The Real Cost Of Social Media

One of the many challenges of life in the post Covid world, is that many of us are spending a lot more time at home.

Obviously, we want to stay healthy, so the world adjusts, and we accommodate. Digital technology has made this possible in a way that would have been impossible even a decade ago.

More bandwidth, and faster internet speeds have allowed for many of us to transition to working from home. School kids all over the country are now attending school remotely.

Even the way that we spend our free time has made the transition into the digital space. There is no shortage of way's to entertain yourself on the internet, for kids and adults alike.

While our kids are playing interactive games, we adults are often busy on Social media. As revolutionary to culture as the television was in the 1950"s, the interactivity of these platforms have created a new dimension to the way that we receive information.

No longer are we passive consumers of information, we are now are part of the process. Content creation has been crowd sourced, and we all get to take part in the process. Each "like" is a vote, each "share" is participation, and each comment is a chance to be in the conversation.

Social media has given us all the feeling that we have a stake in the events going on in society. We feel more engaged, more important. Most of all, and likely the reason that keeps us coming back for more, is that it gives us that heady feeling that our opinions have the power of influence.

Thats the lure of social media, but what few ever ask themselves what is the value of using social media? This question is often over looked, simply because there no charge for the use of these platforms.

We have a tendency to disregard anything that is offered to us for free. Most of us understand that Facebook and Twitter have found ways to profit from their users, in the form of data tracking, and advertising.

To say it simply when there is a profit, there is a cost. It just isn't one that we pay for upfront, or ave any direct control over.

If there is a profit, and a cost, then there also must be a value. Again, because of the illusion that these services are free, few of us spend much time considering what their true value really is.

Why is this important?

Without understanding the value of what social media platforms are offering to the public, we can't do a proper analysis to see if the value is worth the costs. Conversely, we need to understand what the costs are, before we can know if the value we are getting is worth the price paid.

Value is a complex concept, with many aspects that are both subjective and objective. In this case of social media the indirect nature of the cost adds additional layers of complexity, making the question of worth even more difficult to answer.

Recently, concerns over the way that social media has affected our elections have been brought to the forefront. The use of selective censorship to address this problem, comes with its ow set of concerns. No matter where you stand on the issue, there is no denying that it adds to the cost side of the equation when assesing the overall value that using social media brings to our world.

There is new concern that has just recently been brought into the conversation. It has to do with the way that we use social media, and the way that these companies have been making a profit from the content that we peovide. That we provide for free.

Facebook has hundreds of millions of users, posting content practically every minute of every day. This content, our pictures and thoughts, are a big part of what gives the platform value.

What are we gaining in exchange for that value? The immediat gain is doled out to us in the form of dopamine. Facebooks system of like's, and share's, trigger our endocrine systems to release dopamine, causing us to feel warm and fuzzy, usually ensuring that we will come back for more.

Meanwhile, Facebook profits by offering the people on your friends list a more compelling news feed. Their goal is to keep more users engaged for more hours of the day, allowing them to collect more data, and make more profits.

In a very real way, these platforms are profiting from your time.

Worse, if you are someone who posts often, they are profiting from your creative output.

This is something that we should all be more aware of, and begin to take seriously. The amount of wealth and power that the heads of these companies have accumulated in such a short time is unprecedented. We need to think about how that will affect our society moving forward.

We need to ask ourselves if the value is worth the cost.