Shoshana Zuboff
New Media = New Behaviour Management
Some themes and discussion points from Great Hack:
- The Exchange of Data
- Search for Truth
- Behaviour Management
- Propaganda / Persuasion
- Regulation
So what changes can be put in place to solve these current issues?
Jaron Lanier
Jarod Lanier an American computer scientist and computer philosopher who is considered a founder of the field of virtual reality who discusses some of the key issues raised by new social media technologies, for example in his books:
> Who Owns the Future? (2013)
In his book Who Owns the Future? (2013), Lanier posits that by convincing users to give away valuable information about themselves in exchange for free services, firms can accrue large amounts of data at virtually no cost. Lanier calls these firms “Siren Servers”, alluding to the Sirens of Ulysses. Instead of paying each individual for their contribution to the data pool, the Siren Servers concentrate wealth in the hands of the few who control the data centres.
> Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now (2018)
As the name implies, Lanier is concerned about the influence of social media. In essence the claim is that platforms such as Twitter and Facebook have made their users cruder, less empathetic, more tribal. Lanier worries that reliance on social media platforms is reducing people’s capacity for spirituality, and that social media users are in essence turning into automated extensions of the platforms
Johnathan Haidt: The Anxious Generation
https://www.anxiousgeneration.com/research/the-evidence
Shoshana Zuboff
Who really benefits from a digitally networked society? Big business or individuals?
Q: How does big business benefit? What commodity do they trade in? Answer: predictive human behaviour.
. . . interests have shifted from using automated machine processes to know about your behaviour to using machine processes to shape your behavior according to their interests
Zuboff 2019, p. 338
So who is in control? The customer or the technologies? Are the technologies responding to our behaviour? Or is your behavior determined by the technology?
https://www.rt.com/viral/386756-facebook-insecure-teens-advertising/
Read the extracts below, note the assertion that ‘social media users are dangerously unaware of the vulnerabilities that follow their innocent but voluminous personal disclosures’, that new technologies are now developing sophisticated tools to develop a relationship with potential customers based on ‘micro-behavioral targeting’, which looks to ‘change people’s behaviour through carefully crafted messaging’.
