Social Media and Our Brain

In my recent blog post, I mentioned the impact that algorithms in social media applications are having on our minds. Algorithms play an important role in enabling us to do work more efficiently. Moreover, social media is a tremendous tool that enables individuals to reach larger audiences to share helpful information, their talents, experiences, skills, entertainment, and much more. Algorithms used in applications help developers to better tune and personalize the consumption of content in their applications. On the one hand, this sounds great. We get to enjoy more of what we find interesting, helpful, or entertaining. On the other hand, we become hooked, addicted and reliant on social media consumption.

As humans, we are social creatures. In some way, there must be some form of human interaction for us to be healthy. Social media takes advantage of our primal feeling to fit in and to be a part of a larger group. In addition, it constantly fuels our brains with dopamine so that we feel rewarded by consuming content. This was an intentional decision.

In this podcast, I learned about SixDegrees.com. It was a social networking site that paved the way for similar social media applications like the ones we use today. Especially when it came to their profit strategy - advertisements. Facebook, for example, uses paid ads to make revenue. The more time a user spends scrolling their personal feed, the more ads are shown. Therefore, it is in Facebook's better interest for developers to find ways to keep its users engaged.

Sbeg brought to my attention that Sean Parker, American Entrepreneur and philanthropist, confirmed that Facebook is "exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology. The inventors. creators[of Facebook]...understood this consciously, and we did it anyway." You can listen to him yourself, by visiting the video here. As the first time hearing this, I am shocked, but at the same time not surprised. In my recent blog post, I mentioned that algorithms currently used and those that social media companies will utilize in the future are solely in the interest of making profits. I stand corrected.

The podcast discusses a couple of reasons why social media has become what is the new drug.

Variable Reinforcement

This is broken down into two ideas: The hook model and variable rewards.

With the hook model, people no longer need motivators to spend time scrolling content on apps. It becomes a habit to want to waste time consuming mindless content.

Variable rewards, simply put, is that feeling of reward when scrolling mindless content, filled with anticipation of discovering something that piques your interests.

This is one of the reasons why TikTok does so well. It has a simple formula, but it is incredibly effective. In observation, I believe that other social media platforms followed suit due to their success. For example, YouTube shorts, Instagram Reels and Facebook Reels were released in 2020, to compete with TikTok.

Long Term Potentiation

In our brains, there are neural pathways that allow us to remember and control repetitive actions, along with the behaviors associated with them. With constant use of social media, our neural pathways associated with social media are exploited and they become "stronger". This increases our compulsion to use the apps and it gets worse by giving in.

We then become overtaken by the hook model to open these apps without a second thought. Sbeg stated that opening Instagram has become a habit because she frequently checked it in the past.

I have a similar problem with YouTube. About 7 years ago, Facebook was taking too much of my time. All I did was look at memes because that is all my friends posted, all that I liked, and all that I followed. Instagram and YouTube were the only other apps I had to consume content so I decided that I did not need Facebook. I deleted the app for some months and YouTube was what I used primarily. Now, my YouTube usage has skyrocketed to over 5+ hours a day. About half that time I would attribute to just watching random videos on my feed that the algorithm thinks I would like(and it's right). I have an unconscious compulsion to quickly open the app as I see my home screen. This can be proven in seeing the number of times I open the app and the number of hours per day I use the app.

I relate to Sbeg entirely when she says that she does not have the memory of watching anything seen during her time scrolling mindless content. She even has no recollection of what the first video was that started her scrolling on Instagram. For both of us, this is a concerning feeling.

Social Comparison

As I mentioned, humans are social creatures and we like to fit in. People judge others based on their social media. Furthermore, people post on their profiles what they want others to see. This makes people willingly hide their flaws. In addition, it becomes a battle of comparison. Who has better content of themselves to share? This leads to users deriving their sense of self by how they compare with others online.

Mentioned on the podcast are two types of social comparison: Downward and Upwards social comparison. Think of how you view others. Downward social comparison is that feeling of superiority by viewing others as less skilled. On the other hand, upwards social comparison reduces our self-esteem as we view others as more skilled and happier than us.

Most people choose to post their best moments on social media. Sbeg informs us of two psychological motives that influence this: Self Verification and Self Enhancement

Social media is a "shield" for our true selves and values. It is a distraction. It makes us feel better. Additionally, we look better to whom we want to impress.

Other effects of social media can be damage to our mental well-being, unreasonable expectations, and low self-esteem.

Although the use of social media can be detrimental to our health, we cannot ignore the benefits it has on our lives. This goes without saying that social media is undoubtedly, one of the greatest tools for communication that has ever been created. Nonetheless, we should still monitor our usage of it. We should use social media to our advantage, not the other way around.

There you go!

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. This was truly an intriguing episode. I was able to learn a bit about myself and I hope you did too. If this summary was helpful, kindly consider leaving a like, comment, or share.

You can listen to the podcast episode on Spotify here: