Withdrawing from society

Almost a month ago I watched the Netflix show entitled The Social Dilemma.  It was about social networks and the algorithms they use to decide what to show users.  I knew that social networks used these algorithms and that these algorithms were there to increase ad revenue and engagement, not to promote truth, but this show outlined clearly just how bad things are.

As as example, FB was instrumental in the widespread influence of pizzagate.  Its algorithms noticed that people were extremely engaged with the nonsense story of a child sex ring operating out of a pizza joint, organized by high level Democrats in the US.  Obvious foolishness, but it got clicks, so FB showed it to as many people as possible, and plenty of them bought it.

In response I decided to unfollow everyone on Facebook.  I still use FB for messaging, and I can still be part of organizing events or conversations, but I no longer see anything on my feed except ads... which makes it quite easy to ignore my feed entirely.  I could have just refused to look at my feed of course, but I know myself - resisting the urge to look would take precious willpower, and I didn't wan to have to resist temptation.  Unfollowing everyone means that it would take a lot of time to actually make my feed exist again, and I was pretty sure I wouldn't do that.

This trick worked.  I unfollowed mostly everyone and I have ignored my feed for four weeks now.  I do feel better overall, but it isn't entirely rosy.  There are certainly bits of news I will miss, and events in the lives of my friends that I will not see.  Still, while most of those feel like a real thing at the time, they have no long term impact.  Nearly all of those things that social networks convince us are crucial actually don't matter at all a week later.  That said, if there was a good way to get those moments without having to scroll endlessly through a FB feed, I would get them.  Unfortunately, there isn't.

I am happy about the time I have retrieved from FB.  I don't scroll, wondering if there are new things.  I don't read stuff I have no interest in simply because it was there in my feed.  I also don't get misdirected and subtly influenced by FB's algorithm anymore.

Doing this has made me more aware of the other networks that I touch and how they react.  For example, a Youtuber I watch occasionally made a video about her dating life - in the past, she identified as straight, and thought the stories that her straight male friends told about dating were exaggerated or not important.  Then she came out as bi, went on some dates with women, and experienced the exact same frustrating behaviours that her straight male friends had complained about.  I think her politics and beliefs are similar to mine; this wasn't some right wing 'women are the worst' kind of garbage, just an acknowledgement that a new environment brings new perspective.

Youtube immediately begane shoving 'Feminist gets owned by LOGIC' and 'Watch Jordan Peterson demolish liberal snowflakes' videos at me.  A single video was enough to give it the clue that I might be receptive to the MRA / PUA / antifeminist outrage machine.

It doesn't matter that the Youtuber in question doesn't believe in any of that garbage, nor that I don't.  Youtube wants clicks, outrage gets clicks, so it is endlessly searching for something that will outrage me so I will click and click and click.

Algorithms have figured out that I like Hearthstone videos.  It knows I play World of Warcraft and will check out news stories about it.  These things are useful!  But they also desperately try to get me hooked on bigotry and tribalism because that is how you make money.  I don't know the best way for society to cope with this.  I am sure that the increasing polarization of society is in large part attributable to social media and algorithms, and I think long term that is going to cause some serious damage.  

Unfortunately just knowing that something is a problem doesn't automatically lead you to solutions.  I don't know how we all tackle this.  I just know that I am going to remove myself from the mess as much as possible.  I don't want it anymore, both because I think it is bad for my personal life, and also because I think it is bad for humans as a whole.