Social Media as Social Control.

Summary

The transcript discusses B.F. Skinner's controversial 'Skinner boxes' and their application to social media platforms, which act as modern-day Skinner boxes. Skinner's behaviorist theories aimed to condition human behavior through operant conditioning, an idea that has been criticized for undermining freedom and dignity. Today, social media algorithms and policies subtly influence user behavior, creating a form of social control. The concept of 'libertarian paternalism' is introduced, suggesting that people can be nudged into making decisions that align with a desired outcome without force, similar to how Skinner's experiments worked.

Takeaways

• 🔬 B.F. Skinner's experiments with 'Skinner boxes' aimed to study and control animal behavior through operant conditioning.
• 🐁 Skinner's methodology involved placing animals in boxes with mechanisms like levers and lights, where specific behaviors were rewarded or punished.
• 💡 Skinner believed that human behavior could be conditioned and controlled through a system of reinforcement and punishment, similar to his experiments.
• 📚 Skinner's book 'Beyond Freedom and Dignity' argues for a behaviorist utopia where human behavior is shaped by external stimuli.
• 🤔 Skinner's ideas were controversial among psychologists, especially those who believed in the importance of subjective experiences.
• 📈 Modern social media platforms function as 'Skinner boxes', where user behavior is shaped by likes, shares, and algorithmic recommendations.
• 🚫 Social media sites use bans and content removal to create a 'chilling effect', subtly controlling user behavior.
• 🌐 The concept of 'libertarian paternalism' is a modern application of Skinner's ideas, where choices are subtly manipulated to guide people's decisions.
• 🧠 The 'heuristics and biases' program suggests that human cognition is flawed and requires guidance from social engineers.
• 🔑 Social media platforms use tokens of approval (likes, shares) to incentivize and control user behavior, similar to Skinner's reward system.

Q & A

What were Skinner boxes and how were they used in B.F. Skinner's experiments?

Skinner boxes were experimental devices used by the American psychologist B.F. Skinner to study animal behavior. They were boxes with mechanisms like lights, levers, and switch plates. Animals placed in these boxes were subjected to operant conditioning, where they received rewards or punishments based on their actions, such as standing on a lever or pulling a switch at certain times.

What is operant conditioning?

Operant conditioning is a method of learning that occurs through rewards and punishments for behavior. It is a behaviorist approach that suggests that behaviors can be modified by controlling the consequences that follow them.

How did Skinner's experiments with animals relate to his views on human behavior?

Skinner believed that the principles of operant conditioning observed in his animal experiments could be applied to human behavior. He envisioned a society where human behavior could be conditioned and controlled through reinforcement and punishment, similar to the way animals were conditioned in his experiments.

What is the connection between Skinner's ideas and social media platforms?

The concept of Skinner boxes has been extended to social media platforms, which can be seen as modern-day Skinner boxes. These platforms use algorithms and feedback mechanisms to reinforce certain behaviors, such as liking, sharing, and commenting, shaping user interactions and potentially influencing their thoughts and beliefs.

What is meant by 'libertarian paternalism' in the context of social control?

Libertarian paternalism is a concept where individuals are nudged towards certain decisions or behaviors without overt coercion. It suggests that by structuring choices in a particular way, people can be guided to make decisions that align with the desires of social engineers or policymakers, while still maintaining the illusion of free choice.

How does the script suggest that social media platforms exert control over users?

The script suggests that social media platforms exert control by creating an environment where users are rewarded for certain behaviors (likes, shares) and subtly discouraged from others through mechanisms like banning or content removal. This can lead to self-regulation and a chilling effect, where users self-censor to conform to perceived community standards.

What is the role of heuristics and biases in the social engineering perspective discussed in the script?

Heuristics and biases refer to the mental shortcuts and systematic errors people make when processing information. The social engineering perspective discussed in the script views these as flaws in human cognition that can be manipulated or 'fixed' by external forces, such as social media algorithms, to guide people towards desired behaviors.

How does the script argue that privacy concerns on social media are secondary to behavioral control?

The script argues that while privacy concerns are significant, the more profound issue is the behavioral control exerted through social media. It suggests that metadata collected from user behavior is used to create AI systems that further reinforce desired behaviors, making users more susceptible to manipulation.

What is the concept of 'token economy' as it relates to social media?

A token economy is a system where individuals are rewarded or punished with tokens to reinforce or discourage certain behaviors. In the context of social media, likes, shares, and comments act as tokens that reinforce user behavior, creating a form of social control.

How does the script describe the potential dangers of social media as Skinner boxes?

