The Fault Lies Not in Our Platforms, Dear Brutus, But in Ourselves
Chris Bail on How We Misuse Social Media
In previous episodes with Sinal Aral and Helena Rosenblatt, I discussed the social media industrial complex. We spoke about some of the unintended side effects of social media platforms, such as political polarization and the impact on civil discourse and democracy.
My conversation with Jonathan Haidt considered the mounting and troubling evidence of platforms on teen mental health, in particular, increased rates of mental depression and suicide among teen girls. Adam Alter weighed in on the addictive aspects of technology, and Anna Lembke told us about why some people are particularly vulnerable to dopamine addiction.
Political Polarization
In the latest episode of Brave New World, Chris Bail tells us that the larger problem lies deep within ourselves. The conversation evoked one of my favorite Shakespeare lines from Julius Caesar, which I’ve updated to the Internet era: “the fault, dear Brutus, is not in our platforms, but in ourselves!”
In his book, “Breaking the Social Media Prism,” Chris tells us that we use social media platforms as experimental tools to understand ourselves and each other in our quest for things like status and recognition. Chris combines the analysis of large-scale data and detailed field studies to answer important questions around polarization. For starters, how serious is the problem of polarization? Why and how are some peoples’ online and offline behaviors so different? For example, why are some of the politest people in the real world so vile online, especially when they know fully well that they will not change anyone’s mind? Why do some people, like those with thoughtful and nuanced views, do the opposite and disengage? Regarding the platforms themselves, have social media platforms lost their purpose? What would it take to create BETTER platforms with incentives that facilitate healthy dialog on key social issues that are critical to a well-functioning democracy?
Tune in to the Episode of Brave New World with Chris Bail for answers.
Towards Social Media Platforms With a Purpose
What’s especially impressive about Chris is that he actually built a social media platform that was used by real people with diverse political views, where he was able to vary the “treatments” to people (including anonymization) and observe their behaviors over time. The results are encouraging and suggest that experimentation in the wild would yield valuable data. It suggests that the path to better platforms should be shaped by applying science to real data. There are important lessons to be learned from platforms such as StackOverflow, that reward people for answers that are found to be “useful” by a large number of people. Can social media platforms be designed around similar principles, such as rewarding views with wide bipartisan appeal?
In retrospect, our first generation of social media platform operators made some poor management choices, especially around the governance and use of data. We trusted these young operators, perhaps because we were bruised by the great financial crisis which was precipitated by “Wall Street.”
We know better now. Indeed, the name Facebook has become even more toxic than Wall Street used to be. Toxic enough to induce Facebook’s name change to “Meta.” My colleague Aswath Damodaran likens the change in name as going into the witness protection program! But perhaps the current state of affairs augers some hope for a new kind of Facebook with a purpose that goes beyond engagement and profits. My conversation with Chris suggests that we can do a lot better this time around by applying a better blend of science and regulation to platforms with a purpose.
War, What’s It Good For? Absolutely Nothin’
If you have seen the Seinfeld episode about Tolstoy, you know that War and Peace was originally called “War: What’s it good for?!” Absolutely nothing, says Edwin Starr. I agree. I hope the world finds a way for Putin to save face before Ukraine is destroyed.
Talking about torn places, I’m also very much looking forward to seeing the newly released film “The Kashmir Files.” I am still very connected to Kashmir and attend an annual family ritual – now in its 186th year, so I’ve been immersed in Kashmir’s troubled history from the late 50s until now. That’s right – my ancestors have been celebrating theirs on a specific full moon every year at a Shiv temple built by one of them in 1836. What a special tradition you created, Mr. GP Dhar, thank you! I will be there, pandemic or no pandemic.
And if you’re reading this and want to celebrate the occasion with me, come to Kashmir on June 14 this year. You’re invited!
My friend James Robinson says he’s envious about my family ritual and wants a similar one. Its never too late to start one James -- Northern England and Columbia are both fine spots! Better still, come to mine.
Stay safe, and until next time.
V.