Three Reflections in Ecological Contradiction

Dazzling earnings figures and various hidden dangers; the inertia of business development and external pressure.... Social media, regardless of size, may be facing a similar ecological contradiction.

Some time ago, the popular documentary The Social Dilemma explores social media and its effects on society caused by its availability, including impacts on users’ mental health, the shaping role of human civilization. The Social Dilemma is a pun. On the one hand, it is a dilemma brought about by social media. On the other hand, it is a dilemma faced by social media itself.

In some degree, these two aspects of meaning are one body with two sides, and mutual cause and effect. Social media brings a lot of “problems”, which makes it more vulnerable to criticism, and then makes itself fall into the dilemma of runaway users, downward advertising revenue and declining social reputation.

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So, how can the industry alleviate these internal ecological problems? Jason Morgese, founder and CEO of Leavemark, a niche social product, once wrote about three reforms that social media platforms should take when faced with difficulties. We’ve come up with three recommendations:

1. Balance Fact Checking

On social media, fact-checking is critical, but it’s not as simple as paying lip service to make the algorithm smarter and the people who manipulate it better.

The dilemma of Facebook and Twitter can happen to many platforms. How to strike a balance between checking extreme false statements and ensuring users’ social autonomy requires the concerted efforts of platform strategies, products and operations.

2. Don’t Treat Users Like Products

In essence, the behavior of infringing on users’ privacy is still caused by the psychology of regarding users as “products” and “data”. As advertising becomes the dominant revenue model for platforms, some social media will be particularly interested in maintaining user engagement based on algorithmic recommendations and preference manipulation. The higher advertising revenue requires more users’ hits, which naturally comes from more users’ data. The profit-oriented chain finally leads to the intrusion and even illegal acquisition of users’ privacy. Social product is a business, but it's not a business at all.

3. Encourage Connections Without Clickbait

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A common form of clickbait is found on the typical social search page. A user clicks on an image or preview video that suggests a certain type of content, but upon clicking they are brought to unrelated content. It’s a technique that can be used to spread misinformation, which provides an extremely awful experience for viewers who rely on social platforms for their news consumption, instead of traditional outlets when clickbait articles offer fake news or invalid information.

As a result, social media platforms should aggressively ban or limit clickbait. Management at Facebook and other firms often counter with a free speech argument when it comes to stopping clickbait. However, they should consider the intent is not to act as censors that are stopping controversial topics but protecting users from false content.

Objectively speaking, social media is still one of the most popular interactive tools for information transmission and entertainment in the world today. However, the giants always keep their eyes on the distance and the future to watch out for those beautiful data. After all, they can sometimes deceive people. Only by solving users’ real problems can the platform maintain its sustainable competitiveness.