Is social media inherently bad?

I recently asked for feedback on the draft mission statements for Seashell. The repeated comment from fellow social media managers was - “great mission, social media can get a bad rap, but we should remember the good it can do.”  The conversations got me thinking - is social media inherently bad?

Does the algorithmic editing of our newsfeeds create an echo chamber any more than our choices of who to spend time with and which print or television media to consume?  Perhaps one of the main differentiators between old and new media is the ability to hear the voices that echo your own. Many of us would be pushed to achieve that when scanning a panel of editors-in-chief or even their staffers.

The fear of the algorithm is the age-old fear of technology; that the algorithm and the AI creep that it invites, are somehow dehumanising critical thought.  It’s easy to criticise the algorithm and to ‘other’ it as dangerous technology, conveniently displacing the humans surrounding it. Isn’t the scariest thing about social media the magnifying mirror that it holds up to humanity?   

Yes, there are additional dimensions to social media technology that in the wrong human hands can be used for ill.  The weight of the massive amounts of our personal data must be felt by the organisations who hold it. They must protect it from being manipulated by those who would use it to pervert the democratic process and enlarge the fault lines of our liberal democracies

Yes, the balance of responsibility between purpose and profit for social media companies has been tipped in the favour of the latter.  It takes investment, expertise and openness to change to navigate the multi-jurisdictional minefield of varying privacy and free-speech laws and the whims of governments that seek to shut social media companies down. Until the platform kings choose to do the work of re-formulating themselves as rights-respecting, by injecting human rights into their organisational DNA, they will continue to be vulnerable to aiding rights violations.  

And even if they do the work to bake rights into their models, social media owners must be prepared for ongoing battle to allow voices critical of nation states to be heard.  But to hark back to the days of the free press as the fourth estate is to silence millions of voices and cede influence to the few.  

For the next decade, let’s accept that technology, in this case, is not the enemy.  Raise our voices to those behind the platforms and call for them to be rights-respecting at the expense of profit.  And most of all, fill social media platforms with stories of purpose, stories of passion, stories of impact and the humans that power it.