Don’t Sell Your Emotions on Social Media
By: Amey Band
Tags: AI, Social Media, Emotional Intelligence, Instagram, Facebook

Before reading the article, I would like it if you take some time and think about the changes in your social and professional behavior since you have started using social media.

Have you got anything?

No!

Don’t worry. Take a long breath and start reading the article.

“THE TECHNOLOGY THAT CONNECTS US, ALSO CONTROLS US.” — Social Dilemma

Social media isn’t a tool that’s just waiting to be used. It has its own goals and it has its own means of pursuing them. There are 3.81 billion social media users in the world with an increase of 9.2% users every year. Have you ever think why there is so much user engagement on these social platforms?

Everyone is fascinated by social media features. It helps in making the users feel involved. It helps to stay in touch with what my friends are doing, to stay up-to-date with news and current events, to increase general networking with people, to find funny and entertaining content, to share photos & videos with others, to share your opinion on any current issue, and many more.

“But what if I tell, you are nothing but a product to sell for the social media!!”.

Now you can question me how you are claiming us to be the product?

The simple answer is ‘Data’, I don’t know whether you are aware of the facts or not, the AI techniques that are integrated into these social media platforms monitor your smallest to smallest action like an engagement time on a particular post, type of post that you liked, shared or commented, your reaction on the post your friend liked or shared, what’s trending in your area respective to the GPS location, types of accounts you search for or follow them.

Collecting all this data, media giants understand your interests, likes, dislikes, perceptions, motives, nature, and most importantly your emotions.

Now if I would like to summarize what I stated until now, then I would say, “YOU ARE TRAPPED!!”

Photo by Artyom Kim on Unsplash

I think you got a glimpse of an idea about the objective of the article. Let’s divide the article into two parts now, first why I said you are the product to sell? and second, why I exclaimed you are trapped!!

The complex to complex algorithms designed by the expertise in social media giants totally worked on the data you provide them on your clickable actions and post engagements.

Consider a situation where you are liking animal posts continuously 10–12 times, then a human will easily figure out that you are fond of animals but what in the case of machines?

Analyzing the data, understanding your behavior, finding out the patterns, and test the learnings with your emotions.

That’s how they build the predictive models, forecast the outcomes, and get constantly updated with the new data.

Now just think, I am running a company that deals with the manufacturing of gym types of equipment and sells in the market. Now I want help from social media, so I sponsor an ad just like say on Instagram charged of a certain amount and hoping for high customer engagement.

Now think, you live near my company’s location and you are a fitness freak that Instagram knows. Then of course you will get the ad on your Instagram feed and will manipulate you to buy the types of equipment and if in case you are looking for some cool stuff and you like the products mentioned in the ad then you will sure to purchase it and obviously, I will say I got a new a customer.

“That’s great! How cool is social media!”

Now again you can question me that what’s the wrong deal about this, after all, I got what I want. It’s of my interest so it’s good that I purchased it. But deeper down when you will think about it, you will understand that social media sold you because you are the perfect customer for that type of product. Instagram knows you have liked this much count of fitness posts, you follow fitness influencers, you share fitness posts and many more. That’s where your interests play a vital role. They are utilizing your data to suggest the best possible recommendations and in return, you can't restrict yourself to purchase it. That’s the same predictive modeling is used in maintaining your social media feeds where you get videos recommendations, post referrals, or product ads based on your interest and indirectly they force you to involve in these things and spend more time scrolling the posts, buying the items which in turn make huge revenues for them. The recommendation engines are that much capable to keep track of your every action and updating the suggestions continuously so that you can’t able to detach it from yourself. You repeatedly scroll your feed and keep the flow on.

Whenever we search for a product on e-commerce sites, after viewing 2–3 items we get the same product ad on our social media feed, email, etc. They are playing with your mindset, they push notifications after a certain interval of time so that their ultimate goal of keeping you involved is achieved and lastly you will be get manipulated to purchase that product.

Coming back to my second exclamation, You are trapped!! Excess of anything is harmful if you are unable to feel it at present then for sure you will experience it in the future. I would like to share some social media facts which will disturb you for sure.

Photo by Sydney Sims on Unsplash

95% of social media using teens have witnessed cruel behavior on social networking sites.

of social media using teens have witnessed In the world, 80% of teens use Facebook , and 54% of those experienced cyberbullying.

of teens use , and of those experienced 9X higher chances of identity fraud .

. Engaging in dangerous & harmful activities including reckless behavior, substance abuse, or self-injury.

including reckless behavior, substance abuse, or self-injury. Higher risk of depression , trouble in sleeping , ongoing sadness , losing interest from favorite activities.

, trouble in , ongoing , losing interest from favorite activities. Sharing of inappropriate content/misinformation distribution.

distribution. Relationship threats , abuse, intimidation, faking perfection , social comparison, and self-esteem increase.

, abuse, intimidation, , social comparison, and self-esteem increase. 140–150 mins daily time spent on social networking sites worldwide. 39,757 years collectively spent per day on FACEBOOK .

daily time spent on social networking sites worldwide. collectively spent per day on . 25% of the users have admitted to being distracted during intimacy . 14% have risked their own safety.

of the users have admitted to being distracted during . have risked their own safety. According to MIT Research , fake news spread 6 times faster than real news on Twitter .

, news spread faster than news on . 62% of the population worldwide confesses to believing fake news.

of the population worldwide confesses to believing fake news. 89% of Americans believe that social media is responsible for spreading misinformation.

of Americans believe that social media is for spreading misinformation. 29% of the population deleted/removed social media accounts because they felt overloaded by it.

of the population because they by it. The Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi has 60% of fake followers on Twitter while US President Donald Trump has 37% and Congress Party Member Rahul Gandhi has 69% of fake followers on Twitter.

Social media growth in India, which has risen from 137 million to over 600 million in 2019 leads to fake news distribution (230 million Whatsapp users highest in any country).

There are only two industries that call their customer’s ‘USERS’: ILLEGAL DRUGS & SOFTWARE

Now after reading all these facts, just ask yourself where you are using these social media platforms effectively or rising problems for yourself.

If we think about fake news distribution, we can’t trust anyone who is sharing real news. If we think of a social comparison, we can’t decide whether the guidance of any person will be beneficial for us or not. If we think about relationships, we never know when we will get disheartened and that will lead to depression and anxiety.

Social media is an unauthorized spy who knows everything about you like interests, mental condition, week plan, location, birthday, relationship, health, habits, next food order, visits, mentor, success, failures, and many more things that you also don’t know about yourself.

“Social media is training us to compare our lives, instead of appreciating everything we are. No wonder why everyone is always depressed”. — Bill Murray

S haring our data is our responsibility, what to share, when to share, how to share, why to share, whom to share all these things will be responsible for your future actions.

Photo by Ross Findon on Unsplash

In the end, I request you it’s a social life please don’t make it so much personnel. Don’t post your feelings. Don’t share your emotions. This is not the kind of world where you think I will get genuine advice from others, Nooo! don’t expect this from social media. There are so many people gonna judge you based on your post engagements, make perceptions on it but you just want to trick them. Enjoy your weekend fully social media free, spent time with the loved ones, and invest time in your favorite activities. Finally, I will suggest you think about your current situation and work on your mentality to utilize such social media platforms in a more effective way so that it will help in your potential growth. Don’t use social media to impress people, utilize it to impact people.

I hope this article brings out a valuable change in your social & personnel life. Thanks for reading the article.

Now it’s up to you, choose wisely.