Is social media messing with our emotions? | BBC Ideas

Summary

In this thought-provoking video, Laurence Scott explores how social media has transformed both the way we experience and express emotions. He highlights the irony of being limited to a small set of reactions on platforms like Facebook, despite advances in AI that can recognize a wide range of human emotions. The video also delves into how rapid emotional shifts on social media, from joy to tragedy, can create psychological whiplash. Finally, Scott examines the addictive design features of social media that exploit basic human psychology to keep users engaged. It’s a powerful reflection on the emotional impact of our digital lives.

Takeaways

• 😀 Social media is reshaping how we experience and express emotions.
• 😀 Emotions are becoming a valuable resource for social media platforms to leverage.
• 😀 Platforms like Facebook prompt users to share their emotions with features like 'What's on your mind?'
• 😀 Facebook's six reaction options (like, heart, sad, angry, etc.) limit emotional expression to a predefined set.
• 😀 There is a contrast between social media's emotional limitations and robots, like Pepper, which can recognize 62 different human emotions.
• 😀 Social media causes emotional dissonance by presenting vastly different emotional content in quick succession (e.g., personal joy followed by tragedy).
• 😀 The fast emotional shifts on social media contribute to a lack of emotional consistency in our lives.
• 😀 Social media networks design features to maximize user engagement, including algorithms that trigger dopamine-driven anticipation (e.g., notification delays).
• 😀 The pause before notifications or updates creates excitement, encouraging people to stay engaged with social media.
• 😀 Social media companies tap into fundamental psychological processes to keep users hooked and encourage longer platform usage.
• 😀 The rapid emotional changes and addictive features of social media raise questions about how people will adapt to these shifts in emotional landscapes.

Q & A

What does Laurence Scott believe about the role of social media in our emotional lives?

Laurence Scott believes that social media is transforming the way we experience and express emotions. It has made emotions a valuable resource, and social media platforms are designed to make emotions more visible and accessible to others.

How do social media platforms like Facebook manage the expression of emotions?

Social media platforms like Facebook allow users to express emotions through features like 'reactions'. These reactions, which include options like 'like', 'heart', 'sad face', and 'angry face', limit the range of emotions that users can show, which Scott sees as an ironic simplification.

What is the irony Laurence Scott points out between social media emotion reactions and robotic recognition?

The irony Scott highlights is that while robots like Pepper, developed by Hanson Robotics, are being trained to recognize 62 different facial expressions and emotional cues, social media platforms limit users to only six emotional reactions. This contrast between advanced emotional recognition in robots and the restricted emotional expression on social media is striking.

What emotional experience does Scott suggest users have on social media timelines?

Scott points out that social media timelines can jerk users from one emotion to another, with posts ranging from joyful moments (like a friend's child's milestone) to tragic news (such as a disaster). This creates an emotional inconsistency and disorientation in how we respond to content.

Why does Scott believe the 21st century will focus on how we cope with emotional shifts?

Scott predicts that the 21st century will focus on how we manage rapid emotional shifts, as social media exposes us to a wide range of emotional stimuli, forcing us to frequently change emotional gears and cope with these abrupt transitions.

What is the primary goal of social media companies, according to Scott?

The primary goal of social media companies is to keep users on their platforms for as long as possible. This is achieved through design features that encourage users to return to the site and engage more, often using algorithms that tap into psychological mechanisms.

How do social media platforms leverage human psychology to encourage engagement?

Social media platforms exploit basic psychological responses, such as the anticipation and excitement of checking notifications. For instance, platforms like Twitter use a delay in showing notification counts, creating a sense of suspense and rewarding users with a dopamine hit when the count changes.

What is the significance of the pause before notifications appear on Twitter?

The pause before showing notification counts is designed to trigger anticipation in users. This delay taps into our psychological craving for unpredictability, leading to a brief moment of excitement when we see the updated notification count, which reinforces engagement with the platform.

How does Scott describe the emotional landscape created by social media?

Scott describes the emotional landscape of social media as one full of rapid shifts, where users are constantly confronted with a mix of emotions. The inconsistency and unpredictability of the emotional tone of social media feeds can have a profound effect on our emotional well-being.

What underlying psychological mechanism do social media platforms aim to exploit?

Social media platforms aim to exploit the human desire for instant gratification and unpredictability, using algorithms and features like notifications to trigger dopamine-driven responses, which encourage users to spend more time on the site.