Beware the man behind the curtain

Perhaps you've recently seen or heard where the heads of Google (Sundar Pichai), Twitter (Jack Dorsey), and Facebook (Mark Zuckerberg) were "invited" to testify to a Congressional subcommittee about accusations of how their companies are using sophisticated software tools called algorithms to encourage certain ways of thinking and to restrict others. If you've seen the video, you might agree with me that the interactions between these men and our Congressional representatives in many cases could easily be described as quite "contentious."

No one can argue that we have seen our society profoundly influenced by these companies and others that could be called "social media platforms" including Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Snapchat, Reddit, etc. (https://influencermarketinghub.com/social-media-sites/)

These sites have become so popular that companies who want to thrive or even just survive in our current consumer climate must have a "social media strategy." As user numbers have grown, so have these platforms ability to make money in many more ways that just selling advertising. We've all seen the images of people setting together in various social, family, or business settings not looking at each other and talking with each other but all staring at their screens. We instantly recognize there is something wrong with these images but what is it, why is it happening, and what can be done to break these people from their zombie-like state?

Unfortunately, to some degree, this circumstance is actually occurring by design and by design of some very, very smart people like those men mentioned above and the software engineers that have worked for them. I have recognized that my own behavior has been impacted through the use of social media and not for the better. But wait you say, how can a platform that connects people with pictures of puppies and grandkids and weddings, etc. be bad? Actually, in the most sinister way, by luring us, ensnaring us, and holding us captive without our even knowing it. How can they do this?

They explain it here (www.themediadilemma.com), in a Netflix documentary titled "The Media Dilemma." I strongly urge all of you who may read this post to watch this at your very earliest convenience. In relatively easy to understand language, former senior executives of these companies and others in academia and business lay out the path that has led us to where we are today; a society with so much social unrest, extreme polarization of opinion, family disfunction, mental illness, and wanton violence.

However unlikely it may seem, we can change this and reverse our course but to do so will require dramatic, substantial, and committed effort over a very extended period of time. The first step is to recognize we have a problem and the next is to do what we can, in our own lives, to make the changes that will benefit us. Only then, after we do this in our own lives, can we help others.

Please, please, please watch this documentary as it may have as profound an impact on you as it has had on me. Especially you who have teen or preteen daughters or granddaughters as you will see in the documentary. For me, I am inactivating my accounts in all social media platforms. This may be shocking to my "friends" or "followers" in these platforms but it is the right thing to do. Sometimes, many times, the right thing to do is hard, unpopular, uncommon, and not always obvious. Peace.