Toxic Activism on Social Media
In this article I want to talk about activism on social media. Mainly about influencers, public figures and activists raising awareness. Also share my personal experiences with working in social media marketing, raising awareness as well as the observations I’ve made.
My early experience with social media
My experience with social media started when I was somewhere around 12 years old when I first registered on MSN. Then Facebook became popular and eventually Instagram came along. With over a decade of experience, it’s safe to say I have had my fair share of scares, scams and simply stupid social media posts that made me cringe later. After all we all know an African price or two.
Growth of social media
Since its emergence, social media has been growing rapidly and with ever expanding accessibility to internet and smartphones – it’s become a big part of our every day lives. Pre school children now have smartphones and toddlers are being exposed to the contents on the internet (although moderated by their parents). Matter of fact, people of all ages and walks of life can be found on various social media problems. The newfound connectivity isn’t inherently bad, yet social media is a rather recent phenomena. Therefore it hasn’t been studied enough and we are only starting to discover its long term effects on our mental health and society.
My experience with raising awareness on social media
When Russian government decided to begin the Ukrainian invasion, understandably all sorts of media outlets got flooded with fear mongering and different types of propaganda.
Of course some people got fearful and stressed as the conflict is being fuelled by our big neighbour who’s invading an independent post soviet country just like ours. In combination with the fact that our country has a big russian speaking population – some level of civil unrest was expected.
As a mix of Russian, Ukrainian and Uzbekistan blood born and raised in Estonia – I felt like I was in the position to speak and that there were few uncomfortable subjects and perspectives that should be discussed publicly.
Long story short – the videos I posted were met positively and spread much farther than my humble following. The videos garnered over 10,000 views in a couple of hours, artists, influencers and other users commented in agreement and shared the content. I was invited to a couple podcasts to further discuss the those talking points.
Yes it was pleasant to see that people supported what I was saying, yet the fact that no people with other views engaged with the content that was primarily directed towards them made me think. What’s the point of preaching to the choir? Just to feed my ego?
If anything, my experience with raising awareness on social media only made me ask more questions.
What are the primary issues behind the lack of practicality?
How could those issues be improved?
How we as regular citizens could do a better job at maintaining our communities and as a result- maintain and improve our societal conditions?
If you’re interested – you can check out the posts I was talking about
Social media in our daily lives
Not going to lie, social media is convenient. It has bridged many gaps and created previously impossible connections. It’s a great tool for communication, sharing information and generating income. One reason why I can’t bash social media too much is rather simple. My work and income depend on it and have depended on it for past 10 years. Nevertheless due to my extensive experience with it in form of an advertiser, business owner, analyst and an end user. I have many great insights about its positive and negative qualities.
This article is not intended to detail my general or work experience with social media or its pros and cons. The main talking points of this article are as follows:
- Decreasing attention span
- Lack of factual information, perspective and context
- Social media as a tool for raising awareness
- Algorithms
- Lack of debate
- Lack of practical action
Main talking points
1. Decreasing attention span
Social media is seemingly free. That means your attention (time and consideration), data (patterns of behaviour, preferences and opinions) and consideration (the possibility of you buying something that is advertised to you) are the price you are paying.
Why would someone put in millions into development and
maintenance of something that is then giving away for free?
Because the data and activity can be sold to the third party.
That means social media platforms are competing for your attention and are constantly being improved in order to hold your attention as well as maintain and increase your engagement. Business wise it only makes sense. In some ways it’s even convenient for the users. Yet all those tweaks and improvements have hidden costs or side effects which users (and often developers) are unaware of. There are many and probably there are many more to be discovered. But lets look at how social media is shortening our attention span as a distant introduction into the main issue of this article.
The decreasing attention span isn’t exclusively caused by social media, though it’s strongly encouraged and amplified by it. The easily digestible news, shocking titles, short ads, fun facts and life hacks are all at fault here. And no matter how unpleasant that is, it makes sense in a competitive market where our attention and engagement translate into sales and profits.
Twitter is a great example. It’s a massive worldwide platform where a user can express their message publicly using 280 ( 140 prior to November 8th 2017) characters. Yes, subtweeting and quote tweeting are possible, yet the first or main tweets are the ones that get the most engagement.
