The For You Page is Really For YOU: An Essay About Social Media
By: Evan Shvetsov
Tags: Social Media, Data Collection, Psychology, Sociology, Democracy

The For You Page is Really For YOU: An Essay About Social Media Evan Shvetsov Jun 1·5 min read

The apps on your phone probably know you better than you know yourself. We all have noticed those oddly specific ads on the internet about products or services that we have either talked about or even just contemplated. For example, you just got a new phone and start seeing several ads on Instagram depicting phone cases specifically for the model of the device you have just purchased, but you swear that you have done no research or given any possible indication that you may be in need of such a product. This is one of the many ways that the predictive AI algorithm present on all modern social media platforms manifests itself; alarmingly enough, this type of technology is not restricted to effective product placement.

Social media platforms use this algorithm to calculate and present individualized content. It incorporates many variables, such as what posts an individual liked, saved, or commented on, as well as tracking the amount of time the consumer spent perusing the post or advertisement. The liking system on apps such as TikTok and Instagram is extremely intuitive, requiring just a quick succession of two taps on an image or a video to indicate that this type of content is “liked” for one reason or another. Each post has certain defining characteristics that are also taken into account by the AI, such as hashtags, the associated accounts, the text present in the post, as well as the other individuals who have “liked” the post. Eventually, once enough “liked” posts have been accumulated in association with an individual’s account, the predictive algorithm can make extremely accurate predictions as to the type of content the aforementioned individual is likely to “like”, therefore, creating a sort of unique digital fingerprint.

This fingerprint can accurately describe a myriad of things, including, but not limited to, the interests, age, and political orientation of the person to whom this digital fingerprint belongs, as well as the people or groups this person may be affiliated with. The psychological phenomenon known as confirmation bias plays a vital role in this system. People tend to “like” posts that coincide with their worldview, that being in terms of politics, religion, or other beliefs of the individual. This effect is only exacerbated by the simplicity of social media’s interface. It only takes two taps of the screen to “like” the post; little thought is typically put into what posts are “liked” or ignored, especially when the individual is mindlessly scrolling through Instagram or TikTok for a prolonged period of time. In psychological terms, this mindless usage of the platform, in conjunction with the inherent sense of privacy regarding online activity, which is present in social media platforms, bypasses most conscious social filters; this provides, for the most part, an unadulterated representation of the user’s likes and dislikes.

Scruitinizing someone’s “For You” page for long enough, one can gain a fairly accurate understanding of the nature of the character of the individual in question; a “For You” page belonging to a vegan, for example, will be filled with PETA and vegan-related content and a “For You” page of a Neo-Nazi will undoubtedly be replete with dog whistles, swastikas and other fascist symbolism. This is one of the most prevalent dangers of contemporary social media. The predictive algorithm presents an individual with specialized content, predominantly confirming their worldview, no matter how flawed; this will continue to feed that individual’s delusional or immoral philosophies. This content serves only to strengthen their views, rather than presenting arguments encouraging them to question whether or not their beliefs are based on fact or sociopolitical fantasy.

“Repeat a lie often enough and it will become the truth”, a quotation often attributed to Nazi Minister of Propoganda Joseph Geobbels, provides insight as to how social media potentially affects the beliefs of its users at the psychological level. The vast majority of media content contains an opinion of some form, and social media is the contemporary paradigm of informational exchange. More information is provided to a person consistently browsing Instagram a few hours a day over the course of month, than a person living in the 15th century would be able to attain in a lifetime. According to psychological theory, we do not truly forget anything as all of the experiences and knowledge we acquire reside in our subconscious, yet the vast majority of the human experience is deemed “irrelevant” and remains repressed in our subconscious, such as what you ate for breakfast on the second Monday of October 2020. Therefore, most of these opinions an individual comes to face while browsing their apps are internalized. Information that a person does not reject unconsciously piles up in the individual’s psyche, serving as the invisible mortar for the ideological beliefs that have been constructed for them.

The digital fingerprint is continuously analyzed by algorithms created for purposes ranging from directed advertising to national security. “Liking” a TikTok or an Instagram post, discussing how to make a bomb, and / or one that is related to a terrorist organization, automatically puts an individual on a digital watchlist for further screening. However, this kind of technology may very well lead to a technocracy. People with digital fingerprints which identify them as supporters of “undesirable” groups or ideologies may be digitally branded as political dissidents and suffer consequences in their physical lives. A social credit system (similar to what is currently being developed in China), will track activity both in the physical and digital worlds and assign individuals a social credit score. If an individual has a low social credit score, they may be unable to open a bank account, buy a house, or even have access to basic amenities that people in North America often take for granted, such as food and clothing. The definition of “bad behavior”, actions that reduce an individual’s social credit score, can range from committing fraud to “liking” a post that doesn’t coincide with the nation’s political agenda. For a country, this kind of system is extremely beneficial as it greatly facilitates maintaining ideological cohesion of the population, while serving to the extreme detriment to those who oppose this draconian technocracy.

Every technology throughout history has been employed for a certain purpose, usually finding itself pertinent for a myriad of functions, stemming from the central raison d’etre. For example, the primary use of a plane is to fly, but this functionality arborises into many different sub-functions such as transportation of goods and individuals, farming, and military use. Social media is not exempt from this quality; though primarily a form of communication and entertainment, it also serves as an immensely effective form of data collection. Facebook, the parent company of Instagram, was subject to an international scandal regarding the unsolicited collection of data of over 50 million users, culminating in a lawsuit where Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, was summoned to appear in court. The question is, were these contemporary forms of social media created with the purpose of data harvesting in mind? If so, who receives this data?

Social media is the most effective tool ever invented in terms of communication and social control. Previously, the internet was a place where anyone had true freedom of expression and consumption of information, however, it has now become as regulated as the rest of the informational outlets available to us today. Will we remain idle and pray that our right to personal privacy and freedom of expression will not be violated by a “Big Brother-esque” bureaucracy, or will we take individual and collective action to ensure our security and prosperity, not to mention the stability of the ethical, ideological and informational components of our civilization as a whole?