Humans In The Loop • Kelvin DeCosta

To be perfectly candid, this year has been quite kind to me so far. The last six months have been a period of growth, learning and fun across multiple aspects of my life. But they’ve gone by so quickly, friend.

I didn’t want to immediately attribute this observation to the logarithmic nature of our time perception (growing older does that to you). So I decided to take a better look at how I’ve been using my time. To the shock of absolutely no one, I’ve been spending a significant amount of it on the internet. An almost unhealthy amount, which I’m hoping to correct.

I’ve been in a rather reflective mood during the last month (growing older does that also to you), and so I thought to write my thoughts down. I’ve had some of these ideas for quite some time, while others have only come to me during this phase of reflection.

Surveillance Masked As Connection

If you’re like me, you’ve uninstalled Instagram a million times and are probably familiar with their download page. Even if you’re not, I urge you to open the app store on your phone, find it and watch its trailer. In this short thirty second video, Meta markets Instagram as a place to share what you’re into, find what makes you happy and keep up with everything you love. Honestly, this is a very clever campaign but it almost gives away their incentive; they want to learn everything about you so that their advertisers can squeeze every bit of money from you.

At the risk of sounding banal, these apps track every interaction we make with every profile, post and comment. By “sharing what you’re into”, we readily provide them with engagement on various types of content, letting their recommendation models figure out exactly what products and services we’re likely to purchase.

A while back I would get so many ads for sunglasses.

I never had an obsession with shades, so I could never really figure out why I was being bombarded with such marketing.

It only hit me when I remembered, much later, what I had uploaded as my profile picture.

A couple of years ago, I was very surprised when I learned that Meta partnered with Ray-Ban to develop their own smart glasses, given what happened in Google’s case. Now that some time has passed you could argue that the partnership was a genius move. They mass produce an every day item (one that most people won’t think twice when seeing someone wearing it), equipped with a tiny camera capable of recording the wearer’s POV in high definition. This seems like a no-brainer for a company that needs content and engagement to drive their revenues.

The revenue earned by the sales of these glasses and other VR headsets by their Reality Labs division, is of course negligible to that made by their Family of Apps. Meta is projected to account for nearly a quarter of all global digital advertisement spending.

This makes so much sense since we do live in an attention economy after all. These apps have very sophisticated and manipulative features that are designed to keep you constantly engaged.

They show us how many people and sometimes exactly which individuals in our circles have already engaged with a piece of content, before we can even begin to process it. We might feel a sense of connection with these folks but that is a byproduct of its main intent.

In reality, this type of social proof is designed to normalize the content we consume, introducing novel ideas to keep us from leaving.
They send us notifications (unless we explicitly opt out) whenever there are updates to posts/comments we’ve engaged with. As a result, we tend to keep thinking about it even when not actively using the app.

The fact that random followers of yours can form an idea of you as a person (your hobbies, goals, status etc.) just based on what you’ve liked seems to me like an invasion of your privacy.

On Instagram, as far as I know, there is no real way to disable this behavior.

Just take a look at the Instagram logo. You’re not the one taking the photo. The camera is on you.

Divided We Scroll

The longer we spend engaging with these sites our ever-evolving feed eventually reaches its breaking point. This is when things get dangerous because we start seeing extreme content.

I’m not talking about content that is mature or considered worthy of a “some users found this content sensitive” disclaimer. This is when content starts to take ideas that we might believe in, for whatever reason (our upbringing / circumstances), even slightly, and turn the “crazy dial” all the way to the end.

Our world has become so polarized and our people have become so bigoted across all aspects of the human experience, a big part due to the network effects of these sites.

I’ve personally come across content that has exposed, unwillingly I might add, my friends, who seemed like normal people when I met them, as both misogynists and misandrists.

Here is one possible sequence of events that describes how people might have developed such extreme stances:

Once our algorithm reaches its tipping point, it starts to show us ideas we don’t deeply resonate with.
We start seeing people we know interacting with these ideas.
Social proof kicks in and normalizes these foreign concepts.
Eventually, we become part of an echo chamber, reinforcing each other’s beliefs.

