Translated material
It's all the internet's fault
Are you stuck on the rails? Sue social networks
Photo: Anatoly Zhdanov / Kommersant
An unprecedented process took place in the United States. The jury found social services guilty of producing addictive products. The woman, known by her initials KGM, will receive $1.2 million from Google and $4.8 million from Meta* as compensation for her ruined life.
This is reminiscent of consumer terrorism. The peculiarities of the American judicial system and, in general, the habit of going to court have long led to excessive background information and endless webs of Terms of Service and other disclaimers. If it seems unnecessary to you to mention in the instructions for the washing machine that you shouldn’t put a cat in there, then for manufacturers this has long been the norm, just to avoid such cases.
The said lawsuit was based on an idea comparable to the harm from cigarettes. Companies deliberately create addictive services and mislead people. The feed generation algorithm is designed in such a way that the user cannot tear himself away, which supposedly leads to personality disorders. The defendant's lawyers insisted that this is not so, but all the problems are in the family. However, the jury was not convinced. And against this background, it seems that the world has gone crazy and is ready to blame anyone for this, but not itself.
We live in an attention economy. Everyone is interested in people spending more time on their product. This applies to everyone: read this text, in case you find it interesting, and watch this film, maybe you’ll like it. And of course, the main format of late is reels and shots - very short videos, the task of which is to evoke emotion from the first seconds.
You can scroll endlessly, the service will give you new and new videos, often depending on your interests - you looked at a funny dog for more than three seconds - then an even funnier one follows.
To be fair, you can get stuck endlessly. An hour, two, three, or whatever, flies by unnoticed.
In general, any business, especially a virtual one and especially an entertainment one, wants to get a user for a long time. What are the series worth? It’s happened to everyone: here’s one more episode, and then you’ll definitely go to sleep. And so on until the morning, until you finish the whole season. Screenwriters eat their bread for a reason. And according to all formal criteria, such claims can be made against them. No one hides the fact that the entire mechanics of production are built on ensuring that people watch this Santa Barbara endlessly. Or endless toys, especially simple ones, like colored balls. You no longer have the strength to fold them, but then again - you have endless lives for 15 minutes. Keep your eyes down, don’t rush to put your phone away.
You can look at the real world and accuse writers of producing a harmful product. Many great writers, like the author of The Three Musketeers, began their lives in magazines. The author's task is to finish each chapter so that the reader waits for the next issue, when the novel becomes a book - the effect is preserved. Readable in one go, impossible to put down. I wonder how the adventures of the magnificent four will end? It’s easy to skip breakfast, lunch, dinner and even sleep, especially for people who tend to get carried away. There are no clocks in the casino, by the way, but there are no complaints about the existence of Las Vegas. For now, anyway. And the gambling industry is generally built on addiction and desperately parasitizes on human weaknesses. But no, social networks are to blame for everything.
And by the way, the more expensive and cool the phone, the more time the user spends with it and consumes content. Now this is not the old Nokia, where the only entertainment is a snake, this is a full-fledged harvester, which is almost impossible to tear yourself away from, the bright screen is mesmerizing.
One gets the feeling
that blaming the world around us is no longer fashion, not a trend, but a life position. It’s very convenient to blame phones, the Internet, toys, anyone - human imagination is limitless - for all your troubles, but not yourself.
Denying that technology has changed our lives is somehow pointless. In a series of endless examples where this greatly affects the psyche, there are instant messengers and instant messaging services. These programs have collectively hooked us on real-time communication. You write a message, but the subscriber doesn’t answer for a minute, you start to get nervous. Or you see a marker that prints and then stops. And then it prints again. But the message does not arrive. Maybe he’s searching for words? Suspicious. Sound familiar? Don't lie, it's unfamiliar. This is a mass effect. British scientists have proven it. What, let's blame technology for all mortal sins, instead of thinking about our own head?
And modern culture has brought gentle people to the surface; let’s provide them with a whole infrastructure for this.
Oh, swear words make me faint, oh, I accidentally saw erotic content and ruined my whole life. And here in general there is discrimination and violation of boundaries.
In Russia, this generally took on a perverted form when, judging by the materials of criminal cases, an abstract witness accidentally saw injustice on the Internet and was in such shock that he could not sleep for a day. Being offended and offended by the world around us is common.
For balance, it must be stated: of course, all people are different, not everyone has an armored psyche and built-in cynicism. The fact that it would be a good idea to protect young children from scenes of cruelty and violence seems obvious and does not require discussion. The Motion Picture Association of America ratings system has been in operation for more than fifty years and perfectly fulfills its purely informational functions: this is for everyone, this is only for parents, this is only for adults. You look at the emblem, and it’s immediately clear what to expect from the intended viewing - you won’t accidentally end up watching a horror film with a child. Comfortable.
But then there is personal responsibility for your life and your behavior. If you are stupid on social networks, it is your fault and no one else’s. If you can't tear yourself away from your phone, it negatively affects your life, and you don't do anything about it - you're a fool. If you get sick, get treatment.
Of course, ideally there should be a family nearby, of course, you want the support of the environment and community, and in some cases, perhaps the help of a specialist. But all this does not eliminate the need to think with your own head. However, the court has a different opinion.
KGM, which received millions of dollars in compensation, is not alone. This phenomenon is becoming widespread. Allegedly, because of the algorithms, teenagers become depressed, hate themselves and their appearance - this is a separate effect of social networks, where they show beautiful people and a rich life, they injure themselves, become aggressive, and all this often leads to fatal outcomes. And the main culprits for this are technology companies, which are forced to pay gigantic fines and adapt in real time to changing legislation: even the iPad settings now require age verification. No, Apple doesn’t care about this at all - these are new UK laws.
Such lawsuits lead to the emergence of harmful precedents. Instead of taking responsibility for themselves, people found it easier to blame technology companies for all their troubles. It is clear that the latter will somehow change their ways and spend several more millions on lawyers and fines, but the idea itself will not go away.
Meanwhile, I want those around me to change their locus of control, look in the mirror and ask the question: maybe I’m not living like that somehow? Maybe I can change my life somehow? But no, it’s too complicated, it’s easier to say: I have nothing to do with it, it’s all the Internet’s fault.