The world as we know it is one filled with so many different facets of information, opinions, and stories. Everywhere we look, there is something new to take in about this planet we live on. Whether we are listening to the radio, reading the news, scrolling down our social media pages or watching the latest Netflix drama, we receive so many different forms of input – so much that sometimes it’s nearly impossible to differentiate the truth from the lies, or to know how to navigate information in a way that is beneficial to ourselves and those around us. Herein lies the biggest paradox we face within our society - the structure of mass media has the tendency to simultaneously distort, and accurately share, information about our world, which serves to both unify and skew the perceptions of our society as a whole.

Mass media does a brilliant job at spreading misinformation, biased inputs, and completely morphed ideologies that have no foot in reality. Even when it’s well intentioned and focused on facts, there is always a chance that some information has come from misinformed sources. The impact this has on our mental health can be monumental. For example, social media has the tendency to make us think that perfect jawlines and spotless skin are realistic forms of beauty, which couldn’t be farther from the truth. The news, as mentioned, likes to give us facts and information in slices of their choosing, causing greater divides than what existed without their biases. Lastly – a topic that once impacted me greatly – conspiracy theories have so many different avenues, some of which people dive down the deep end of and never come back from. These things are strongly perpetuated by the many kinds of disarray that have become a part of life itself here on Earth. The impact this has on us can be a sink-or-swim situation for some, causing the well-being of many to plummet at times.

In this generation, social media presents itself as a gamble of its own making, and serves to be just as addictive as real gambling. The filters and trends shared on social media are a game of ‘monkey see monkey do’ for many users, who disregard the implications they have on our physical or mental health in exchange for their popularity. Recently, a whistleblower by the name of Frances Haugen shone light on the fact that this issue has been disregarded plenty of times by the creators behind the platform. According to Abram Brown from Forbes, the leaked information made it clear that “Facebook ignored Instagram’s adverse impact on teens; the spread of misinformation on its platform; and recent alterations to its algorithmic feed that have boosted user engagement while simultaneously increasing hostility and discontent, among other things.” In addition to this, Facebook has recently chosen to try and avoid accountability by “[pushing] back on Haugen’s revelations, mostly by discrediting the research that Haugen leaked”. Most of the information she shared highlighted just how vital it is that we focus on the severe impact these platforms have on our mental health – especially for teenaged girls. If social media is really leaving this large of an imprint on our teenagers, it is of my speculation that the platform’s ability to morph our self-perception is one of the greatest culprits of this issue – not only when it comes to our self-image, but also when it comes to the political polarization emphasized by its algorithm.

When we consider the social media algorithms that affect the content we see on a daily basis, one of the most vital topics we come to is how it separates us for our beliefs and political views. The political divide we have become more and more accustomed to over the years wasn’t always as intense as we now know it to be. According to the Pew Research Center, “the overall share of Americans who express consistently conservative or consistently liberal opinions has doubled over the past two decades from 10% to 21%”. As this separation continues its growth, it creates more room for echo chambers, which is when we get stuck in social settings that reiterate our beliefs and opinions back to us continuously. Social media likes to feed us the content we interact with the most (as shared by Brent Barnhart on SproutSocial). This means that the more we fall into groups with the same political beliefs, instead of being able to have difficult conversations with friends/family who have opposing views, the larger of a gap we will create for ourselves in the news content we see on our social media platforms – driving us farther away from each other. Over time, this impact can cause families and friends to fall out due to political feuds. In my experience, this is what often leads to certain measures of extremism, causing us to feel like we are wearing completely different reality goggles from one another.

The polarization of our beliefs and mindsets has a way of leading us down different internet and social media avenues, which we begin to explore further in depth over time. Once we are locked into an echo chamber, it doesn’t always mean that it echoes the exact information back and forth over time. Instead for some, it can cause them to burrow deeper into information that supports their beliefs, digging a hole for themselves to justify a means of ‘truth’ which they’ve began to shape their entire reality around. This is where conspiracy theories find their roots through many different forms of mass media, including social media, websites, and even podcasts. A good example of this is the cult known as QAnon, a group who believes that many political figures and celebrities are involved in a Satan-worshipping sex trafficking ring. Many QAnon followers believe that the Coronavirus pandemic is a hoax, and that Trump is here to bring the “Great Awakening”. As someone who used to follow many similarly constructed groups and belief systems (including Anonymous, which began with similar beliefs but claims QAnon is “potentially dangerous and driven by a ‘brainless political agenda’”), I have experienced the severity of the hook it can drive into the psyches of some, and how that can lead many down an endless rabbit hole for some far reaching ‘truth’. My experiences with these beliefs were especially destructive to my mental health for years, leading me down avenues of ‘awakening’ that only caused further damage. These forms of tunnel vision proved to me that they are extremely isolating, depressing, distorting, and can destroy relationships altogether. Although I had to face many breakdowns to get through it, and it took a long time, I am grateful that I was able to get myself out of the tunnel I accidentally almost buried myself in.

Mass media has a way of both connecting us at the hip, and isolating us from one another through skewed perceptions of reality. We are able to be there for each other, until we aren’t. Whether that’s due to unity being overridden by negative self-perception, political beliefs, or living in completely different worlds on the same planet (which I consider more than political), there are many barriers that we need to get rid of in order to create more positive platforms. These barriers do not need to exist between us, and yet they are still here. We are more than capable of using media platforms for growing together as a community, standing up for injustices, and mental health information and support – but the means in which media is shared, the unrealistic images on social media, and the structure of the algorithms themselves need to change in order to allow mass media to have a more positive impact on us all. Of course, there is no way that we can create a space that has a completely positive impact on everyone – but in order to make positive change, we have to start with an idea that can form an outline for the future we would like to see.

References:

Brown, A. (2021, October 5). Facebook ‘puts astronomical profits over people,’ whistle-blower tells Congress. Forbes. Retrieved October 8, 2021, from the Forbes website.

Pew Research Center. (2021, April 9). Political polarization in the American public. Pew Research Center – U.S. Politics & Policy. Retrieved October 8, 2021, from the Pew Research website.

How to rise above social media algorithms. Sprout Social. (2021, October 6). Retrieved October 8, 2021, from the Sprout Social website.

Forrest, B. (2021, February 5). What is QAnon? what we know about the conspiracy-theory group. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved October 8, 2021, from the Wall Street Journal website.

Samuels, B. (2018, August 25). Anonymous vows to take down, expose QAnon. TheHill. Retrieved October 8, 2021, from The Hill website.