Headline, April 15 2022/ ''' '' TECHS -SOCIAL MEDIA- TURNS '' '''

''' '' TECHS - SOCIAL

 MEDIA - TURNS '' '''

THE SHAME MACHINE : WHO PROFITS in the New Age of Humiliation. For now and the future, 'we first need to share norms and even a sense of trust'.

FOR SOCIAL MEDIA - THE DATA SCIENTISTS ARE INTERESTED in only one thing : sustained attention. That's why online we are made to feel so very comfortable, surrounded by like-minded friends, perhaps thousands of them.

It's big enough to feel like we're ''in society,'' but of course it's actually quite small, a minute corner of the world.

The way we disagree with others outside our group are filtered straight to us., via algorithms, and the ways we agree with one another are likewise filtered away from us, making them essentially invisible.

HOW BIG TECH WEAPONIZES SHAME : Most online algorithms quantify and profile you. Putting a number on how much you're worth, whether it's to sell you a luxury item or to prey upon you if they deem you vulnerable to gambling, predatory loans or cryptocurrencies.

In turn, the advertisers who find you figure out your weaknesses and deftly exploit them. WHEN I REALIZED I was helping build a terrible system, I got out.

SHAME IS A VISCERAL - INSTINCTUAL RESPONSE. WE react violently to shaming by others, either by feeling shame or by feeling outraged at the attempt.

This human hard wiring, which historically salvaged our reputations and preserved our lives, is being hijacked and perverted by the gig tech companies for profit. In the process, we are needlessly pitted against one another. It doesn't have to be like this.

What I've learned - in part from very personal experience - is that shame comes in a number of forms, and the better we understand it, the better we can fight back.

Whereas shame is primarily a useful social mechanism that corerces its target into conforming with a shared norm, the kind of shaming that often goes viral on social media is a punching-down type of shame where the target cannot cannot choose to conform even if they tried. That obese woman who fell over in her scooter at Walmart? Viral. That overdose victim? Shamed.

Shame's secondary goal is arguably more effective on social media, namely to broadcast the norm for everyone to see. When we see yet another phone video of an outrageous public ''Karen'' situation, it can conceivably be seen as a learning situation for everyone else.

BUT WHAT exactly are we learning? The ensuing viral shame is swift and overly simplistic, often leaving little context right to due process. What we do hear further from the target, the shame tends to have backfired, leaving the alleged Karen defiant, finding community with equally defiant others.

Finally, the underlying societal problems exposed by a Karen episode is left unaddressed : the white women hold out-size powers over others, especially Black men, because of historical bias in policing.

As poorly as shame plays out ,it is exactly how the big tech companies have designed it. I should know. I used to work as a data scientist in the world of online ads. I would decide who deserved an opportunity and who did not, based on who has spent money in the past, and who hadn't.

The automated boosting of shamebased outrage triggers us, and we get habituated to performing acts of virtue signaling. We jump on the shame train to get our tiny little dopamine boosts for being outraged and for our righteousness.

That we get accolades from our inner circle only serves to convince us once again that we're in the right and that people outside our circles are living in sick cults.

This turns what should be a socially cohesive act into a mere performance, as we get stuck for hours on the platforms, tearing each other down for the sake of increasing the profits of Big Tech.

The Honour and Serving of the Latest Global Operational Research on Big Tech, Profits, and Outcomes, continues. The World Students Society thanks author Cathy O'Neil.

With respectful dedication to the Social Media users, and then Students, Professors and Teachers of the World. See Ya all prepare and register for Great Global Elections on The World Students Society : wssciw.blogspot.com and Twitter - !E-WOW! - The Ecosystem 2011 :

Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless