What I've Learned from Social Media

I don’t know how Social Media decides what we see when we’re friends with one another on their site, but I think it goes something like this:

If you have mentioned Trump in a positive way, then you will see every liberal friend’s like of a pro-Hillary article.

If you have mentioned that you are vegan, then you will see every meat-containing recipe a carnivore has saved to their personal page. And likewise, if you eat meat and post recipes on your page to save, you will see every pro-vegan article your friend has liked.

If you are an animal lover, then any friend’s, no matter how regularly you speak to them, post or liked video of animal cruelty will arrive in your news feed.

If you are a woman and talk about women’s rights, then any like of an upskirt video by a friend, even years ago, will appear on your feed.

If you decide to quit drinking due to health or an addiction, you will now see every photo of every one of your friends as they are out in a bar drinking.

If you proclaim to your friends that you are Christian, know that every like of a pro-atheist article by a friend will appear on your news feed.

If you profess a care about most any subject on social media the algorithm will now send you every opposite of that faith that any friend on your list watched, liked, or commented on, even when not commenting to you, and sometimes when they did it years earlier.

I know how search engines work, or I used to know, but I’m pretty sure if I have spent decades and a lifetime deciding what means the most to me, the last thing I want to see when I sit down with my coffee in the morning is everything I abhor, disdain, and disagree with at a fundamental level. So the search engines ain’t working so well. But there- “in lies”- the work of the biggest social media giants; not sent to unify us, but to divide us, while declaring the beauty of their invention, and claiming the good they are doing for society.

Last Edited by Turtle Flower on 08/11/2016 07:15 PM