Tech firms deploy similar tactics to create dependence among users, say experts
Algorithms have been blamed for pushingharmful content to vulnerable teens.
These are a set of rules and signals which show us the videos, pictures or articles that they are most likely to interact with, based on the content we’ve watched or clicked on, the pages we follow and the accounts we engage with.
Psychologists from University of Montreal have compared the infiltration of social media algorithms in our lives to how tobacco was initially marketed.
Writing for The Conversation, they wrote: “It took a half century for the first American Surgeon General Report to establish the link between tobacco and lung cancer. In response, companies infiltrated media and genetically modified tobacco leaves to make them even more addictive.
“Curiously, tech companies developed similar compelling algorithms to create dependence among users – these technologies appear innocuous, but should be regulated. There are objectionable consequences regarding the influence of algorithms because they manipulate users by creating false perceptions, dependencies and addiction.”
The psychologists say that social media is “designed to be addictive – driven and reinforced by dopamine”. They say teens are especially vulnerable because they are “susceptible to acceptance and rejection through social media”.
There are concerns that social media addiction is distracting from everyday life and real-life relationships with family and friends, and can cause youngsters to neglect important areas of their life such as studying and exercise.
Research shows that social media addiction disrupts the sleep. Teenagers using it for more than three hours a day are more likely to go to bed after 11pm and wake during the night, a study from the University of Glasgow suggests.
The team who studied 13 to 15 year-olds found they may be delaying bedtime by being on their phones. This affects one in three teens – with one in five spending five hours or more on apps like Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook every day.
Numerous studies have linked social media use with depression. For every additional hour young people spend on social media or watching television, the severity of depressive symptoms they experience goes up, according to a 2019 study published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.
However, it’s always difficult to establish whether a causal relationship exists between excessive social media and poor moods. It may be that young people already experiencing depressive symptoms are engaging in more screen time or that excessive screen time is bringing on depressive symptoms.
Young girls in particular are struggling, research suggests. Nancy Jo Sales writes in the Guardian: “Social media sites trap girls in spirals questioning their attractiveness and self-worth. They’re encouraged to compare themselves to others and seek approval for the way they look, while reinforcing beauty standards that favour thinness and whiteness. They feel pressured to promote themselves as objects.”
New research from Swansea University found that cutting down on social media use by as little as 15 minutes a day can significantly improve the mental and physical health of young people.
