I was surprised when thinking about the almost hypnotic lure of Social Media I stumbled upon its similarities with the story of Pinocchio.  The big difference being that in this case it was not the wooden puppet Pinocchio but the whole of human civilisation being led down a garden path!

In Disney’s movie Geppetto, the father figure for the wooden puppet Pinocchio, strenuously tries to school Pinocchio about the dangers of greed, arrogance and hedonism.  In Geppetto’s absence Pinocchio is misled by a fox called Honest John, a cat called Gideon and a boy called Lampwick and ends up on Pleasure Island where children are offered free unbridled fun and gratification. However, the island is a cover for a sinister enterprise where all the free offerings come at a price and over time the children are transformed into donkeys to be sold off as beasts of burden.  Throughout the story a talking cricket called Jiminy Cricket tries to warn Pinocchio of the perils of his action to no avail.

Now here are the metaphorical similarities between the story of Pinocchio and Social Media,

• Pinocchio represents those social media users who haven’t the discipline, will power and strength of purpose to maintain the critical balance required for a successful life. These are people who unwittingly undermine their life for some very dubious and self-indulgent pleasures.
• Geppetto, the father figure, and Jiminy Cricket represent common sense, conscience, morality and any influence which promotes a balanced life with due attention to physical, mental and psychological well-being.
• Honest John the fox, Gideon the cat and Lampwick the boy represents the seductive and FREE social media applications like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp, YouTube etc.
• Pleasure Island represents the Social Media world which under the cover of some undeniable benefits peddles endless, instant and trivial gratification of base human desires resulting in addiction, laziness, time wasting and dumbing down of all human faculties.
• Donkeys represent the fate of all those addicted to Social Media who helplessly continue to feed their addiction in a zombie like stupor in activities which suck time, energy and human potential out of its victims.

The Exploitation of Addiction

Who and why should anybody be interested in turning humans into donkeys?  The answer become clear if we ask the next obvious question as to who would benefit from an endless supply of the metaphorical donkeys?  The answer as always is the unholy trinity of unethical businesses, politicians and media who under the guise of social good surreptitiously accumulate wealth, power and influence.

None of this is new as can be illustrated by the historical precedents of the Opium wars in China in the nineteenth century and the history of tobacco addiction in the world.  Both resulted in conflicts, deaths and untold misery of millions with businesses, politicians and media fully complicit in promoting and supporting these addictions.

Dr Isaac Adler in 1912 first reported the link between smoking and lung cancer but it was only in 1964 after the American Surgeon General’s report that finally led to the official recognition of its dangers and the move to warn the public.  How many lives were destroyed in these 50 years?  Was it pure ignorance or did tobacco lobby and money have a hand in this delay with full awareness of those in power?  Could this be happening in case of Social Media?

Defining Social Media

What is Social Media?  For the purposes of our blog we limit the definition of Social Media to “forms of electronic communications and networks which encourage addictive and mindless exchange of information which has little intellectual merit but promotes base human instincts like laziness, envy, narcissism, gossip, deception, bullying, lying etc”.

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and WhatsApp are some of the main, and most dangerous, enablers of these human foibles due to their highly addictive and hypnotic attributes.

Charges against Social Media 

Suppliers of the pain reliever Aspirin are legally required to inform the consumers of its harmful side effects.  Similarly, cigarette manufacturers are mandated to caution consumers against its harmful effects by boldly stating “Smoking kills” on their packaging.  Why isn’t Social Media cautioning the consumers against its harmful effects?  Could it be that nobody is interested, knows or cares about the following well documented and obvious risks?

Supporters of Social Media claim that the results of the research on the harmful effects of Social Media are either inconclusive or still awaited.  That still does not explain why even the known toxic effects of Social Media are not being treated the same way as introduction of new drugs?   It takes pharmaceutical companies decades and requires them to jump through endless regulatory hoops before they are allowed to introduce new drugs.  Why wasn’t this mandated for Social Media when its harmful effects are almost an open secret? It only makes sense if we consider physical health more important than our mental well-being!

Do we have to wait decades like happened in the case of smoking before Social Media is regulated?  Is it possible that we might have already crossed the tipping point making it almost impossible to reign in the damage done to a whole generation?  Besides, the power and wealth accumulated in the hands of a few Social Media technocrats who are able to control politicians, news and media, it might be almost too late to dial back their power.  We are already seeing signs of this where the likes of Google, Facebook and YouTube have an almost unchallenged monopoly in their ability to influence public discourse, businesses and politicians.  Do we know where this might lead to in the next 10 years?  Can wilful ignorance absolve those responsible for what might turn out to be a civilisational tragedy?

Is Social Media evil? 

Is gambling or opium evil?  Of course not. They only become evil when they become addictions and are promoted indiscriminately with little or no concern about their effects on consumers specially those who are gullible and prone to addictions.

In the same way Social Media is only as good or evil as the use it is subjected to.  What is undeniably evil is that it is promoted by its developers with no concern about protecting its users from its harmful effects.  Blinded by their naked ambitions they indiscriminately and aggressively make their products more addictive, cleverly disguising its addictive hooks to serve as baits to reel the users in.  They feel no guilt at what their offerings might be doing to the future of a whole generation of young and innocent children being sacrificed for their vested interest.  Like tobacco industry they intentionally suppress or rationalise the obvious and known evils of their products when with very little self-regulation they could easily mitigate the damage.

