The Goal of Technology
Advanced technology and thorough digitalization of almost every aspect of human life are the defining elements of the modern age. According to Tristan Harris, the goal of technology should be to better human lives and improve their well-being.
How Tech Companies Control Reactions
Still, the current system focuses on attention and persuasion (“How A Handful of Tech Companies”). This is problematic because it creates a race for attention that directly appeals to the stem or lizard brain instead of promoting constructive super-human thought processes and cooperation.
The Benefits of Outrage for Tech Companies
The tech companies focus on anything that gathers attention and persuades people by making us experience outrage, anger, or addictive impulses. Tristan says that, for example, apps, such as Facebook, could be designed to help us socialize meaningfully with others to fight loneliness (“How A Handful of Tech Companies”). However, the current for-profit and for-attention framework crafts a feed that wants users to be stuck to their phones as long as possible; hence, it does not promote face-to-face interactions. Thus, showing negative content that causes outrage is more profitable for tech companies since they can present more ads to the users.
Fear and Outrage: Are They Intentionally Manufactured?
I think they purposefully manufacture and encourage fear and outrage not because they are ‘evil’ but because it is how the tech business and system are designed. Not ‘targeting lies to those who are most susceptible’ would mean that these companies would become uncompetitive; hence, they are forced to do so.
The Effects of Social Media on Society
Kenneth Gergen’s ‘saturated self’ states that the modern online identity is built from pieces, but it is not the real whole of the individual (Ferris and Stein 114). This makes us one-dimensional and shallow, which is why it makes society extremely politically polarized since people lost touch with the common and uniting humanity. It makes us label people or groups simplistically without acknowledging how complex each person is in reality.
Works Cited
“How a Handful of Tech Companies Control Billions of Minds Every Day | Tristan Harris.” YouTube, uploaded by TED. 2017. Web.
Ferris, Kerry, and Jill Stein. The Real World: An Introduction to Sociology. 8th ed., W. W. Norton, 2022.