Short and easily digestible articles that are shared around social media. They’re short so they don’t “overwhelm” the reader. They’re often written in a polarising way or from a one sided perspective in order to create an emotion (regardless if it’s positive or negative) and the titles are made provocative or shocking in order to capture the eye and get a click.
Even the function of creating a short status with a background that Facebook has introduced. If the status is short, it gets a colourful background and thus captures more attention. If it exceeds a specific character count – it becomes a regular small status that blends in with the rest. That function too encourages the reduction of context in exchange for reach or engagement.
As a result we are being actively trained to absorb information in small easily digestible bits. Dismiss articles that take more than 30 seconds to read and get bored of videos that aren’t packed with colours, noises and overly enthusiastic speakers. We are being discouraged from leaving the platform we’re on, meaning we’re being discouraged from reading sources or doing simple Google searches on the subject matter. After all, the algorithms are programmed to maintain, engage and sell – not to educate.
2. A lack of factual information, perspective and context
If we’re talking about platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Even if the sources are posted in the thread or somewhere in the end of a post. Majority of readers won’t go beyond the second or third line of text. Many won’t even bother reading the description of a post if there’s a picture with a heading attached.
If we look at Instagram for example, there is no way to add a clickable source link to a post. Yes, the text link can be added in the description, yet as it’s not clickable and can’t be selected on a smartphone – chances of someone checking are close to 0. Many digital news sources no longer add the section with sources and those that do may as well get their information from a source that may or may not be credible. Why? Because most users won’t bother to read anyway and there is no law or regulation that requires them to cite only credible sources. Plus how do you make 100% clear that the source that is being cited is credible, independent or simply still valid and relevant?
At the end of the day the percentage of people who end up researching the subject they were exposed to is extremely small. Even smaller amount of those people is able to use the available tools to find credible sources to get enough factual information and/or context.
3. Social media as a tool for raising awareness
In theory social media is a great tool for raising awareness, especially when the one doing the work has a big following or is able to reach a wider audience via other means. Social media is great for sharing visuals and easily digestible content. It’s great for catching attention and as previously mentioned – generating engagement.
In fact there are many examples of social media being used for raising awareness and financing noble causes. There have been countless fundraisers to offer children medial assistance. Awareness campaigns in regards of climate related issues and so on and so forth.
Yet here’s the thing that sabotages the whole purpose of raising awareness on social media…
4. The algorithms
As it was previously explained – Social media is rigged to catch and hold as much of your attention as possible. The algorithms on different platforms do work differently, but their end goal is usually the same. Some work better, some are still in the process of learning.
Facebook is supposed to show you content that will provoke an emotion, so is Instagram. TikTok studied (or maybe still does) not only your behaviour on the app, but it also collected data from the microphone, camera, clock and other apps and actions on the phone. In a way it wouldn’t be a shocking statement to say that TikTok knows many people better than they do themselves.
If we simplify the subject. It can be said that social media algorithms are studying you and showing you content that you’re most likely to engage with.
When people are raising awareness on social media, they often forget that they’re preaching to the choir as the audience they’re speaking to is following them for a reason. The audience can relate to the speaker (influencer or a public figure), idolise them and/or they have overlapping interests. There’s a very high chance that the audience is already aware of the issue the speaker is raising awareness on. Of course there are followers who are unaware and in their case the awareness campaign does work, yet that’s usually a minority of the overall following. And yes, the due to high engagement the post does have a chance to reach new people, though thanks to the algorithm, those people are probably also already aware of the subject or have a high likelihood to agree with whatever is being said.
People also often tend to believe public figures more because of their social status. When in reality their social status and achievements in arts don’t mean that they are experts in social, economic or environmental issues.
Monetisation
Advertisers have a role in this too. Most of the money that is generated by social media platforms is made through advertisers that pay for reaching whatever audiences they’re interested in. Platforms have gone to various lengths to make advertisers and brands more dependant on their paid marketing tools. For example Instagram and Facebook have massively reduced the organic reach of any page or profile that is not paying to boost their posts. If a couple years ago you could make a Facebook Business Page and market it organically. Reach most if not all of the people who have subscribed to it and go even further if people decide to share it. Now it’s barely possible to reach even 30% of your audience that has willingly subscribed to your page/profile organically.
Yes there are organisations that do paid promotions on important causes and they indeed reach people who have been unaware of the subject. Yet still, most people who take it upon themselves to get involved with politics and social issues don’t invest any money into reaching people who potentially need to be educated on the matter. Those figures mostly speak to the people who are already aware and in alignment with what is being told to them.
