Assignment for 10 Arguments For Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now by Jaron Lanier

Outline for Lanier Paper

Intro

Topic from book
Observation from real life

            transitions to

Thesis: One should/should not delete his/her social media account because of reason X, Y, Z.
                                   

Body

I. Discussion of first reason for why/why not a person's social media account should be deleted right now.

II. Discussion of second reason for why/why not a person's social media account should be deleted right now.

III. Discussion of third reason for why/why not a person's social media account should be deleted right now.

Conclusion

discuss whether there can be a tipping point where the number of cord-cutters will affect the behavior and strategy of BUMMER platforms

or

Explain why the overall effect of social media is a net positive or a net negative.

or

Lanier states: "there is something you can do personally. If, when you participate in online platforms, you notice a nasty thing inside yourself, an insecurity, a sense of low self-esteem, a yearning to lash out, to swat someone down, then leave that platform. Simple.” Do you think this kind of self-restraint is likely/possible on a personal level for Americans?

or

Do you think that tech users will ever be convinced that paying for content is a good idea after getting all this content for free for so long?

From Vanessa Barbara's New York Review of Books piece on Max Fisher's The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World . . .

"In a chapter on the political situation in Brazil over the past few years, Fisher correctly notes that the political establishment had rejected Bolosonaro for decades because of his fanatical positions, misogyny, and hate speech. 'But that attention-grabbing behavior performed well online,' Fisher notes, with social media channels such as WhatsApp, Telegram, and particularly YouTube responsible for the upsurge in Bolsonaro's popularity. I especially appreciated a comment from Brian Winter, the editor of America's Quarterly, who visited Bolsonaro's office before the 2018 election. All eight staffers were 'doing social media the entire time I was there,' he said. 'There was no legislative work being done.'

Fisher explains how social media platforms are designed to provide users with more and more divisive content, driving them into 'self-reinforcing echo chambers of extremism' in order to retain their attention and increase engagement time. A 2019 internal Facebook report on hate and misinformation found 'compelling evidence that our core product mechanics, such as virality, recommendations, and optimizing for engagement, are a significant part of why these types of speech flourish on the platform.' Fisher's book is not specific to Brazil, but the populous, diverse country offers a laboratory for his thesis.

Fisher draws on his field research to argue that YouTube not only created an online fringe community but also radicalized Brazil entire conservative movement, displacing traditional right wing politics almost completely. The results of the October election corroborate this. The PDSB, which once was one of the strongest political forces in the country, is now virtually dead.

I have followed many right-wing groups on social media for The New York Times and piauí, a monthly Brazilian magazine, trying to make sense of these changes. I've been submerged in racist, misogynist, anti-Semitic, and violent discussions. ('Nobody in the past hundred years has done more for peace than Adolf Hitler,' I read in a Brazilian chat group with over 4500 members.) I've heard endless refutations of science and epidemiology. Social media has let opinions that long lurked in the ugly political fringes bask in the open.

. . . Facebook, according to internal documents quoted by Fisher, knew by April 2021 that their algorithms 'were boosting dangerous misinformation, that they could have stemmed the problem dramatically with the flip of a switch, and that they refused to do so for fear of hurting traffic.' The company's researchers had found that 'serial reshares' were likelier to be false, but the algorithm, measuring them for potential virality, artificially boosted their reach anyway. 'Simply turning off this boost,' the reserachers found, 'would curb Covid-related misinformation by up to 38 percent.' This would be an important step to amend political fracturing in Brazil and elsewhere. After all, despite the results of the last presidential election, extremism on the Brazilian far right has not been defeated."

[February 23, 2023 issue]