Is Social Media the modern day opium of the masses?

The German philosopher Karl Marx famously described religion as the opium of the masses.  What he was implying was that while like opium, religion provided some comfort and relief to the sick and elderly, mindless addiction on the other hand posed the danger of masses being enslaved, manipulated and exploited.  Despite the best of intentions, be it opium, religion or Social Media, anything which is addictive and makes people mindlessly dependent on it will end up being used as an instrument of enslavement and exploitation.

My daughter who considers herself to be a responsible Social Media user was shocked when on monitoring her usage she found that she was spending almost 2 hours a day on her smartphone, most of which was spent on managing  and promoting her blog.  Prompted by curiosity she was not surprised to find that most of her friends spent between 4 – 7 hours on social media without even being aware of the time they were spending on it.  This is not surprising considering the 2015 CNN headline “Teens Spend a mind boggling 9 hours a day using media ” quoting a report compiled by Common Sense Media.

So, what is being sacrificed at the altar of Social Media?   Is it family, health, mental development, learning, social activities, intellectual pursuits or even leisure?  Is the absence of these activities likely to create any ill effects on our development, health and wellbeing?  How will a generation growing up on a diet of 140-character tweet ever digest the nuances, complexities and contradictions of life?  Would a simplistic black and white outlook without the necessary thousand shades of grey beget extremism and bigotry?

Donkeys and Zombies

George Orwell in his book Nineteen Eighty-Four gave graphic account of these risks by describing how a state through the relentless and inescapable propaganda and thought control tries to turn its people into mindless zombies existing purely for the benefit of the state. The ubiquitous Telescreen, with a remarkable similarity to modern day smartphones, was a critical instrument of subjugation effectively used for monitoring the private and public lives of the populace.

Would it be a stretch to imagine ruthless social media tycoons conspiring with the state to similarly fully control citizens who might already be in a zombie like state due to the subtle thought control exercised through social media applications?  Can’t happen in real life?  We just have to look at how Nazi and communist states controlled their citizens.  It did not take long for most of these populist and social justice spouting leaders to bare their fangs and quickly transform into brutal monsters lording over a hapless citizenry.

Regulatory Control

Government regulates gambling addiction and exploitation, why not the addiction to Social Media?  Why is Social Media unregulated for children as young as 7-year-old when they are protected against the evils of gambling?  What are schools and parents doing to inform and help protect children from this addiction?  Are we destined for a repeat of history like that of opium and tobacco addiction, and learn only after the damage has been done due to the perpetual evil of human greed, ignorance and exploitation?

What have the self-professed Social Media industry do-gooders done to help manage the problem? A big zero!  Their whole focus seems to be to continue developing their Social Media platforms to make it more addictive and collect as much information about their users to influence all decision making in their lives.

How difficult is it for the industry to put in some cautions and controls to reduce its misuse?  It seems they can do everything with the technology that helps them but nothing which might be good for their consumers resulting in perhaps some cost to them in terms of reduced usage.  This doesn’t seem like responsible self-regulation?  Does that mean it needs Government intervention?  When?

Addiction & Self-Control

Addiction can be defined as a habit requiring obsessive and compulsive gratification with no concern for its life and soul-destroying consequences.  The best antidote to addiction is prevention and self-control.  Both require a high degree of self-awareness and the need to steer clear of activities with known proclivity for turning into destructive habits.  It is important to remember that every addiction starts with innocent baby steps which quickly turn into a unstoppable zombie marathon.

This self-inflicted addiction can only be stopped by responsible and minimal use of Social Media. This monster is only as powerful as we make it with the investment of our time and attention.  I have by choice limited my use of Social Media by refusing to open a Facebook, Twitter or Instagram account. I have also withdrawn myself from any WhatsApp group which generates endless inane messages of wisdom, good wishes and jokes sent by people robotically feeding their addiction. Should we be paying for other people’s addiction with our time?

Progressing from Idiot Box to Zombie Zone

If allowed to continue unabated the day is not far when Social Media will be called the Zombie Zone in the same way as TV is called the Idiot Box!

Does all this sound too hysterical or conspiratorial?  Depends on how much credible and dangerous the risks are.  If it is justified to be alarmed over climate change which is supported by some questionable science and a time line of hundreds of years, then perhaps we should pay greater attention to the more urgent dangers of Social Media where the risks it poses are easier to study, validate and forecast.  Both Social Media and Climate Change pose an existential threat to the survival of human civilisation, one more urgent then the other.

Adam and Eve were thrown out of paradise due to the seductive offering of an apple by Satan impersonating as a snake.  Are the greedy technocrats of Social Media offering similarly evil seduction through the medium of the Apple iPhone, the metaphorical poison fruit?  Do we know what the cost would be this time considering that the Paradise is already lost?

Muse

1. Are the risks of Social Media real or fake?
2. Even if we don’t know for sure should we be taking some preventive measures just in case?
3. Do we know anybody addicted to Social Media?
4. Do those addicted acknowledge their addiction or explain it away?
5. Are we all sleep walking into the mortal danger of the Social Media freight train?
6. What is the history of those in power of having taken steps to prevent avoidable dangers and risks to society?

Coming Next Week – It is the Culture, Stupid!