Social Media: How do we differentiate facts and opinions? | by Mitchel DSouza | ILLUMINATION | Jul, 2023

The barrage of data is very confusing and it’s essential we learn to pick only relevant information.

There was a time in near history when I rarely ever had time to browse social media. I used to imagine people flirting with food, dancing around trees as free birds with nothing better to do with their lives. In my eyes, there was very little respect for their chosen field of work. Oh! How wrong i was!!

Social media is very powerful in every sense. Just because I did not have the time to spend browsing social media, I tagged everyone who contributed to the content as people with nothing better to do. I now realize the power of social media in the post covid world. This realization also came after the fact that I had a fair share of dabbling with different forms of social media.

This is where — I got thinking. In the almost unregulated stream of data that floods every single gadget we surround ourselves with, how do we pick and choose?

I had seen an amazing documentary on Netflix called “The Social Dilemma” a while ago. It outlined how the algorithms programmed at the social media giants worked. It was fascinating and scary at the same time. From a business point of view, the logic worked perfectly. Any business would want their customers coming back to them all the time — more the addiction, more the money. Addiction is a strong word but morality takes a back seat when money is involved. We see it with food, shelter, and clothing which are basic needs and now the gadgets which have become basic needs.

The algorithm in almost all social media sites is programmed to feed data that the end user likes. So if Mr. A likes Baseball, he’s continuously shown snippets of baseball celebrities, rules, controversies around the game, different leagues playing it, etc. Over time, Mr. A owing to his interest in baseball gets addicted to reading these recommended sites and reels again and again — thus forming an addictive habit. Now baseball is pretty harmless. This same logic can also extend to harmful acts of violence and hate speeches as well and can cause significant damage to society. The bad of social media can escalate pretty quickly.