The script describes the dangers of social media as Skinner boxes by suggesting that they program users in a similar way to how animals were conditioned in Skinner's experiments. It argues that this can lead to predictable and controlled behavior, where users may be manipulated to believe in certain 'consensus' views without realizing the extent of external influence.

What is the script's view on the term 'radicalization' in the context of social media?

The script challenges the common use of the term 'radicalization' to describe individuals becoming more extreme in their views. Instead, it suggests that it is the users within social media systems who are being radicalized, as their behavior becomes more controlled and influenced by the platforms' reinforcement mechanisms.

Outlines

00:00

🔬 Skinner's Box and Behaviorism

The paragraph discusses B.F. Skinner's experiments with 'Skinner boxes', which were used to study animal behavior through operant conditioning. Skinner would place animals in boxes equipped with mechanisms like levers and lights, and program the boxes to deliver rewards or punishments based on the animals' actions. This method aimed to train animals autonomously. Skinner's work was controversial within the field of psychology, as it focused on observable behavior rather than unobservable mental states. His ideas extended to human behavior, envisioning a society where behavior is conditioned and controlled through reinforcement, as outlined in his book 'Beyond Freedom and Dignity'. The paragraph also draws a parallel between Skinner's boxes and modern social media platforms, suggesting that these platforms function as vast Skinner boxes, conditioning user behavior through likes, shares, and other forms of social reinforcement.

05:02

📉 The Chilling Effect of Social Media Control

This paragraph delves into the chilling effect of social media platforms' control over user behavior. It discusses how platforms use bans and ambiguous terms of service to regulate user conduct, creating an environment where users self-censor for fear of punishment. Over time, this can lead to a form of mass lobotomy, where users internalize the platform's values and reinforce acceptable behavior. The paragraph also touches on the concept of 'libertarian paternalism', a viewpoint that suggests guiding people's decisions without forcing them, akin to Skinner's box on a societal scale. It mentions how social media sites can control the visibility of content to influence user behavior, and how this can be achieved with minimal effort, leading to a form of social control that gives the illusion of user autonomy.

10:03

🤔 The Illusion of Control in Social Media

The final paragraph critiques the idea that social media platforms are neutral spaces for free expression. It argues that these platforms are designed to control user behavior through incentives like likes and shares, which are analogous to the tokens used in Skinner's experiments. The paragraph suggests that the true concern with social media is not privacy, but the behavioral control exerted through metadata collection and AI-driven algorithms. It also discusses the concept of 'radicalization', suggesting that it is not users outside of social media who are radicalized, but those within the system who are being programmed to adopt new consensuses and beliefs. The paragraph concludes by emphasizing the power of social media to shape user behavior and思想, raising questions about the ethics of such control.

Keywords

💡Skinner Box

A Skinner Box, named after the American psychologist B.F. Skinner, is a device used in behavioral experiments to study operant conditioning. It typically consists of a chamber where an animal can be placed and manipulated with various stimuli to observe its behavior. In the video, Skinner Boxes are used to illustrate how animals can be conditioned to perform certain actions through rewards or punishments. This concept is then extended to social media platforms, which are likened to modern-day Skinner Boxes that condition human behavior.

💡Operant Conditioning

Operant Conditioning is a method of learning that occurs through rewards and punishments for behavior. It's the basis for Skinner's experiments with his boxes. The video explains how Skinner used boxes to condition animals to perform actions by rewarding them, such as providing food pellets, when they performed a desired action like pressing a lever. This concept is then paralleled with social media algorithms that reinforce certain behaviors through likes and shares.

💡Behaviorism

Behaviorism is a psychological theory that suggests that psychology can be a science by focusing on observable behavior. It was a dominant school of thought in the early to mid-20th century. The video discusses how Skinner, a behaviorist, believed in conditioning behavior through external stimuli rather than focusing on internal mental states. This perspective is contrasted with the idea of free will and the ability to make autonomous decisions.

💡Social Media

Social Media platforms are digital spaces where people can create and share content or participate in social networking. The video script uses social media as an example of modern Skinner Boxes, where algorithms and user interactions condition behavior. It suggests that platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit can subtly influence what users think and do through mechanisms like likes, shares, and content promotion.

💡Reinforcement

Reinforcement in psychology refers to the strengthening of a behavior through either rewards or the removal of aversive stimuli. The video explains how Skinner used reinforcement in his experiments to train animals to perform specific actions. This concept is then applied to social media, where likes and shares act as reinforcements that encourage certain types of user behavior.

