How Facebook Exploits Human Psychology
Recently, former Facebook president Sean Parker made new by claiming that Facebook is negatively changing the way people interact with each other. Due to its vast network of users, Parker states that Facebook “’literally changes your relationship with society, with each other.’” Like many other large social media platforms, Facebook creates an environment that keeps “users hooked on a ’social-validation feedback loop,’” which exploits people’s desires to feel accepted. Parker describes this effect as “’a little dopamine hit every once in a while, because someone liked or commented on a photo or a post.’” This can be dangerous because people feel pressured to think similarly and to feel forced to receive validation from others on social media websites like Facebook.
This is an example of information cascades and network effects. In Facebook’s social network, information cascades are prevalent since, as described above, people feel compelled to post, like, and comment on the same things their friends do. Due to information cascades, misinformation or “fake news” can spread very quickly on platforms like Facebook because people will share things solely because their friends do it, disregarding their own beliefs. This cascade is magnified due to network effects because the more people who use Facebook, the more appealing it becomes for other people to join Facebook, which further spreads the effect.
Given what I have learned about information cascades and network effects, I believe that Parker’s statements about the negative effects of Facebook on human social interaction are valid. Because of this, it is important that social media websites make sure that they make efforts to prevent the spread of misinformation and avoid exploiting human psychology in ways that can harm society. Also, I believe it is important that people act on social media websites in ways that reflect their own beliefs, and fight against “’the unintended consequences of a network when it grows to a billion or 2 billion people.’”