Tech firms use social media to turn us into ‘lab rats’, says expert
Microsoft scientist warns of widespread manipulation
A SILICON Valley computer scientist has warned social media users – including children – to delete their online accounts to avoid the ‘dark and crazy’ manipulation directed by leading tech companies.
Microsoft tech expert Jaron Lanier claims corporations such as Facebook and Google are turning each internet user into a ‘well-trained dog’ and a ‘lab rat’.
These companies are observing everything about their customers, including what they buy, who they know, and even their facial expressions, Mr Marnier told Seán O’Rourke on RTÉ Radio.
This information is then used to target social media users with advertisements and posts that gradually affect their behaviour, he said, explaining: ‘The stream of information you receive starts to adapt to you in ways that change your behaviour. The customers who put billions of billions of dollars into these companies, what they’re getting in return for their money is these slight changes in the behaviours of populations.
‘It creates a society based on manipulation instead of honest discourse.’
Mr Lanier, who is considered a tech visionary, also urged young people to take a break from social media to experience what it is like to escape the grasp of technology corporations.
‘I really hope young people will experiment with quitting at least for a while, perhaps six months, just as a part of a quest for selfknowledge,’ he said.
‘You can’t really know yourself unless you test yourself. If you get off it for a while, you can get a feeling for what you’re like when you’re not being manipulated. And I think you might find that to be revelatory.’
He stressed that although the change caused by this manipulation is slight, it can lead to huge results if applied consistently.
‘It’s a sneaky problem, it’s a little bit like climate change,’ he said.
‘At any given moment it’s hard to identify the harm, but cumulatively it makes the world kind of darker and stranger. It makes elections harder to trust because we don’t know to what degree people have been manipulated. It makes personal relationships a little strange and anxious.’
According to Mr Lanier, this manipulation is just one of the reasons why people are in need of a digital detox.
In his new book Ten Arguments For Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now, he also outlines how these platforms are affecting our happiness and destroying our capacity for empathy.
Despite his criticism of social media, the author is convinced its advantages, such as the communication methods it offers to users, can exist without the downsides.
However, he said that tech companies may have to start charging for the service to abolish manipulative advertising and posts.
‘We can’t have this weird combination of free with capitalism,’ he said. ‘We either have to really make it free so the internet is like a public library, a public service, or we have to really make it into a business where you pay for it.’
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