My relationship with social media? Its complicated, to say the least.
I have a Facebook account, but I rarely use it. I need consistent mental health breaks from Twitter, though I criticize myself for not being one of those writers who seems to thrive on the platform. I have an on-again-off-again relationship with Instagram, downloading the app when Im lonely and bored, and deleting it after spending hours scrolling through pictures of perfectly plated pastas.
But like many people who are now isolated at home, anxious, afraid and far from family and friends, Im spending a lot of time on social media these days. Im messaging friends on Instagram and WhatsApp and streaming live videos. Im grateful for these tools but I squirm every time I see the subtle but conspicuous From Facebook at the bottom of the login pages. I wonder how much valuable information tech companies are mining about our psyches right now. What it means to them that usage is up and were relying on them more than ever.
For a couple months before the pandemic started, I was catching up on a term that had been circulating for some time: surveillance capitalism. Popularized by a Harvard researcher, Shoshana Zuboff, its the idea that the current and perhaps final frontier of capitalism is human experience and, in particular, predictions of human experience. Its that technology pioneered by the likes of Google and Facebook that surveils us, often without our consent, to generate invaluable information about what we will do today, tomorrow and in the future. And its a lucrative model thats making a select group of people mostly men rich; men who understand the tools of the trade and how theyre being used.
It is, in essence, the business of collecting, buying and selling our personal data, and its producing what Ms. Zuboff calls epistemic inequality: a dangerous situation whereby the invaluable knowledge and information these technologies collect about us is held by the few, who also just happen to be the increasingly powerful.
The urgency of Ms. Zuboffs message has been resonating with me this past week as people lose their livelihoods and their lives and analysts recommend Zoom, Facebook, Amazon and Netflix as the companies to invest in right now. Although CNBC reports Big Tech lost some $1.3 trillion in value last week, some see the industry as particularly poised to rebound.
One analyst on SeekingAlpha.com predicts Facebook will be exceptionally well positioned to survive from this crisis and thrive in and around the aftermath, while others see Facebook and Amazon as worthy of making their investment committees best ideas list.
I thought of surveillance capitalism as I opened Zoom for a webinar and saw a box pop up, asking me if I wanted to opt out of Zoom sending my information to third parties. I clicked yes, but I wondered how many people would understand what it would mean to click no. I also thought about what else Zoom might be doing to compromise our privacy; according to some, it might not be good. I joked with colleagues about how much Zoom stock must be worth right now. (Up more than 19 percent on Monday morning, according to CNBC.) And I debated with my partner over whether we should pre-order toilet paper on Amazon.
We already knew our world depended on social media and Big Tech, but this moment is proving just how true that is. Its a reminder of how different things are from past pandemics. In 1918 the so-called Spanish flu killed somewhere between 50 million and 100 million people worldwide. But knowledge and communication about the virus was limited by the technologies of the era; telegrams and printing presses were the norm, radios only just emerging.
When it comes to the options we have today to connect to each other in times of crisis, the reality couldnt be more different. And those brave souls who have decided to opt out of social media altogether might be finding themselves feeling more and more alone.
To exist in this world feels challenging in the best of times; to exist in this world without the technologies weve come to rely on even if theyre exploiting us feels downright impossible. In an ideal world, we would have dealt with the problem of big technology companies earlier. More governments would have passed laws regulating their activities and giving us a right to our privacy and our data. Big tech remains mostly unchecked and perhaps worst of all, unfathomable to the majority of us still struggling to make sense of what it means to code.
I know that throughout this crisis, Im giving Facebook invaluable information. I have no doubt my Instagram messages are being scanned and my Zoom meetings recorded. Data is being collected on how I act when Im afraid, when Im irreverent and when Im looking for a distraction. I know this, but I struggle to stop using these tools in the best of times, let alone the worst.
How our political and medical systems fare through this pandemic remains to be seen. But one thing that seems certain is that Big Tech is going to benefit from our time of need.
I know Facebook is watching me. And this whole relationship we got going on? Its complicated, but its a relationship of convenience. Social media is like a bad habit I go back to in times of desperation, a terrible boyfriend I cant shake. So I guess our relationship is begrudgingly back on. Ill use tools like Facebook and Instagram to help me get through this crisis, even as I keep learning about the profoundly unequal price we pay for those tools. And our reckoning with Big Tech? Thats for another day.
Melissa J. Gismondi (@melissajgismond) is a journalist working on a book about the differences between Canadian and American culture and identity.
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Excerpt from:
Facebook, Dont Exploit Us in Our Time of Need - The New York Times
