cookie-cutter solutions

Ysabel Gerrard’s interview with Logic discusses young people on the Internet and how content moderation by real people is needed to address inappropriate or problematic Internet content. The problematic side of the Internet and how harmful it can be for young people is often explored in news stories and academia. But as Gerrard says, many teachers, parents, and policymakers worry about kids and the Internet without even taking a dip into the waves of the Internet themselves.

Their stance on the Internet is based on a bystander’s perspective— they don’t experience the problems they worry about, but feed from news stories reporting on the villains of the Internet and their victims instead. These opponents usually try to ban the use of certain platforms and/or decrease the amount of time spent on the Internet by students and children. James Bridle’s chapter "Chasm" in the book New Dark Age: Technology and the End of the Future, talks about shaping and directing technology in new ways rather than think of technology or the Internet as something unaccountable. So rather than banning the Internet, we can moderate content as well as try to change the social media culture as a whole.

Gerrard’s recommendation of content moderation involves real people considering contextual information—such as the caption and the comments under the post—in addition to viewing the post that was flagged for review. The emphasis on real people was probably realized from examples of bots programmed without racial literacy in mind.

There’s one point that Gerrard observes that I really resonate with, which is what happens after a post ‘breaks the rules’ (goes against community guidelines). Gerrard says, “Okay, it breaks the rules, so what do you do? If you remove that user’s account, you’re also cutting off their support system.” The interviewer, Ben Tarnoff describes this action as a cookie-cutter solution that does nothing to address the actual problem. Often, policymakers put forward solutions that do more harm than good because they don’t want to put energy (aka time, money) towards what is needed to solve the problem.

I think the culture surrounding social media is an issue that would have been worth exploring in this interview. There's an aspect of performance with social media— users play a role on the Internet or show a side of themselves that's different from what they show friends and family in real life. As well, users can become obsessed with a platform, focusing on the amount of interaction they receive from what they post online.

Social media has a basis in hyperreality where what we show online and how others perceive us can be both equal and vastly divergent to how we are in the real world— which brings up the question, who is the real you? How many roles can a person play before their perception of self is fragmented?

Like Gerrard, I’m of the mind that defends social media— I see Instagram as a digital scrapbook in which people can share art with friends and friends of friends and strangers. There are settings where you can adjust your privacy levels, hide likes and comments, be anonymous if that’s your prerogative. You can block people and remove people as followers. You don't have to interact with insensitive people or inappropriate posts. You can create your own community of people, which is especially important if you're part of a minority group.

There is a lot of discussion about the pressure you feel to post the best parts of yourself and to follow everyone you know especially if they follow you in the first place even if you don’t really want to. But no one should feel forced to adhere to social rules on Instagram. Social media culture has so much room for improvement but it’s not going to change unless we change how we think and use social media.

(Interesting video by amandamaryanna about Instagram performance.)