This video explains how groupthink induced by scrolling can turn us into ugly versions of ourselves. While it is in the context of modern dating/relationships, I think the core idea described in the video can apply to any type of bigotry.

“You might be a unique individual who recognizes multiple valid perspectives, but when you’re flipping through TikTok, you’re being programmed to be ego-centric, self-interested and self-protective, and to see others as a means to an end.”

Earlier this year, Meta updated their controversial plans for content moderation. A study by the Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) estimates this change could lead to 277 million additional harmful posts per year on Facebook and Instagram. To say “this is not good” would be a massive understatement.

Personalized Dissociation

People have such a wide variety of interests and hobbies. It’s one of the best parts about life, the freedom we get to explore and try new things. Over the years I’ve come to realize that even though we might be so different from each other, we can always find things in common. Moreover, we can find entire communities that share our interests. Social media can be a great place for just that.

All of these sites have a specific feature, usually the first thing you see when you open them up, which caters content specific to you. For You alone, or so you may think.

While the posts on this page usually cover your primary interests, when the algorithm needs to keep you engaged, it will find subtle twists to keep you going. And when they do show you content that is within your circle of interests, they weaponize it against your wallet.

I’m not entirely sure how but YouTube and Instagram have been really trying to get me to buy Beyblades.

While I might have had a moment of nostalgia (who doesn’t love to reminisce every now and then?), and may have watched a bit too much content that goes into the engineering of these metal spinning tops, I personally don’t intend to spend money in order to relive those days.

I would rather dig out my box full of them, if I did want to feel something after letting it rip.

Our algorithm is shaping our views on how we think we should live our lives. It constantly tinkers with our ideas about what to eat, where to travel to, what to buy and what not.

Traveling as a form of escape is a new trend we’ve seen, particular in Gen Z folk. Most of us may not derive satisfaction and fulfilment from our daily lives. Our days pass like a blur at our jobs with us wearing our golden handcuffs, while we exercise our thumbs during every other waking moment.

Being in a different environment during a PTO usually involves going AFK at work while producing content (our lovely photos & videos of our trips) rather than consuming it. It’s no wonder that we find peace away from home.

In theory, the fact that our feeds know us so well can be such a great way to meet new people and join communities. I’m not denying that there are such cases (Twitter Spaces can be fun). But being chronically online and always engaging with content meant “For You” has made us lose connection with ourselves. We are almost never bored.

Besides these systemic issues that affect us all, there are also more personal issues that can arise from constant stimulation. Being bombarded with highlight reels of other people’s lives can have a negative impact on our well-being. Constantly comparing ourselves to others can lead to feelings of inadequacy. The feeling that our life is not as exciting or fulfilling as others.

Watch What You Eat

We’ve all been tricked into content addiction, because these companies invest billions of dollars each year into newer and more effective ways to keep us hooked. It may seem like there is no hope for someone who wants to get their time back.

I think there is something we can do to combat this phenomenon. I would like to preface this with a disclaimer that this is not a perfect solution; there is none.

I came across this simple yet brilliant site a few weeks ago, in which the author logs whatever piece of content they’ve watched/listened to along with what they ate and drank. This is essentially a simple journal that lets you reflect on what you’ve had that day.

We need to be more self-aware about what we consume and enforce certain limits. That being said, I think it is futile to live completely off the grid. And yet, it is a possible to get get overly consumed in this hedonistic behavior. We just need to strike a balance.

Speaking of consuming content, you’ve been reading this post for quite some time now and probably deserve a reward. Don’t get me wrong, I see the irony in sharing a video with you, given the context of this post, but I think you might find some peace when listening to this song.

As you might know, I enjoy songs without lyrics when I need some space. I guess it lets me do the talking in my head.

So the next time you come across a viral video about an iPad kid having a meltdown because it was taken away from them, do yourself a favour. Turn your phone off and take a look into the black mirror.