i have literally zero presence on social media. The only one i kinda used past few years was linkedin but i deleted that too.
social media is based on the design that whatever is popular - in terms of votes, likes, clicks etc - becomes the most visible and ostensibly the most important. So by design it will always be a system where whatever appeals to the common denominator is what you are exposed to – which, as a rule, is just digital toxic waste.
That is my argument here, that this is not the problem.
Common denominator is part of all interactions more or less, where ever you are.
I would argue its more insidious.
That is actually promotes content that people don't want or like.
In other words "social media tell us what to like" without us actually having any say in this.
For example youtube has creators, but the ones that get promoted and how you find them is not your doing.
So when youtube sends something like a viral video in yourfeed, its not viral because there is no better content on youtube, you are watching it, because that is currently what youtube made you watch by design.
Of course you don't have to click it, but lets be honest most people do.
And they know how to use the layout and repeatedly peddling the algorithm on your layout to make you click this stuff eventually.
Its not so much as someone forcing you at gun point, its more like psychology of buyers where most people buy soft fizzy drinks in hospitals despite you preferring water.
Its just that if you place cheap water in the back and no one can see it and soft fizzy drinks with flashy nice and beautiful colors are all over the front and there is like 20 different types as opposed to just plain water, your primate brain will go for the fizzy drink.
There is also deliberate action and urgency.
For example if you are there to just buy something because you are thirsty you are essentially going to put minimal effort into the purchase and that bottle is right in your face so you might as well buy it.
The problem with this that youtube is pretty overwhelming and the search engine is pretty much rigged as well as all other things.
So even if there are thousands of good videos you would really want to watch the chances of this are slim if they can bait you on more commercially viable channel.
Not to mention the layout you have its not in your control either.
You can choose what they feed you, but not when and how they feed it to you.
More importantly its more or less based around principal of overwhelming the person and just confusing their natural decision making process.
Yeah you don't have to watch any of the shit, but essentially which ever way, the algorithm is biased. Its biased in a way that will make you feel you have to eventually click on something, but when your brain just builds up confusion and frustration of scrolling and not finding any good content you click the next best thing, and essentially that thing is the shit you don't want to watch, but end up watching.
So if you are very serious about searching on these platforms and I include googles search engine in social media
you are going to spend really some serious time searching for something that is really hard to find, like half an hour, just find something that is not explicitly shoved in your face.
So no its not a bubble on social media.
That would be the last problem of social media.
Its literally a wall that prevents access to the information you want.
