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Croatia's goal was stolen! Portugal is scripted to advance
The feed for my Facebook reels is now full of videos analyzing the Croatian goal that wasn't counted, and with conspiracy theories about the whole World Cup being scripted for a Ronaldo-Messi finale.
And this is how easily social media radicalizes you. I have no idea how widespread either of these ideas are. Is there really a dominating public debate happening about this? I don't think so. But for me, looking at my Facebook reels, it would appear like this is the most important thing happening right now. And look at all these people making smart videos agreeing with me! And not a single one disagreeing!
I'm confirmed in my bias. Look, everyone thinks that the VAR was wrong. Everyone thinks Croatia was robbed of a chance to continue to compete. And yet nothing is happening.
I have two ways I can react: first, I could try to do something. Protest. Demand reform. Make petitions. Get involved with the relevant governing bodies and make changes. Obviously I don't care nearly enough to put in that energy and change the priorities in my life for that. And as I do that, I would actually feel the resistance in real life, notice how little support that idea actually may have. A reality check
The second way: I engage with these videos, write supporting comments, strengthen this belief and get sucked in by tapping on a screen, get more cynical about the world because although everyone believes the same as I do, nothing is changing, so it must be “them” who keep the real control and decide differently. My trust in institutions further erodes, seeing the obvious discrepancy between what everybody believes and between what actually happens.
The bubble wrap around me gets tighter, splintering society further. Shared spaces starve, because folks prefer the comforts of confirmation over confronting conflict. I mean, why even try to reach across the aisle if my tribe is so big? If we are the obvious majority?
And the designers behind the social media feed algorithms either know all of this and still pursue it, intentionally, because of the monetary advantages it brings, or they have given up on caring and handed the decisions over to an algorithm whose goal is engagement. The algorithm is unaware of any cost not modeled in its objective function. Like a paperclip maximizer, it is set up to maximize engagement or whatever the metric is, even if it breaks society. That would be either an externalized cost, or not relevant for this quarter’s metrics, or just invisible.
This isn’t about the Croatia game. This is about how we process crises and deal with controversies, from COVID and the January 6 insurrection to elections and institutional trust. It is about vaccines and raw milk, the support for Ukraine, the rise of authoritarianism, our response to climate change. This is about how our society is breaking.
Why do we allow social media algorithms to tear our social fabric apart? Is this just another complaint to feed my own bubble, getting confirmation from others, but not do anything about? What about you, will you just agree and move on? Or are we willing to put in the work and make a change?
Flower power
One of the most shocking movie scenes that burnt into my mind was in the opening credits of the 2009 Watchmen movie, directed by Zack Snyder. 50,000 protesters took part in the March on the Pentagon in 1967. A row of military police was pointing their rifles at the protesters. A flower power protester puts a flower into the barrel of one of the rifles. In the movie, Bob Dylan's The Times They are A-Changing is playing over the scene, recreating an iconic photograph from 1967. (link in comment)
But in the alternative reality of the movie, the police fires at the protesters.
I remember seeing that scene in the movie theater, and I found that image absolutely distressing, thinking about the terrible alternate reality that would have been. How many people would have died, how different the United States would be today... and being glad that reality took a different turn.
... but did it?
Today I learned about the 1967 Detroit riots. More than 7000 people arrested, 43 people killed, of which 30 were killed by the authorities and another six by store owners or security guards. It was in the same year. And the authorities were shooting and killing the people, mostly black people. But that seems a lot like the terrible "alternative reality" Snyder's movie was drawing. But it was not an alternate reality. It was just not the story of mostly white hippies on the coasts, but of mostly black people in Detroit.
I am ashamed it took me until today to have learned about these events. But one thing I can do is reading more about the events and maybe reach others who might not have known.
- Flower Power photograph - Wikipedia
- 1967 March on the Pentagon - Wikipedia
- Intro scene from Watchmen
- 1967 Detroit riot
