note: Title generated by AI
How educators can, or should, approach the issue of social media (and the dangers/concerns associate with it) in the classroom?
While our learning projects are highlighting a positive side to social media, online connections and the internet, the recommended videos for this week each underscore the dark side of social media
The suggested videos covered the topics of TikTok’s influence on our youth, how social media is designed to get us addicted, sextortion – in particular Amanda Todd’s story, and content marketing. I watched each video and reflected on the question: what do they have in common? One word popped into my mind right away, manipulation.
Social Media Apps
In The Social Dilemma we heard the adage “If you are not paying for the product – you are the product”. Jaron Lanier zoomed in and described how he believes this to be true. What he believes is “it’s the gradual, slight, imperceptible, change in your own behaviour and perception that is the product.”
Mirriam-Webster defines manipulate as “to control or play upon by artful, unfair, or insidious means especially to one’s own advantage”.
What Jaron Lanier described is manipulation.
“it’s the gradual, slight, imperceptible, change in your own behaviour and perception that is the product.”
Jaron Lanier, The Social Dilemma
These social media apps are designed to keep us scrolling and modify our behaviour through manipulation. A stunning example is Lauren from the Four Corners expose TikTok: Eating disorders, racism, censorship and distorted realities. She actually relapsed back to her eating disorder due to the targeted content she was being fed on TikTok.
This brings me back to The Social Dilemma where Tristan Harris, former design ethicist at Google, asked a great question:
“Is this normal or have we all fallen under some kind of spell?”
Sextortion and cyber bullying
- TELUS | Dark Cloud: the high cost of cyberbullying
- Sextortion of Amanda Todd
- Stalking Amanda Todd: The Man in the Shadows
The tragic case of Amanda Todd brings to light the realities of online grooming and manipulation of children. The predators are able to make their victims engage in behaviours that they wouldn’t otherwise, which results in private images captured. Once these images are released over the internet via social media, the victim is vulnerable to blackmail and cyber bullying. Amanda Todd’s mom has worked hard to educate others on these dangers and raise awareness about the risks. Her efforts also helped capture Amanda’s predator.
Public Safety Canada’s Online Child and sexual exploitation website has this video to raise awareness. It is OK; I think they could do better. It seems to say all the right things, however the tone is too casual to emphasize its import.
Content Marketing
The external influence and manipulation tactics that we are bombarded with everyday are not exclusive to social media apps. The Story of Content: Rise of the New Marketing highlights the fascinating shift in marketing strategies due to popularity of content creation. It shows that traditional marketing approaches are no longer providing the best returns. Instead, it is the creation and its dissemination of engaging content that pulls in the people and thus the profits. Marketing has long applied the psychology of human behavior to its methods. Content marketing however seems more insidious as it is able to build long-term relationships with its customers establishing a sense of trust through manipulation.
My 12 year old asked me the other day – Everyone keeps telling me that the internet is getting my data. What is that data? What are they doing with it?
I thought it was a great question, and I actually had a difficult time answering it beyond some vague response about big data and predicting people behaviours. OK, so what?
After rewatching it this past week, I think my new simple answer would be that these apps are able to learn the patterns, likes and values of people based on who they are and where they live. If they want to they can control what information people are given on their feeds. The big realization now is that “we can now affect real world behaviour and emotions”.
This is a scary thought! What about our autonomy and right to self-determination? The truth is that we think we are autonomous beings, but we are vulnerable to manipulation and suggestion. Social media capitalizes on this to modify our emotions, beliefs and values, and for what? Profit. So the rich get richer. As The Social Dilemma pointed out this is an existential problem.
I hang onto this quote from Tristan Harris:
“It’s not about the technology being the existential threat. It’s the technology’s ability to bring out the worst in society. And the worst in society being the existential threat.”
This is poignant as it hints to the fact that we can take control.
This is the bottom line to the answer to the question “Can we or should we approach the issue of social media in the classroom?”. Yes, we can and we should. We have to.
If we educate ourselves and the next generations about how to protect ourselves from manipulation and be less vulnerable users of these apps, then we remove the power of manipulation from social media. Many of these concepts are in the SK school curriculum. Pulling a few from the SK documents:
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- Digital reputation
- how to combat the spread of negative postings
- legal and social impacts of sexting
- potential mental health problems with technology
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These are a great start. And the Digital Citizenship Education in Saskatchewan Schools planning guide is an excellent companion to the curriculum. I wonder though, is it enough? How are we teaching the kids to be aware of the intentional targeted manipulation? We must connect certain protective skills, not just concepts, to our technology to reduce the childrens’ risk of falling victim to manipulation. I have no doubt that all teachers want to foster critical thinking. But it must be taught in these specific waters that are very difficult to tread to help students become more discerning, critical users of these platforms.
The children must acknowledge and believe in their own autonomy and encouraged to exercise their right to self determination.
How do we do this in the era of the cell phone “banned wagon”?