For most students, waking up may consist of scrolling through social media, catching up on their favorite gossip channels or checking the daily news. In that sea of endless content, something is bound to catch the reader’s attention, potentially filling them with anxiety or rage.
They may be inclined to leave reactions, comments and even send the post to others because of how absurd they feel after seeing the content.
But this is just an ordinary day for the social media feed. Social media is causing division, and this division has become a business.
Social media is a complex business, designed to keep customers invested. A physical example of this is Times Square. Perhaps what keeps people hooked is seeing these giant screens filled with advertisements. Social media does something similar; it keeps viewers invested in exactly the way advertisers want. Through features like likes, comments and reposts, engagement is driven up. This engagement is what makes the whole experience possible.
The hard truth is that everyone likes feeling validated. We like when others agree with what we believe. It gives value to our thoughts and feelings in what seems to be a world that doesn’t care for them.
Now, what if social media advertisers can manipulate that to expand a market? Out of all of these things, what can businesses do to unite a group into one place, make them loyal, and make it seem as if we care for them? The classic: a common enemy.
There isn’t a better way to drive engagement than putting an outsider as ‘the villain’ so people become more invested. With this divide, social media can push attention to advertisers, analysts and politicians.
This has been happening across many of the dominating companies. For example, a team of Facebook researchers once warned the company that their “algorithms are exploiting the human brain’s attraction to divisiveness.” Their response was to do nothing about it, and the research was seen as irrelevant and shut down.
Doesn’t that raise some eyebrows?
It was also discovered that after Elon Musk took over Twitter, the algorithm was modified to push his tweets to the top of the feeds of others. This is an even better example of this is how fast many of these newcomers have grown by exploiting the political divide, promising an environment where their users can feel well-validated.
How would the algorithm react if viewers started seeing just one side of the political spectrum? Predictably, content quickly multiplies until it becomes an endless stream of validation for what was already seen. No counterarguments, just more support for the same thing. Subsequently, more ads are shown per video.
The result is an echo chamber, a digital space where your own beliefs are constantly echoed back to you by the algorithm and other users. When an idea is always repeated and no one is allowed to disagree, it creates a fake sense of agreement that can be easily used by others. This manufactured unity makes the group’s biases highly predictable, allowing both secondary actors and the platform itself to capitalize on them.
People are not just users on social media, but increasingly the ammunition in a war for our attention. The business model of social media does not want us to find common ground, because conflict is more profitable than consensus. We must recognize that the anger we feel online is often manufactured for political or financial gain. This is not specific to the right or left, but applies everywhere and with anything.
The next time you feel a spike of anger from online outrage, pause and analyze the situation. Most importantly, do not let something designed to capture your attention manipulate you for purposes that do not care about you. Your opinions are valuable; don’t let it be twisted into something fabricated for a business.