Algorithm Accountability
We all spend way too much time on social media. Admit it, you’ve felt that creeping itch to pick up your phone in lieu of doing nothing and it’s as if our phones whisper commands to our subconscious whenever we’re not scrolling. Yearning for constant stimuli, our phones play a big role in keeping us plugged into whatever content garbage is circulating the Internet, especially on social media. According to a recent study, the average person spends nearly 2.5 hours on social media every day and these numbers have nearly doubled since 2013. Of course, that spike is largely because technology has evolved significantly over the last 10 years, catering every app to user preferences and fine-tuning the algorithm for customized usage.
Algorithms have actually existed on social media sites since the 90s. However, in modern times, mathematical, data-driven, and personalized formulas have been weaponized on social media in a way that keeps us plugged in and using the app way longer than we should. Even for those of us who are aware of the gravity of social media cravings, our feeds are designed in such a way that we simply cannot resist another click, another video, or another dumb meme.
Why? Because our social media feeds are literally designed for us! The apps know how to replenish content that we want to watch according to our search habits, interactions, and even a lingering eye.
Via u/circleofidiots
Algorithms have been a hot button topic since the dawn of social media expansion, however, for the standard user, they are simply designed and updated to keep us scrolling.
Stopping the scroll obsession is most people’s biggest issue. Expert behaviorist, Karin Nordin, Ph.D., says hapless scrolling on social media is a habit born from “anxiety and desperation to connect,” debatably, humanity’s greatest pitfalls. Nordin suggests that in order to replace the desire to doomscroll, one must not only acknowledge the hollow habit, they must also seek to replace it with another activity that achieves the same goals. It seems simple enough, right? Wrong, because breaking a built-in habit is far more complicated.
“Bring your passion to the real world instead,” says Sarah McElliot, MA, MHP, a Greater Lakes Mental Health doctor. According to McElliot, over-scrolling on social media can have adverse effects on your mood, your sleep cycle, and your overall mental health. As many healthcare providers suggest, setting a time limit to your scrolling can not only protect your mental stability, but achieve maximum enrichment from our social media habit, without all the downsides.
Via u/memewebsted
However, not all of us are strong enough to do this on our own. If only there were some way to trick ourselves into setting a time limit. Cue these online creators who, like a friend calling out their buddy’s biggest flaws, are doing just this with a bait-and-switch video formula that tricks absent-minded scrollers to check-in with themselves regarding their content consumption.
Getting Called Out
Shame is a powerful emotion, which is why we feel such a visceral response when we get called out for something we know is wrong. On top of that, according to Medium journalist Debra Campbell, “Hiding shame tends to evoke more shame.”
When it comes to social media scrolling—a solo activity—we’re left to self-regulate. With no one to hold us accountable and despite being painfully aware that we’re overusing our social media, autopilot doomscrolling takes control. We need a wakeup call to snap out of our social media hypnosis, touch our feet to the ground, and realize what exactly we’re doing. We need sleep, not knowledge on how kaleidoscopes are made.
Hilariously enough, we have someone else to keep us accountable for our scrolling and, ironically, it’s the very creators who got us here in the first place. Suddenly, these silly videos don’t seem so interesting. Are you painfully aware of your time wasting habits yet?
Sleepless on Social Media
Trends have a funny way of being cyclically uplifting. As the Internet ebbs and flows with positivity and the ultimate demise of the world, all we can do is cling to these trends. Although it stings to be called out by a funny video that’s reminding us of our unproductive scrolling habits, this trend is ultimately the wakeup call that many of us need right before bed. Imagine if you could steal back 20-minutes of sleep in lieu of backlit, full-brightness brainrot?
Sure, this trend won’t solve insomnia, social media dependency, or even doomscrolling. However, if users are made aware of their social media problem, it may be enough to kickstart the kind of behavioral change that gives our algorithms a run for their money.
Via u/nebraskadot