Most social media influencers do it for social points and don’t put too much effort into it.
Sometimes talking is enough
Nevertheless there are some subjects that simply need to be talked about. For example mental health. There has been a lack of debate on the subject. It hasn’t been acknowledged enough as in many places and cultures, it’s just not something that’s taken into account. So in this case for example. Raising awareness just in a sense of talking about it is already a good thing. Even though in this case too, now we’re actively normalising talking about mental health, it’s time to start promoting taking action towards healing.
Personally I find it weird how people are starting to make their inner difficulties a part of their personality or start identifying with them.
Personally I have dealt with my own mental issues and so I’m only speaking from personal experiences. But identifying with a problem is not a very good place where to be. Acknowledging issues and being able to talk about them is indeed important. Yet from there on at some point one has to start taking measures to better their condition in one way or the other.
5. Lack of debate
Another problematic matter that should be discussed more is the lack of adequate and open minded debate. As we already see – most social media platforms aren’t built for lengthy discussions. In combination with the algorithms and the fact that there’s a screen separating the people partaking in the debate, the opinions that align with the general idea get pushed to the top. Those that are in disagreement are often met with negativity rather than understanding and willingness to discuss.
In my opinion the lack of healthy debate is partially linked to the individualistic outlook on life that has been instilled in us for past 20 years and the fact that the individualistic mindset has made people yearn for a sense of belonging. After all we’re social animals.
In a way the corny quote that goes something like “Thanks to technology we’re more connected, yet morally disconnected than ever” makes sense. We have all the means to share information from not only scientific sources, but we’re also able to share our thoughts, feelings and experiences. Yet the same technology has made us cold and inconsiderate towards each other.
6. Lack of practical action
Last point that I’d like to discuss before concluding the article is the lack of practical action and a lack of a rational call to action when raising awareness online.
Right now we’re not speaking of non profits and international organisations that organise awareness campaigns. They should be discussed separately as they have their own skeletons in the closet. Instead lets focus on the activists, influencers and public figures who are more involved with the political side of the argument rather than practical problem solving side.
For the past couple of years I’ve been noticing how more and more people are trying to involve themselves with politics. Many if not most artists, influencers and public figures are now voicing their opinions on various political and social issues. They’re agitating their audiences to take some form of action and the audiences themselves can be seen demanding answers and actions from their idols, although those artists, influencers and public figures are often uneducated or incompetent to say something of value. If previously artists could stay silent and remain in their respected fields – now staying silent is viewed as agreeing with the opposition.
Practical Action vs Cancel Culture
Yes, it is a practical call to action when influencers call upon their followers to donate to fundraisers. It’s a practical call to action when followers are encouraged to educate themselves. Yet usually that’s about it and although it’s something – it’s the bare minimum.
The cancel culture that’s been on a rise in the recent years is also contributing to the issue in a negative way. Instead of educating people and having healthy debates, people are now collectively trying to exile people with whom their opinions and views don’t align. That cultivates ignorance, resentment and division, which don’t contribute to a healthy community in any way. As how can a healthy conversation start from deplatforming and ridding someone of their source of income?
Ok. Now what?
Practically speaking, we can start off by taking responsibility for our own lives, thoughts and actions. We can start by observing and educating ourselves. Getting to know as many sides of the argument as possible before we judge or form opinions or beliefs.
We can acknowledge the fact that social media is a rather recent phenomena and be slightly more cautious when we’re using it. Maybe we should limit our exposure to it and separate our lives and surroundings from what we encounter on social media. We can withhold from comparing our lives to what we see on social media and what lifestyles are being instilled in us via media.
We can be more mindful of our own lives and how we contribute to the communities that surround us. It is good to be aware of what’s going on in the world and it’s good to know what issues we are facing as species. Yet big changes start small. It is extremely important to take practical action where one can and where that action is needed. I believe that global issues can be tackled only if we start taking responsibility for our lives and start to contribute to the wellbeing of our relatives, friends and communities. After all individuals form communities and communities form societies. The health of a society roughly equals the health of a singular individual.
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Author: Alex
I’ve spend a decade working in advertising, social media and cultural industries, which have given me great insights into what’s going on behind the scenes.