Social media amplifies rather than causes pre-existing biases in susceptible users

Evidence

31. Buffardi and Campbell, “Narcissism and Social Networking Web Sites”; LaPorta, “Twitter and YouTube.” Much of this linkage is often sensationalized (see, for example, Twenge and Campbell, Narcissism Epidemic). Buffardi and Campbell do not claim that social network site use promotes narcissism, but they do point out that the personality traits exhibited by narcissists are rewarded by social network sites, so narcissists may be over-represented there. — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 1014 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

The research studies and first-person accounts that we have reviewed reveal the coercive underbelly of the instrumentarian’s much revered “confluence,” in which harmonies are achieved at the expense of the psychological integrity of participants. This is the world of Pentland’s “social learning,” his theory of “tuning” little more than the systematic manipulation of the rewards and punishments of inclusion and exclusion. It succeeds through the natural human inclination to avoid psychological pain. Just as ordinary consumers can become compulsive gamblers at the hands of the gaming industry’s behavioral technologies, psychologically ordinary young people are drawn into an unprecedented vortex of social information that automatically triggers social comparison on an equally unprecedented scale. This mental and emotional milieu appears to produce a virus of insecurity and anxiety that drives a young person deeper into this closed loop of escalating compulsion as he or she chases relief in longed-for signals of valorization. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1485 (#contradicts, via linked claim)

Unlike television, however, social media entails active self-presentation characterized by “profile inflation,” in which biographical information, photos, and updates are crafted to appear ever more marvelous in anticipation of the stakes for popularity, self-worth, and happiness. Profile inflation triggers more negative self-evaluation among individuals as people compare themselves to others, which then leads to more profile inflation, especially among larger networks that include more “distant friends.” As one study concluded, “Expanding one’s social network by adding a number of distant friends through Facebook may be detrimental by stimulating negative emotions for users.” — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1473 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Whether social media dupes people or merely amplifies their existing prejudices is unresolved. — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects…, 360; The Facebook study’s assumption that choices are independent of algorithm exposure is shaky — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects…, 422; Quitting social media for a month causally reduces political polarization — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects…, 459 (+16 more)

Related

• More social media connections can worsen users’ emotional states through comparison loops (similarity 0.86)
• Facebook exposure drives social comparison and envy on an unprecedented scale (similarity 0.86)
• Social media triggers unprecedented intensity of social comparison among the young. (similarity 0.84)
• Social comparison is the dominant psychological process in the Facebook experience. (similarity 0.84)
• Social media rewards narcissistic traits rather than causing narcissism (similarity 0.82)
• Social media’s engineered feedback loops convert normal social comparison into compulsive anxiety (similarity 0.81)
• Scare-story claims linking social media to narcissism remain unproven (similarity 0.81)
• Facebook exploits the psychological needs of young people during identity formation. (similarity 0.80)
• Instrumentarian social engineering principles produce chronic self-comparison among young women online (similarity 0.79)
• Social media is precision-engineered to exploit adolescent desires for peer recognition. (similarity 0.79)
• Heavy Twitter monitoring made relationships feel like strategic performance while fueling anxiety. (similarity 0.79)
• Facebook weaponizes social proof by dressing commerce as friendship. (similarity 0.78)
• Active Facebook interaction correlates measurably with diminished mental health (similarity 0.78)
• Unhappy Facebook browsing creates a self-reinforcing cycle that deepens depression (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Social media rewards narcissistic traits rather than causing narcissism #corroborates (0.85) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 1014
• Social media’s engineered feedback loops convert normal social comparison into compulsive anxiety #contradicts (0.80) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1485
• More social media connections can worsen users’ emotional states through comparison loops #expands (0.78) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1473
• Facebook exposure drives social comparison and envy on an unprecedented scale #exemplifies (0.75) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1476
• Social media’s herd-intensification may impede individual development at population scale #expands (0.72) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1488