Social Media: Mass Behavior Modification and Revenue

July 16, 2018

File this one under “Things That Are Not Big Shock,” but experts have recently been taking a closer look at the trends in social media that tend to ruin this platform. Big surprise, the fact that money is to be made is usually the root of a lot of bad behavior, as we discovered from this cheeky, but somewhat useful Guardian story, “Six Reasons Why Social Media is a Bummer.”

While it lists its gripes against social media in alphabetical order, the points are pretty good, like:

“The mass behavior modification machine is rented out to make money. The manipulations are not perfect, but they are powerful enough that it becomes suicidal for brands, politicians, and other competitive entities to forgo payments to Bummer enterprises. Universal cognitive blackmail ensues, resulting in a rising global spend on Bummer.”

It’s difficult to imagine that social media will change its tune or suddenly go non-profit. Not with the fact that it is a platform custom made to attract the eyes and wallets of millions of users. Just look in the news and you’ll see a controversy that bubbled up on Twitter nearly every day. We can’t see patterns changing when so much money is to be made from so much attention.

Patrick Roland, July 16, 2018

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