Living in a Bubble or a Dilemma?

 

Now, all those of you that have watched ‘The Social Dilemma’ must have really cut down or are at least contemplating cutting down your screen time on social media, and perhaps would be analysing the pros and cons as well. 

 

As for me, I have been doing the same as well, as the list showcases that the cons are a many to go with, yet who really wants to analyse the negative sides to your addiction when you have at least one pro, and that is passing your time. Without having to bother about the external world around you, without even batting an eyelid regarding all the mishaps that have made themselves quite infamous, in the form of treacherous headlines. Such is the immaculate powers of listing down the Pros of being addicted to social media. 

 

This is especially important and gains ground, as our mornings are never really complete without scrolling through Instagram and Snapchat, and also discovering what new filters have they come up with, or perhaps what could be included as an extra into our workout regime…

 

Now, all of a sudden there is this bolt from the blue, in the name of ‘The Social Dilemma’ that makes you question your choices, and everytime you do click on a clickbait article perhaps you’d be pondering if a supercomputer or a bot is tracking your movements, and would be suggesting or improving your feed owing to your tastes and preferences. You seem to be delighted thinking about how could YouTube know exactly what you were looking for? 

 

Amid all this when you discover that you are being manipulated, you get really disheartened that despite being so very qualified and educated, you fall into the trap of some algorithm, that reduces you to what they call it a ‘lab rat’. You realise that all that believed to be a true, or if there has been a sudden increase or decrease in engagement doesn’t really mean that it was you or your content that was at fault. It was possibly the machines and algorithms that did all the trick, much like ‘Frankenstein’ 

 

Does this mean that all the opinions and thoughts an beliefs that you held so far were all a farce? Even if you know that now, what do you do about it? Perhaps a little, when you start by neglecting the YouTube video recommendations. As Jason, a researcher said that the next time YouTube recommends a video to you, don’t click on it, instead just choose a different video to play. He even stressed on the fact that the change has to begin with someone and that one must go about it. Concluding by saying that the world is beautiful outside, come have a look!