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Manila Bulletin devider devider The Philippines: A Nation of Addicts

The Philippines: A Nation of Addicts

Published Jul 10, 2018 12:00 am
By: Rom Feria No, I am not talking about narco-addiction, so this is NOT a political post. I am talking about the addiction to social media, e.g., Facebook and Instagram. Some Filipinos seem to be proud that the Philippines is the world's social media capital, spending an average of four hours per day on social networks. If this isn't an obvious symptom of addiction, I don't know what is. Social networks, like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, are designed to maximize user engagement. Engagement translates to revenue - these social networks sell your attention to advertisers. No, they are not directly selling your data, but they are selling your eyeballs. Social networks know your interests and/or demographics, and advertisers that offer products and/or services that align with your interests/demographics pay to get their ads displayed on your timeline. In order to keep users engaged, these companies designed their services to be addicting, to be highly addicting. Social networks use algorithms to control what gets displayed on your timeline - notice that there are posts from friends that you do not see right away - to nudge you to visit it again (and again and again), hoping that your timeline gets updated with new posts from friends. Social networks employ feedback mechanisms, e.g., Likes, that adds to making their services addicting. Admit it, when you post a status update, a video or a photo, you are expecting your friends to Like or re-share/Retweet it, right? That thirst for feedback makes you return to the site to check, and that is addicting. Again, this is by design. Do you notice that when you scroll through your timeline, the scrolling almost never ends? When you flick your finger, the expected behavior is for you to reach the end of the timeline - an endless one keeps you stuck on the service! This feature enhances your addiction. Now social networks are adding exclusive, live TV coverages to get you glued on their sites! And yes, this is, by design, to prevent you from leaving the site. The more you are stuck, the more data you generate, the more accurate their online persona of you gets, which translates to more revenue they generate when their targeting for advertisements gets more precise. It is unfortunate that Filipinos are highly addicted to social media. The ill-effects of social media, such as depression, online bullying, and psychological manipulation, to name a few, should be highlighted by the Department of Health. In addition, the Department of Education, as well as the Commission on Higher Education, should warn schools, colleges, universities, and state universities, should find ways to curb this new addiction.
 
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