Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Yes, consumers can change Facebook’s polarizing behavior

Mark Zuckerberg

It's up to social media consumers to force Mark Zuckerberg and his company to make changes, writes Aftergut.

Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Aftergut is a former federal prosecutor in San Francisco.

The oft-recited close of T.S. Eliot’s celebrated 20th century poem “The Hollow Men” captures a truth about the fall of Rome and other tragic losses: “not with a bang but a whimper.” Meaning that in human affairs, catastrophe seldom arrives via a meteor strike but rather by a slow rollout of flaws that are part of who we are.

The 21st century update may argue that the way the world ends is not with a bang but a click, one short keystroke on a Facebook page.


(Facebook rebranded itself as “Meta” in October, but let’s continue to call it “Facebook” here.)

Many a morning routine starts with a check of a “feed” … the latest news, photos, and updates from family and friends. Our brains get an endorphin rush from likes, emoji hearts, or posted pics from a child or sister. Then there’s the unexpected outreach from a childhood crush or long-lost roommate. Oh, and those photos from Yellowstone or the Amalfi Coast.

Facebook studies neuro-marketing to match its product to our brains. As David Rock, author of ” Your Brain at Work,” has written: “The circuitry activated when you connect online is the seeking circuitry of dopamine. Yet . . we don’t tend to get the oxytocin or serotonin calming reward that happens when we bond with someone in real time, when our circuits resonate with real-time shared emotions and experiences.”

Facebook has mined dopamine brain science to maximize its advertising audience. The results are chilling. The documents that Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen recently revealed make one’s neck hair stand straight up. They tell of Facebook promoting political polarity, driving teen anxiety and feeding negative emotions to draw clicks.

On Dec. 2, we learned that Facebook has been making money selling ads comparing vaccine mandates to Nazism and the Holocaust. This follows a pattern first seen with Facebook posts promoting human trafficking. Although the ads violated Facebook policy, the company ran them, only removing them after news outlets notified Facebook a public story was about to run.

According to Facebook researchers, its algorithm for spreading posts focused on increasing anger in political communications: “Misinformation, toxicity, and violent content are inordinately prevalent among reshares.”

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg resisted proposed changes: “Mark doesn’t think we could go broad” with the fix, according to the documents. “We wouldn’t launch if there was a material [business] impact.”

Internal memos also show that Facebook was aware that its subsidiary Instagram is harmful to children. Per the Wall Street Journal’s exposure, Facebook research confessed: “We make body image issues worse for one in three teen girls. Teens blame Instagram for increases in the rate of anxiety and depression.“

On Oct. 6, Zuckerberg posted a damage-control statement, saying the critique makes no sense: “We make money from ads, and advertisers consistently tell us they don’t want their ads next to harmful or angry content.”

Maybe so but notice what he didn’t say: That ad buys have dropped, or that Facebook has taken steps to decelerate its spreading of harmful messages. Filippo Menczer, Indiana University professor of informatics and computer science, has written about ways to do so.

In Zuckerberg’s post trying to quiet the storm, he also asked, “If social media were as responsible for polarizing society as some people claim, then why are we seeing polarization increase in the US while it stays flat or declines in many countries ... ?"

Pu-l eeeeeeze. No one said social media is solely responsible for polarization. Different countries have different national histories of discord, racism and xenophobia. They also have had different leaders and have applied differing governmental remedies. All these factors produce disparate levels of polarization.

Shell-game PR sophistry doesn’t get a CEO off the hook for damaging society.

Today, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri testifies before a Senate Committee. Some say only Congress can crack down on Facebook. But it’s no newsflash that Congress is paralyzed, frozen in inaction by special-interest contributors, including Facebook. Is it sensible to leave regulating dysfunction to the dysfunctional?

The point here is that anyone troubled by Facebook putting profits over healthy children and society can replace their Facebook habit and not add to its profits. After all, advertising revenue turns on subscriber numbers.

Life is not only possible after Facebook; it can be better. A 2019 report found that your brain off of Facebook yields “more in-person time with friends and family ... less partisan fever ... [plus a] bump in one’s daily moods and life satisfaction. And ... an extra hour a day of downtime.”