💡Chilling Effect

The Chilling Effect is a term used to describe the suppression of speech or action due to fear of legal or social repercussions. In the video, it is mentioned in the context of social media platforms using ambiguous terms of service to ban users, which leads to self-censorship among the remaining users. This is seen as a form of social control, akin to the conditioning in Skinner Boxes.

💡Libertarian Paternalism

Libertarian Paternalism is a concept in which people are nudged towards certain behaviors without overtly restricting their freedom of choice. The video discusses this idea as a modern application of Skinner's principles on a societal scale, where choices are subtly manipulated to align with the desires of social engineers or policymakers.

💡Heuristics and Biases

Heuristics are mental shortcuts that people use to make decisions quickly, while biases are systematic errors in thinking. The video mentions the heuristics and biases program, which suggests that human cognition is prone to errors that need to be corrected or managed by social engineers. This perspective is used to justify the need for behavioral nudging and control.

💡Token Economy

A Token Economy is a system of rewards and punishments used to modify behavior. The video compares the concept to the reinforcement mechanisms used in Skinner Boxes and social media platforms, where users are incentivized with 'tokens' like likes and shares to perform certain behaviors.

💡Radicalization

Radicalization refers to the process by which individuals or groups come to adopt extreme political, social, or religious ideologies. The video discusses how social media platforms can contribute to radicalization by creating echo chambers and reinforcing extreme views through algorithms and user interactions.

💡Social Control

Social Control is the regulation of behavior through various means, including social norms, laws, and media influence. The video argues that social media platforms exercise a form of social control by conditioning users to behave in ways that align with the platform's goals or the desires of those who control the platform.

Highlights

B.F. Skinner's Skinner boxes were used for animal experimentation to study behavior.

Skinner boxes had mechanisms like lights and levers to study operant conditioning.

Animals in Skinner boxes were rewarded or punished for specific behaviors.

Skinner's experiments aimed to demonstrate that behavior could be conditioned autonomously.

Skinner's work was controversial due to its implications for human behavior modification.

Skinner believed in a behaviorist utopia where behavior is conditioned from stimulus and response.

Skinner's ideas have parallels in modern social media platforms, which act as giant Skinner boxes.

Social media sites use reinforcement to control user behavior.

Social media algorithms can create a chilling effect by selectively banning users.

Social media platforms can program millions of people with minimal effort.

Libertarian paternalism is a modern application of Skinner's principles on a large scale.

Heuristics and biases program suggests that human cognition has flaws that need fixing.

Social engineers use token economies to incentivize certain behaviors on social media.

Social media platforms use metadata to create AI systems for cognitive control.

People on social media are becoming radicalized due to the programming of their behavior.

Skinner's boxes are programming humans in the same way as mice, with the ability to rationalize it.

The concern with social media is not just privacy, but the behavioral control it exerts.

