So we started as the GEN-Z kids, where we were served more data and internet than we were served family, mindfulness, and nature. First, we were distracted by being made to watch certain content that was not specifically harmful at first, but it lead to an algorithm that took us into the chain reactions leading to more and more wilful distractions that added up to something that we termed as the ADDICTION.
The addiction that was discovered and is still uncovering itself in humanity was not specifically rooted or designed to invade or polarize human behavior for evil in the first place, but this polarization was directly proportional to the level of capitalization. In the long term with more and more participation from the public, it made the Technological Manipulative Mechanism [TMM].
This manipulative mechanism gained a life of its own and evolved through different media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat for the latest. by putting on a mask that didn’t involve any second-guessing by a single human until a certain point of captivation, like the current.
It was not a forced inhibition or corruption of the psychology of human behaviour, but this was done to us by using our own information and our interests via monitoring or tracking our activity, associations, and time spent on each piece of information by different servers that essentially proved to be the SOCIAL MEDIA TRAP. Channeling them into our most viewed media.
Ever wonder, why they save your recent activity, the links you have visited, the posts you have liked, the accounts you have interacted with, and the average time spent? no doubt that they are made accessible to us, even though there is more to them, than just this.
Today every phone, and laptop that we use, may or may not have too many accessibilities available than we have the SOCIAL MEDIA APPS, such as Facebook, preloaded and embedded in it as a system device by default. Thus at the end of the purchase, every so-called USER ends up being the PRODUCT for these companies, which shall be auctioned to the infinite number of advertisements as long as that person is holding that mobile phone, or has an account anywhere on these platforms knowingly or unknowingly, for the public good or not.
We are lied to by these social media agencies as the CUSTOMERS OR THE USERS. We are whom they sell to the advertisements, and yet everything we consume is said to be provided to us for FREE, when in reality we are been sold to these advertisements and digitization companies, depending upon our screen time and the hours we spent online on their heavily crafted platforms entirely based on our response. That’s why people get paid for the number of views on YouTube than the number of LIKES they get on their channels or the videos specifically. It is just a matter of the number of impressions than the kind of impressions laid by the public.
Our frequent subconscious as well the unconscious responses such as mindlessly scrolling and refreshing the feed each second are triggered by the recommendations they send. That is in reality initiated and crafted by tracking our history of activities, each second of our usage. So they don’t guarantee the end-to-end encryption model to the fullest on every social media platform. So we can not be fully sure.
This manipulation done by these technologies is referred to the common man as PERSONALIZATION, so it seems less offending and less controlling. The actual reason for all of this is that they recommend certain content that we may or may not have wilfully consumed in the first place but now since it’s automatically made available to us by their servers or their supercomputers that are constantly tracking us and filtering and collecting the related new data or as such the ingredients for their products to stay on the top of their media facility. We are indirectly served the content, less because they provided us the varieties to choose from but more because it’s what keeps the business running and the public lined up for more to choose from.
Thus we are triggered to consume the content that has been put on LOOP with other previously consumed content, giving them more and more opportunities to sell US or in other words humans as their PRODUCTS to their technologies and the related advertising companies or the sponsors. Thus bidding more and more each second by bringing in more of their ads and shoving them on whatever that we are likely to consume, and the twist is that we can’t even undo that because then comes another plague, called the PREMIUM SUBSCRIPTION, mostly which are just ads again. So the marketing doesn’t stop actually.
People wilfully or unconsciously decide to participate in a community that has been taken over by the Technological Manipulation Mechanism [TMM].
The people using social media, ought to seek validation of their existence and the choices they make, by the mass of people they call audience or followers. By setting unrealistic standards, that have been very accurately and precisely maintained and adultered by these platforms in the name of EASE and ACCESS and also the CONTENT REACH.
Each day a new feature is being introduced that no doubt is equally helpful at times, but on the other side of the coin, it is not just a feature, it is a new conspiracy to set for more and more audience and increase online screen time. No wonder we did not need AVATARS, REELS, AND INSTAGRAM NOTES to socialize.
Now almost all aspects of life have been digitilized and marketed by different technologies, underneath this conspiracy of social media that goes mostly unnoticed because long as it is hitting that dopamine, we all are good. The number of followers, likes, comments, and content reach is validating and very triggering to human psychology and therefore social media arrangement has understood how to keep the public hooked up to these platforms by giving them more and more triggering content in the form of NOTIFICATIONS, REMINDERS, UPDATES, NEW FEATURE, FRIEND REQUESTS, MENTIONS, TAGS and many more reasons to come back every time and to scroll mindlessly. It’s a wilful distraction and destruction.
It is as if we are being controlled by AI even before the CHECKMATE is announced. Setting the bars to a standard that is also maintained and modified by these platforms, continues to increase the participation of people. Which never stops getting far and wide. It’s spreading like a plague in society. We, people, see it as’’ More networking more Socialisation’’ when in reality it is turning into,’’ manipulative networking more captilization’’. A new feature hasn’t been out yet and they are sitting there and coding another feature based on the response they got for the previous one.
It is never enough nor is it ever going to be. Social Media does not work for ‘’LESS IS MORE’’, the systems that have been programmed are manipulating a human to think that MORE IS LESS, SO YOU NEED MORE AND MORE. We have entered a marathon, where the track is just extending and extending, there isn’t a last station, and we are never winning, but just losing our stamina. Thus endless scrolling, clicking, commenting, and stalking comes into play. It’s a total Simulation. We are living in a simulation and paying for it.
So are we using social media or are we living in the MATRIX OF SOCIAL dilemmas?
A research article by Sheikh Samia