With trust in Facebook falling, and reasons to drop it rising, there are alternative social media sites for friends and family to join. Responsible news curators and outlets abound that don’t organize insurrections, tell us in a million ways we’re not good-looking enough, or spending enough time in Tahiti. Plus, they don’t work overtime to addict us.

Young women recognizing the damage Instagram wreaks have started to use it for messaging but not posting. Support and resources on sites like Good for MEdia build healthy resistance to FOMO and peer pressure for those declaring selective independence from social media addiction.

As for dropping a habit, I can’t say, “There’s an app for that.” But if you’re motivated, each of us has an aptitude for it. Together, maybe we delay the world ending with a click or a whimper.

Read More

Entertainment Can Improve How Democrats and Republicans See Each Other

Since the development of American mass media culture in the mid-20th century, numerous examples of entertainment media have tried to improve attitudes towards those who have traditionally held little power.

Getty Images, skynesher

Entertainment Can Improve How Democrats and Republicans See Each Other

Entertainment has been used for decades to improve attitudes toward other groups, both in the U.S. and abroad. One can think of movies like Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, helping change attitudes toward Black Americans, or TV shows like Rosanne, helping humanize the White working class. Efforts internationally show that media can sometimes improve attitudes toward two groups concurrently.

Substantial research shows that Americans now hold overly negative views of those across the political spectrum. Let's now learn from decades of experience using entertainment to improve attitudes of those in other groups—but also from counter-examples that have reinforced stereotypes and whose techniques should generally be avoided—in order to improve attitudes toward fellow Americans across politics. This entertainment can allow Americans across the political spectrum to have more accurate views of each other while realizing that successful cross-ideological friendships and collaborations are possible.

Keep ReadingShow less
Microphones, podcast set up, podcast studio.

Many people inside and outside of the podcasting world are working to use the medium as a way to promote democracy and civic engagement.

Getty Images, Sergey Mironov

Ben Rhodes on How Podcasts Can Strengthen Democracy

After the 2024 election was deemed the “podcast election,” many people inside and outside of the podcasting world were left wondering how to capitalize on the medium as a way to promote democracy and civic engagement to audiences who are either burned out by or distrustful of traditional or mainstream news sources.

The Democracy Group podcast network has been working through this question since its founding in 2020—long before presidential candidates appeared on some of the most popular podcasts to appeal to specific demographics. Our members recently met in Washington, D.C., for our first convening to learn from each other and from high-profile podcasters like Jessica Tarlov, host of Raging Moderates, and Ben Rhodes, host of Pod Save the World.

Keep ReadingShow less
True Confessions of an AI Flip Flopper
Ai technology, Artificial Intelligence. man using technology smart robot AI, artificial intelligence by enter command prompt for generates something, Futuristic technology transformation.
Getty Images - stock photo

True Confessions of an AI Flip Flopper

A few years ago, I would have agreed with the argument that the most important AI regulatory issue is mitigating the low probability of catastrophic risks. Today, I’d think nearly the opposite. My primary concern is that we will fail to realize the already feasible and significant benefits of AI. What changed and why do I think my own evolution matters?

Discussion of my personal path from a more “safety” oriented perspective to one that some would label as an “accelerationist” view isn’t important because I, Kevin Frazier, have altered my views. The point of walking through my pivot is instead valuable because it may help those unsure of how to think about these critical issues navigate a complex and, increasingly, heated debate. By sharing my own change in thought, I hope others will feel welcomed to do two things: first, reject unproductive, static labels that are misaligned with a dynamic technology; and, second, adjust their own views in light of the wide variety of shifting variables at play when it comes to AI regulation. More generally, I believe that calling myself out for a so-called “flip-flop” may give others more leeway to do so without feeling like they’ve committed some wrong.

Keep ReadingShow less
People on their phones. ​

In order to achieve scale, many civic efforts must also reach Americans as media consumers, where Americans currently spend much more time.

Getty Images, Xavier Lorenzo

Reaching Americans As Media Consumers – Not Only As Participants – To Improve the Political Environment

Current efforts to improve how Americans think and feel about those across the political spectrum overwhelmingly rely on participation. Participation usually involves interpersonal interaction, mostly to have dialogues or to collectively work on a project together.

These can be valuable, but in order to achieve scale, many efforts must also reach Americans as media consumers, where Americans currently spend much more time.

Keep ReadingShow less