Study of the influence of social networks on society

Details

Supervisors

Van Roy, Peter

Faculty

Ecole polytechnique de Louvain

Degree label

Master [120] en sciences informatiques, à finalité spécialisée

Abstract

In 2021, people spent an average of 4 hours per day on their smartphone. When examining the most popular applications, social media platforms like Facebook & Instagram (Meta), TikTok, Twitter and Youtube (Google), emerge as the dominant players in the market. It is evident that there is a monopolization of this market, particularly by Meta and Google. The business model of social media platforms is built on the principle of surveillance capitalism and the exploitation of human psychological vulnerabilities, such as the need for social validation and the desire to belong to a community. Their objective is to understand the deepest and most intimate secrets of their users, their sources of frustration, what makes them happy or unhappy, and more, with the intention of manipulating them in a progressive and imperceptible manner through persuasive technologies. Indeed, a study conducted by Facebook in 2012 demonstrated their ability to influence the mood of their users simply by filtering the type of posts shown on their news feed. Additionally, internal reports from Meta and TikTok have revealed that by measuring the time users spend on each post, they can determine their emotional states such as stressed, defeated, overwhelmed, anxious, and so on. Another objective of social media have is to make their users addicted. In fact, everything is designed to give you a little dose of dopamine every time. This has several consequences, including making us addicted and more aggressive, reduced attention span, diminished cognitive abilities, decreased overall happiness, and more. It allows these platforms to condition and manipulate us through a technique known as intermittent positive reinforcement. Several former executives who have worked at companies like Meta and Google have openly admitted that the intention to make people addicted was intentional, and they themselves became addicted to their own platforms.