Instaglam, Fakebook and Fitter
In a social media-obsessed world, sharing, commenting, swiping, liking, and retweeting are part of all of our daily lives. Never have our lives been under such scrutiny, where our lives online is just as important as our lives offline. We are living in polarized times in which it is easier to find fault than celebrate success. Human instinct seems to be to critique and find failure. In this picture-perfect Instagram world, it is too easy to edit our shortcomings and imperfections, but the reality is that we all have them. Perfection is the greatest illusion. It is just that we often do not choose to share them for all to see because we all project this image of perfection. Comparison is part of the human condition, an instinctive process that drives us.
Every social media page is simply a curation of snapshots from a moment in time when everything is ‘perfect.’ Humans are conditioned to seek acceptance from others and so alike on a social media post is a sign of approval and social credibility. However, the social media world is the complete antithesis of human connection. In an era where we are disconnecting from reality, we are no longer able to appreciate natural beauty and unedited imagery. This must lead to normative social change where a new generation of young people is subjected to an environment of edited images that depict the perfect life - one that we should aspire to. For example, representations of beauty vary on social media. Women are told that to be a natural beauty, they must have their femininity at the forefront. Therefore, to be perceived as a ‘natural beauty,’ you must cover up insecurities with an insurmountable amount of foundation and makeup. Whereas men should work out to demonstrate that they value their fitness, nutrition, health and by adapting to this they are actively seeking validation for their masculinity.
In the process of scrolling through the reams of algorithmic, curated, and doctored imagery, we are losing valuable connections. By living in the virtual we become isolated, this nurture of these behaviours and loss of connections has led to an increase in suicide rates in recent years.
In just 10 years of existence, Instagram has gained over a billion users worldwide. It has been revealed by whistleblower Frances Haugen who disclosed internal company research proving Facebook, now known as Meta, was aware of Instagram’s role in heightening issues around body image and self-harm in younger users. The government has had to step up its regulations to moderate this kind of content, but many believe that it does not go far enough to protect users.
But social media is not just changing the way we live, it is changing our biology. I recently heard author Johann Hari with business tycoon Steven Bartlett on his podcast the Diary of a CEO, he explained how our attention span is shrinking. He used the analogy of seeing a car crash on a motorway. We have all been there, so I am sure you can all imagine this. You are driving along the M54, and you see the aftermath of a car crash, but on the other side of the road, there is a family in their car singing along to the radio. What do you do? Of course, you stare at the accident to try and figure out what has happened. Perhaps morbid curiosity is an evolutionary process designed to protect us from danger. Hari likened this to what is happening in our social media feeds — negativity is promoted because it boosts engagement.
Hari depicted an experiment carried out by phycologist B.F Skinner, who observed the behaviour of the actions made by pigeons and rats as they tried to learn. `Their experiments suggested that conditioning plays a vital role in establishing habits of behaviour. The action is reinforced by a favourable response, and so they are more likely to repeat. Skinner applied this research into animal behaviour to child language learning. But crucially, Hari believes that the arbitrary reward of a like, a retweet, a comment, or a tag acts as positive reinforcement or Instagratifation, and so we are more likely to repeat our actions. This is the model the social media platforms that we have invited into our lives used to harvest our data. Instagram uses machine learning to work out who we meaningfully interact with, and those people that we are inviting into our lives are promoted in our feed. Of course, this makes perfect sense, but we are often not aware of our negative exposure to it, so we are in most cases unable to control what we see.
Infinite scrolling and notifications keep users constantly engaged by distracting us; personalized recommendations use data to influence our actions, turning users’ data into easy prey for advertisers, but also the darker side of the social media world. We only must take ourselves back to the 2016 US presidential election to recognize how integral Twitter was in Donald Trump becoming POTUS. Crucially, by utilizing Twitter’s negativity promotion algorithms, he was able to promote his campaign by acknowledging how influential Twitter is. By seeing his ideology every day, we were either enraged or enthralled by it - boosting engagement and support around his campaign. The world of social media has become more invasive, not just in politics, but it now has a dominant presence in our lives. Zuckerberg hopes that we will all be living in his Metaverse in the not-too-distant future. Artificial intelligence, claiming to be able to read emotions, is a multi-billion-dollar industry - and it is growing rapidly. Emotion recognition technology is already being used in classrooms to monitor engagement in lessons, marketing, in cars to understand the feeling of the driver, in law enforcement to build an emotional profile of the people in the courtroom, and advertisers to understand the influence of content. But there are also reports that China is using it on Uyghur Muslims in the region of Xinjiang.
I am deeply concerned about the influence social media will have on my generation in the future. I have only been on Instagram for about a year, and I have had days when subconsciously I have compared myself to other people. My generation has adopted this social media ‘community’ as our reality. Fortunately, I have managed to curate my feed properly by only following people who add value to my social media feeds and unfollowing those who do not. As a young woman, though, I know many young girls who spend lots of time on social media, and they are inclined to change what they look like to ‘fit in.’ But I also feel a disconnect from my friends and family because social media cannot substitute connection.
Of course, I am inspired by the incredible social movements that have been founded on social media and how empowering it is. I wondered after George Floyd was murdered by the police officer Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis if someone had not filmed the incident if it would ever have been reported? I remember when everyone was posting black squares with the caption of #BlackLivesMatter to support the movement. In case you did not know, BLM is a social and political movement that highlights racism, inequality and discrimination experienced by Black people. The movement has gained momentum after Black Out Tuesday and people are more aware of the experience of Black people. Hashtags are used widely to make it easier for people to target specific audiences and explore content that is relevant to them, and by building a community of acts, the movement got attraction from the media.
Conversely, #BringBackOurGirls was the driving force behind the rescue of 276 female students who were kidnapped by Boko Haram, a terrorist organization, from the Government Girls Secondary School in Nigeria in 2014. Until influential people like Michelle Obama shared the hashtag, no one noticed the girls were gone. Immediately, the story hit mainstream media and the girls became a global priority. The most powerful counties mobilized a rescue mission, and they sent out helicopters, drones, and surveillance equipment. Although some girls are still missing, many have returned home. This illustrates how powerful social media can be to advance a cause so far from home.
Although social media can be a force for change, build communities and empower people, it can be incredibly dangerous. We cannot just wait for social media companies to act and responsibility; we must take collective action to recapture our attention. A safer future begins with us.
