal conversations with someone logged to a specific company. And when a data breach happens all that comes out.
How can Discord Help Society?
Discord can provide a space for people to connect with others who share their interests. Many people can build their friends and communities through discord that they would not have been able to IRL.