Why social media is an instrument of imperialism.
On one level, Stolen Focus details the search by Hari for answers to a mass of modern-day personal problems – short term focus, anxiety, obesity and sleeplessness.
The author quickly points the finger at social media and its billionaire creators and owners. The internet is over 30 years old and the first forms of social media (Facebook) in 2004.
While he has been accused of plagiarism and poor referencing, Hari meets with key experts and shows their startling research findings.
As a modern mass instrument the internet and social media could provide safe cheap mass communication for the world’s billions. However in a capitalist world the driving force is the commoditisation of all goods and services and the monopolization of the product by massive corporations.
The astronomical profits made by monopoly corporations are helped by profit margins of 90% !!
| Company | Year | Revenue /user | Users |
| Meta (Facebook) | 2022 | $ USD 39.50 (average) | 2.9 billion |
Personal Wealth of Social Media Owners
| Larry Page | Google (Alphabet) | $102 billion |
| Serge Brin | Google (Alphabet) | $100 billion |
| Mark Zuckerberg | Facebook (Meta)* | $100 billion |
Multinational Technology Conglomerates *Meta owns Facebook, Snap chat , Instagram Google owns Youtube
These profits of the social media platforms, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat are derived from prolonged viewing using sophisticated psychological tricks used by the algorithms* of the social media platforms. These algorithms use personalised strategies to keep the viewer on-line while surveilling all their views to vacuum up all the data to sell to other big corporations.
While commentators and experts decry governments’ surveillance, Facebook and others are busy collecting users’ data. This is part of what Prof. Shoshana Zuboff calls “surveillance capitalism”.
Hari alerts us to the myriad techniques designed to glue eyes onto screens carrying massively addictive content. Using psychological tricks discovered by people at elite U.S. universities like Stanford and Harvard and on sold to Silicon Valley .
That the social media monopolies are accused of social and political manipulation in Stolen Focus should not surprise many people. The press and information systems have always been controlled by the ruling class.
According to Hari, some of the crimes of social media are the fostering of extreme right-wing groups across the world. Anti-social negativity and social isolation too, are caused by algorithms; feeding on negativity then curating new extreme material to be fed to users. According to Hari, Youtube recommended the videos of conspiracy theorist and Sandy Hook denier Alex Jones over 15 billion times. Youtube makes money the longer you watch, so its algorithm deliberately sets up a selection of videos that that are outrageous, shocking and extreme.
The rise of the Bolsonaro government in Brazil has been linked to massive actions on Facebook. When he won the presidency of Brazil his supporters chanted “Facebook! Facebook! Facebook!” The Bolsonaro government oversaw massive anti-people repression in the poverty ridden favelas (suburbs) and the rainforests of the Amazon to the enrichment of the ruling classes of Brazil
People should also be alert to the worldwide surveillance of all phone and internet communications carried out by the National Security Agency of the U.S.A. It has 9 programs , one called Prism obtains communications — such as international messages, emails, and internet calls — directly from U.S. tech and social media companies like Facebook, Google, Apple, and Microsoft. The government identifies non-U.S. person accounts it wishes to monitor, and then orders the company to disclose all communications and data to and from those accounts.
Hari details how social media use isolates and alienates people but insists that it is not an individual pathology to be medicated but rather must be recognised and resisted by the masses.
People can use all modern web media and share resources and information, but there is no point relying on signing petitions, liking or friending or online. People have to be aware that they are at risk of being manipulated and surveilled.
People must resist the waves of negativity the pours out of the channels of Silicon Valley, U.S.A. and use the best instruments and get organised.
*Algorithms act as an exact list of instructions that conduct specified actions step by step in either hardware- or software-based routines. Algorithms are widely used throughout all areas of IT.
For more detailed information on electronic surveillance Electronic Frontiers Foundation at https://www.eff.org/nsa-spying
