A Lawless Land: LJ6

 Part 1:

It is always interesting, and incredibly concerning, to learn about social media, the internet, and ethics. In fact, it often feels like "Social media ethics" is an oxymoron. While many people do consider the ethical implications of using social media and providing these services, it is too obvious that corporations, especially the ones providing social media to the masses, lack ethical considerations. Casert and Chan's (2021) article about Facebook's rebranding to Meta and its focal shift to the Metaverse as a way to avoid controversy and current issues was eye-opening. Previous readings had merely discussed the Metaverse as Meta's next step and the rebranding as a whole, so this article and the other articles relating to it in this module helped to provide extra context to the shift. I agree with O'Flaherty (2021) when she says she doesn't think Facebook is safe and, if Facebook continues with current trends, the Metaverse certainly won't be. Facebook is often seen as the worst site when it comes to ethics of social media use, and I agree wholeheartedly. I don't worry as much about my information when I use Twitter or DeviantArt. In fact, I actively avoid Facebook because of its countless issues with user privacy. I am afraid of what could happen if Facebook is able to take control of the Metaverse's development. Allowing this sketchy social media site onto my computer is one thing, but allowing it into my home is another. I don't even trust existing devices like Alexa, I would not dare allow technology to map my personal space and watch it. Especially not if Facebook is behind it. I also worry about the less personal implications of such developments. While I do not want to use it myself, I know people who would try to force it upon me and use it irresponsibly themselves. I know people who already use the internet to escape reality. I know people who cannot look deeper into claims to ensure their accuracy. I know people who are not tech savvy enough to protect their personal information. The Metaverse, especially under Meta's control, would only make these issues worse as the company has proven time and time again that it is incapable of considering social media ethics. 

Part 2:

This topic frightens yet baffles me. While I understand how easy it can be to believe falsehoods online, my experience is with low-stakes stories and jokes. In these instances, like stupid Tumblr posts that are funny but questionably true, the truth of the story does not have much influence. It doesn't kill people. It doesn't alter elections. It might just make someone seem like a fool. Usually these white lies are harmless and don't warrant deep dives into their legitimacy. However, when it comes to information surrounding politics, public health, and world events, it seems obvious to me that information needs to be consciously consumed and checked to ensure its legitimacy. Yet this is not the case for many people, like my father, and I have a difficult time understanding how this can be. The article by Stecula and Pickup (2021) helped me to understand why people who are educated and think themselves to be rational and informed could fall for propaganda and forgo fact-checking with the idea of "cognitive reflection". As Stecula and Pickup assert "that cognitive reflection is an important moderator that can mitigate the relationship between conspiracy theories and social media use" (2021) but that this is affected by two kinds of thinking: "System one thinking occurs spontaneously, is intuitive, and does not require attention, while System two thinking requires effort, motivation, and concentration" (2021). The problem is that the setup of social media tends to support System one thinking, as they encourage endless dives through content and quick reactions. This explains a lot on how people are lead to believe misinformation. They are browsing without the time to properly and deeply consider what they are seeing. This leads to dangerous consequences that can be seen through the examples of Antifa and the Ukraine conflict. The war against Antifa and blame being placed upon it for a variety of crimes, from violent protests to the January 6th insurrection, has drawn attention away from the true culprits and drawn the ire of all sorts of people onto innocent people. As Facebook representatives are quoted as saying in the Reuters article, "the goal of such content is often not to win thousands of followers but to plant a single false flag that can be used to sow distrust about the target group" (2020) and this is exactly what is happening. It has affected movements that back good causes like Black Lives Matter and the larger left-leaning populations by painting them as untrustworthy, violent, and less worthy of support. It is used to justify opposition to basic human rights and discredit movements to draw awareness to police violence, racism, and injustices. This is also seen in how Russia manipulates information on social media and spreads misinformation to support its own causes, especially with its invasion of Ukraine. Russian misinformation is working to provide justifiable reasons to their invasion of Ukraine, such as claims "that the U.S. was developing and plotting to release a bioweapon or potentially another coronavirus from “biolabs”’ throughout Ukraine and that Russia invaded to take over the labs" (Collins and Collier, 2022). My dad has spread similar sentiments justifying the invasion, often citing Ukraine's move to join NATO and the US's "pressuring" of Ukraine to join being a valid reason for Putin to attack to country. The ways people will look at these things, believe them, and even further use them to perform mental gymnastics in order to justify the invasion of a country leading to civilian deaths is horrific to me and makes me afraid of what the future holds.