Intention and How Social Media Robs Us Of It
I wrote about this video on my tech blog earlier this week because websites, social networks, and pretty much everything on the internet are in a constant battle for our attention.
In the video, Tristan Harris talks about our intentions and how the web is designed to override that. Think about it: how many times have you gotten on Facebook to look at an update or two from close friends or check event details of something that you’re planning to attend, and before you know it, it’s an hour later and you’ve got a dozen browser tabs open watching funny videos, or reading news stories about the latest outrage that our connections are up in arms about?
Yeah, pretty much every time, right? Facebook and Twitter are designed to do that. Various websites are designed to keep you engaged and read more articles or watch more videos. Everything on the internet, including this site, is in a battle for your attention, and the easiest way to get it is to steal it with all the manipulative tricks out there.
That bothers me on several levels. As a user of the internet, it bothers me. I enjoy using social media and this site to connect with other survivors and share information, but I’m no fool. These same tools are being used against our interests. When we are unable to carry out activities online with intention, we suffer as a result. It’s not just lost time; it’s not good for our mental health to have someone else with that much influence over our actions. It can be pretty damaging to constantly be directed to do things we didn’t intend to do in the first place, yet that is precisely how the internet is designed in its current state.
What do we do about that? Well, while we wait for the internet to move beyond the advertising model, we can make every attempt to be mindful of how we use social media and the internet. I’ve been much more thoughtful about doing what I came online to do, and then moving to the next thing. I spend a bit of time “finding” things to share online because it’s an integral part of my websites, but I have tools that help me identify the best content being shared and discussed. I don’t need to watch my Twitter feed for an hour. I don’t need to wander around Facebook. I need to get through the things that are designed to bring me the information I’ve created them to bring me, and avoid being distracted until I decide to wander around the social networks. It’s not easy, but it is possible.
The other thing that bothers me about this reality is that I’m also part of the problem. I run websites. I want people to read the stuff I post. I share it on social networks, and I have links to “other things you might be interested in.” I want people to share the information with anyone who might benefit from it. I’m out here trying to get your attention like every other website. I feel a little guilty about fighting for your attention like that. But there is one big difference.
Whether you read one tweet or see one Instagram post that makes you glad that someone out there is talking about surviving child abuse, come to the blog and read one post, a year’s worth of posts, or subscribe to the blog and read every single post and share them widely, I make the same amount of money from your attention. That would be zero dollars.
I don’t make money from these sites, I don’t take any advertisers, I pay for the hosting and other tools myself, and I ask nothing of visitors. I don’t track you across the internet to try to create a persona of who you are and how to market to you better. I write things. I share things. I keep track of some traffic information because of my curiosity. So, as a reader of my “stuff,” feel free to read as much or as little as you want. Feel free to share and help get something that I think is supporting and encouraging people in front of your friends instead of blatantly manipulative junk designed to get and keep them looking at ads. Or don’t. I’m going to keep doing it anyway.
Just because tech companies are designing the internet to distract us from what we want to do doesn’t mean we can’t fix it. It’s our attention at the end of the day. We can take back the power and pay attention to the things that help us instead of things designed to keep us from doing something else.
It starts with rewarding sites that provide that, no matter where they are, and resisting the urge to watch one more video or the next episode on Netflix just because they make it so darn easy.
