Italian
Decades of Hamlet-like questions have been replaced by the question that has been filling many discussions in recent years: social networks yes or social networks no? Are they beneficial or are they a means of perdition?
A significant change
Regardless of personal opinion, they have certainly represented a significant change in the way of communicating and creating connections for all generations and social classes: they have allowed everyone to overcome space-time limits previously unthinkable, but at the same time replacing direct experience with cognitive and linguistic activities mediated by technology.
Distant relatives and schoolmates, kindred spirits and mountain hiking groups: “fast” as the English would say. In fact, with social networks, an extreme “speed” has developed in connecting with distant relationships, supplanting a previously cumbersome approach.
Behind the Screen
The issue arises when trying to understand who is behind the screen.
A social profile is, in all respects, a showcase to highlight one’s virtues because real flaws are better left for face-to-face encounters: from screens, perfect hair, heights only above six feet, and almost cinematic selfies in impressive wow-effect locations emerge.
However, calm down: these mirrors are not for the larks but for those who Want to believe. Facebook arrived in Italy in 2008 and, since then, the newspaper pages have given us chronicles not always rosy indeed opaque because all that glitters is not gold; and this has made us smarter but, at the same time, more distrustful because, if on one hand becoming someone’s friend is just a matter of a click, on the other hand we struggle to trust.
An advertising medium
Given the large population on platforms such as Facebook, social media has also become a fully-fledged advertising medium and is used to influence people’s behaviors and decisions by companies that recognize the importance of the social vehicle and exploit its advertising wake.
As pointed out by the philosopher Anders, at the core of the speaker (companies) and the listener (social user), there is not a true empirical experience but a tautological communication typical of an advertising action: user behaviors are monitored based on their browsing habits, making them an easy “prey” for those who want to sell something.
Therefore, on one hand, an advertisement in the profile makes you aware of a new product more quickly, while on the other hand, it could create an induced need that was not necessary before but suddenly becomes essential because it is presented as packaged “only for you.”
The role of the algorithm
This reasoning, clever for the seller but deceptive for the buyer, could, in the long run, generate dysfunctional behavior: I am not who I am but who the algorithm wants me to be.
It would be purely rhetorical to say that returning to a good book is the solution: technology is an important element of our society that is advancing with exponential growth. What needs to be safeguarded are not the social platforms but the possible effects that effectively amplify those already existing, such as the pursuit of perfection and standardization.
Curing these effects is not easy, especially without incurring in divisions of thought: the important thing would be to manage to live with technological evolution without damaging ourselves.
Photo credits: Pixabay
