6.6 Attention Economy
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because they are often more interesting than facts. When Social Media platforms
try to maximize the time we are spending on them, they will end up promoting fake
news and emotional content, in particular hate speech. We can see where this leads.
In the meantime, Social Media platforms face more and more difficulties to
promote a constructive dialogue among people. What once started off as a chance
for more participatory democracies, has turned into a populistic hate machine. Have
Social Media become the weapons of a global information war? Probably so.
6.7 Conformity and Distraction
As some people say, Social Media are also used as “weapons of mass distraction”,
which increasingly distract us from the real existential problems of the world. They,
furthermore, create entirely new possibilities of censorship and propaganda. Before
we go into details, however, it is helpful to introduce some basics.
First, I would like to mention the Asch conformity experiment.
23 Here, an experimenter invites a person into a room, in which there are already some other people.
The task is simple: everyone has to compare the length of a stick (or line) to three
sticks (or lines) of different length and say, which of the three sticks (or lines) it fits.
However, before the experimental subject is asked, everyone else will voice their
verdict. If all answer truthfully, the experimental subject will give the right answer,
too. However, if the others have consistently given a wrong answer, the experimental
subject will be confused—and often give the wrong answer, too. It does not want to
deviate from the group opinion, as it fears to appear ridiculous. Psychology speaks
of “group pressure” towards conformity.
Propaganda can obviously make use of this fact. It may trick people by the frequent
repetition of lies or fake news, which may eventually appear true. It is obviously
possible to produce a distorted world view in this way—at least for some time.
Second, I would like to mention another famous experiment. Here, there are two
baseball teams, for example, one wearing black shirts, the other one wearing white
shirts. Observers have to count, say, how often the baseball is passed on by people
in white shirts, and how often by people in black shirts. The task requires quite a bit
of concentration. It is more demanding to count the two numbers correctly than one
might think.
In the end, observers are asked for the numbers—and if they noticed anything
particular. Typically, they would answer “no”, even though someone in a Gorilla suit
was walking through the scene. In fact, many do not see it. This is called “selective
attention”, and it explains why people often do not see “the elephant in the room”,
if they are being distracted by something else.
23 See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asch_conformity_experiments, https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=TYIh4MkcfJA.
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because they are often more interesting than facts. When Social Media platforms
try to maximize the time we are spending on them, they will end up promoting fake
news and emotional content, in particular hate speech. We can see where this leads.
In the meantime, Social Media platforms face more and more difficulties to
promote a constructive dialogue among people. What once started off as a chance
for more participatory democracies, has turned into a populistic hate machine. Have
Social Media become the weapons of a global information war? Probably so.
6.7 Conformity and Distraction
As some people say, Social Media are also used as “weapons of mass distraction”,
which increasingly distract us from the real existential problems of the world. They,
furthermore, create entirely new possibilities of censorship and propaganda. Before
we go into details, however, it is helpful to introduce some basics.
First, I would like to mention the Asch conformity experiment.
23 Here, an experimenter invites a person into a room, in which there are already some other people.
The task is simple: everyone has to compare the length of a stick (or line) to three
sticks (or lines) of different length and say, which of the three sticks (or lines) it fits.
However, before the experimental subject is asked, everyone else will voice their
verdict. If all answer truthfully, the experimental subject will give the right answer,
too. However, if the others have consistently given a wrong answer, the experimental
subject will be confused—and often give the wrong answer, too. It does not want to
deviate from the group opinion, as it fears to appear ridiculous. Psychology speaks
of “group pressure” towards conformity.
Propaganda can obviously make use of this fact. It may trick people by the frequent
repetition of lies or fake news, which may eventually appear true. It is obviously
possible to produce a distorted world view in this way—at least for some time.
Second, I would like to mention another famous experiment. Here, there are two
baseball teams, for example, one wearing black shirts, the other one wearing white
shirts. Observers have to count, say, how often the baseball is passed on by people
in white shirts, and how often by people in black shirts. The task requires quite a bit
of concentration. It is more demanding to count the two numbers correctly than one
might think.
In the end, observers are asked for the numbers—and if they noticed anything
particular. Typically, they would answer “no”, even though someone in a Gorilla suit
was walking through the scene. In fact, many do not see it. This is called “selective
attention”, and it explains why people often do not see “the elephant in the room”,
if they are being distracted by something else.
23 See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asch_conformity_experiments, https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=TYIh4MkcfJA.