![]() In the long run, people are only going to feel comfortable with these algorithmic systems if they have more visibility into how they work and then have the ability to exercise more informed control over them.Ĭompanies like Facebook need to be frank about how the relationship between you and their major algorithms really works. Faced with opaque systems operated by wealthy global companies, it is hardly surprising that many assume the lack of transparency exists to serve the interests of technology elites and not users. This is a mistake: Technology must serve society, not the other way around. Or, as Joanna Stern declared in the Wall Street Journal in January, we’ve “lost control of what we see, read - and even think - to the biggest social-media companies.”ĭefenders of social media have often ignored or belittled these criticisms - hoping that the march of technology would sweep them aside, or viewing the criticisms as misguided. And, worse still, this is all done intentionally in a relentless pursuit of profit.Īt the heart of many of the concerns is an assumption that in the relationship between human beings and complex automated systems, we are not the ones in control. It is alleged that social media fuels polarization, exploits human weaknesses and insecurities, and creates echo chambers where everyone gets their own slice of reality, eroding the public sphere and the understanding of common facts. But is this really true? Have the machines really taken over? Humans have become the playthings of manipulative algorithmic systems. In each of these dystopian depictions, people are portrayed as powerless victims, robbed of their free will. In her book Surveillance Capitalism, the Harvard social psychologist Shoshana Zuboff paints a picture of a world in which tech companies have constructed a massive system of surveillance that allows them to manipulate people’s attitudes, opinions and desires. The idiom it takes two to tango means that two parties are required to take part in an activity, especially fighting or having a relationship.In a recent article for The Atlantic, Adrienne LaFrance compared Facebook to a Doomsday Machine: “a device built with the sole purpose of destroying all human life.” In the Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma, the filmmakers imagine a digital control room where engineers press buttons and turn dials to manipulate a teenage boy through his smartphone.
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