Transcripts

the american psychologist b.f skinner

became notorious for his

skinner boxes which were kind of animal

experimentation

at least in terms of animal behavior

what he would do is

take mice or other animals and put them

in these kind of boxes

with different mechanisms on the inside

there would be lights

levers uh switch plates and other kind

of things

and what he would do is program the

boxes in such a way that if the mice

stood on a lever

or pulled something at a certain time

maybe when a light came on or something

else

they might receive a reward they might

get food pellets

or they might get an electric shock or

something else

the experiments varied and they

continued for years and years

but the idea of a skinner's box is that

you can

leave an animal in a box by itself you

don't have to actually

train it or program it to do this or

that or the other

you can actually just design a box that

trains it autonomously

so you can leave a mouse in a box

overnight come back

and he will have a very complex set of

behaviors

that you design beforehand with your

experiment

this is what's called operant

conditioning sometimes these are called

operant conditioning boxes or something

else like that

and they were very controversial because

skinner was part of behaviorism and

behaviorists

really viewed it as being totally

unscientific

to even think about psychological traits

as being

scientifically real or at least

objective you can't necessarily ask

someone about what they think about this

that or the other

you really can only look at behavior

that's the only true way you can do

science

and although he did many of these

experiments with

animals and stuff like that the primary

direction

of all of these experiments was use on

humans

skinner actually wrote a book called

beyond freedom and dignity which is sort

of a controversial title i guess

but it explains his way of looking at

the world

his vision was to create a behaviorist

utopia

where all human behavior is conditioned

from stimulus and response similar to

these skinner's boxes

so for example humans they do

good social things by getting reinforced

for doing those things and they're

punished

if they do something undesirable skinner

ultimately believed that

as the title suggests that freedom and

dignity are

just sort of abstractions they're spooks

they're metaphysical

they're not really the goal of anything

in human society

and a social engineer can come and

design the society

for us and ultimately train people to

behave in the way that they expect

this is one of the things that made

skinner and other behaviorists so

scientific they really thought of even

looking at the psychological traits of

mankind as

just being pseudoscience anyway

this is relevant for us because we now

live in a world of

skinner boxes that is specifically i'm

thinking of social media

social media is social control

every single social media site be that

facebook or twitter or reddit or

anything

else they are giant skinner boxes

now that doesn't mean that skinner or

whoever the programmer

is constantly looking over your shoulder

and telling you what to do or think

but they are ways of getting

reinforcement for particular behavior

now originally when these platforms

started

they sort of had the veneer of being

open and

anyone could say whatever and there was

the idea that there would be

emergent consensus from everyone it's

sort of a

a decentralized i guess bottom-up

process

where people develop a culture for a

site as time goes on

but as time actually went on that is not

what happened

the people in control of these sites

realized that they could play skinner

they could play the social engineer

and so what has happened is that you can

actually put just a teensy tiny bit of

work

into a social media site and make it a

skinner box make it a giant social

experiment

where you can program millions and

billions of people with very little

effort

social control actually takes very

little effort in social media

it's self-regulating you can actually

have the people

in the social media treat each other in

such a way that reinforces the behavior

you want

now at a basic level you can do things

like banning

now you don't have to ban a large number

of people you just have to ban enough

people

to create a kind of chilling effect you

have to put in place

ambiguous terms of service which all of

these social media companies do

if you get a post banned on uh you know

youtube

or twitter you're usually never even

told what it's explicitly banned for

your just said oh well it's just said oh

well this went against our community

standards so we had to delete it

so people are banned for different

reasons and they're left

guessing what those reasons are and

there's a chilling effect in

terms of people are constantly afraid of

getting kicked off these platforms

and over time what this causes is a kind

of giant

mass lobotomy you are telling people

what they can

and can't think you're telling them that

there are certain things that are

forbidden

and once you do that you can actually

expect that those people who are left

are going to be reinforcing themselves

in

the proper behavior that you want they

will give each other likes

and comments only in those places that

you you know gradually incentivize them

to do you can decide what hashtags go

big

you can decide what videos go big and

although you're not micromanaging every

channel

which is something you could do but

although you're not doing that you can

actually have

a large degree of control behavioral

control over people

and the best part is they think it's

them making the decision

they think it's oh well i you know i

learned this on social media this is

what's pos this

is what other people think this must be

the right thing i don't know that much

about it but i'm going to go along with

it because this is the consensus

that i see emerging when in reality a

lot of these

consensuses are just contrived there

have actually been a lot of

uh you know studies you can look out

here in in

even like news articles on this i

remember a while back there was an

article in

forbes about this guy who did the uh

article saying oh well i just paid 200

bucks for people on the internet to

bought a couple reddit posts and it's

very easy to make

things go viral in the right

circumstance if you just have just a

little bit of money

uh or just a little bit of motivation

and

all the rest of the snowballing effect

happens naturally

in these kind of operant conditioning

environments

like people want to see particular

things they judge things

based on whether they're popular or not

and this is the case in of course every

social media site but there are some

social

media sites like reddit where everything

is

uh consent based everything is social

engineering based so

you can actually do you can have a lot

of control over people's thoughts

just by regulating in very specific

areas

now of course none of this is

old-fashioned stuff because b.f skinner

talked about it

100 years ago bf skinner actually has a

pretty low reputation because

uh you know he said things very bluntly

obviously beyond freedom and dignity

that's a scary thing but today we

actually have

exactly exactly the same thing um there

is a viewpoint uh called libertarian

paternalism out there it's popularized

primarily by richard thaler and cass

sunstein

cass sunstein was actually part of the

obama administration he was

i think office of information and

regulatory affairs or something like

that

um but they have this viewpoint

libertarian paternalism what what is

that supposed to mean well it really is

a kind of

skin skinner's box at a massive scale

the idea being is that

people will want to go along with what

you want them to do

if you make them believe that that is

their decision that is you

have all the decisions that someone

could make all you have to do is nudge

them away of the things that you don't

want

you program them against particular

terms you tell them that that's not a

good idea

or sometimes you just make things

difficult and make other things

easy and you can actually have people

making the decisions that you want them

to make as a social engineer

without even you know forcing them to do

anything

a lot of people think totalitarianism is

the government telling you what to think

that's never been how it is that's

never been how it is anywhere uh what's

a far better

method of control is presenting

different choices to someone but present

them in a biased way

that nudges them in a way that you might

like

so when they make that decision they

have the illusion that the decision is

there that's

libertarian paternalism it's basically

equivalent to totalitarianism

and all of this i guess in the the

psychology literature

is based on what's called the heuristics

and biases program

uh this is a a program i guess a

psychological approach that's usually

associated with

uh two israeli-american psychologists uh

amos tversky and

daniel kahneman tversky's not all around

anymore he died but

daniel kahneman is and they popularized

this idea

that human cognition itself humans

can't even think for themselves like

they don't they have cognitive glitches

they have cognitive

uh breaks in their brain that need

fixing by social engineers

or maybe just better thinking and it's

the obligation of the libertarian

paternal

government to push people in such a way

that they make the decisions that they

want

now i've actually talked about this

viewpoint before the heuristics and

biases viewpoint

the idea that human psychology is broken

uh i think you can read other people on

this

uh gerd gigarenter is someone i often

recommend because he

he makes the argument and i think this

is a good one that really these biases

are

illusions in the first place it's mostly

just these researchers

who don't understand human behavior in

the environment the

experimental environments they put it in

uh there's a so

the so-called ecological rationality

approach which i

usually endorse but regardless this is

the viewpoint

of the social engineers this is the

viewpoint of most academics

human psychology is broken and we have

to control it in some way we have to

nudge people in a particular direction

it's too condescending to just tell them

what to think

but we can use social media companies we

can use the media

we don't have to massively control

everything just get rid of particular

things that people

shouldn't be thinking that we don't want

them to think and

incentivize them for doing other things

and create a kind of token economy token

economy

i don't know if skinner originally used

this term but it's the idea that people

get

incentivized for good behavior you know

maybe they get

in some kind of um i don't know in some

kind of weird camp or mental home

you get incentivized for particular

behavior you get credits

but that's exactly what we already have

in social media we have likes and shares

and all of this kind of stuff

all of it is the same kind of social

control that purports to be something

that is

something you're creating it's actually

not you think that it's yours but it

isn't

so i i think a lot of people when they

talk about social media

their gut reaction is to say oh well you

know i'm worried about facebook because

of

privacy okay now people will willingly

give all of their private information to

pretty much

whoever that's not i think that that's

missing the mark

privacy itself is not the concern what

the real concern is

is that your behavior on social media

that is being taken as

metadata and of course the people who

are making these decisions might not

even know who you are but

that metadata is being used to create

new ais for really cognitive control

control of you on these social media

platforms

they have new ways of automatic flagging

they're

finding new ways to you know go into

buzzwords to

uh you know trigger different hashtags

or you know

make different recommendations to people

all of this

is a behavioral system it's all

reinforcing the behavior that the people

in control of the system

want that is you know and it's not even

to say that they are actively conspiring

to do this

this is something that will happen if

you have a kind of skinner's box

even if you know they just think they're

doing it for

you know their own good or someone else

is good or just

because they think it's right this is

something that happens

now at the end of it i think there's

something very funny that

you know you often hear in the media

nowadays

especially in social media about we need

to be worried about

radicalization oh people are becoming

radicalized against the system

uh in reality it's just the opposite as

someone you know i have never really

used social media

my whole life i've never had a facebook

or twitter or reddit or anything else

like that

and as someone outside of that system it

drives you crazy to see that it's really

the people

in that system who are becoming

radicalized year in year out

their behavior is more erratic but still

predictable

and controlled and they're getting to a

point where they can be made to believe

anything because they're being convinced

that so many things are new consensus

and they have to go along with it so

it's really the people who are in these

systems who are radicalized everyone

else is just staying put

and wondering what's going on to the

world around them but these

social media companies uh and social

media sites even if they're

controlled by beneficent people they're

not but even if they were

they are skinner's boxes they are

programming you

in the same way that a mouse is being

programmed

to step on a lever or you know some kind

of stimulus

response system it's the exact same

thing and in fact it's arguably even

worse with humans because

we're a lot smarter like when we when we

are being programmed

against something or for something or

we're being

disincentivized to use these words or uh

you know we

you know all these kind of things we can

rationalize it in our brain

we can try and make sense out of it and

humans are very good

at you know pretending that an idea is

their own

pretending it pretending that everything

is fine and this is their own decision

and this is where this all comes from um

so anyway

people are a lot more suggestive than

they think but

either way that's my issue with social

media and

social control