Reporter's Notebook: Are we subjects in a social media experiment?

Metatube

Ever feel like social media is a rigged experiment--and we're the subject? "CBS Evening News" co-anchor John Dickerson explains.  "CBS Evening News" delivers the day's most important stories, delivering context and depth to bring greater understanding to your world. Check local listings for "CBS Evening News" broadcast times.  Subscribe to the "CBS Evening News" YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/CBSEveningNews Watch full episodes of "CBS Evening News": https://cbsnews.com/evening-news/full-episodes/ Follow "CBS Evening News" on Instagram: https://instagram.com/cbseveningnews/ Like "CBS Evening News" on Facebook: https://facebook.com/CBSEveningNews Follow "CBS Evening News" on X: https://x.com/CBSEveningNews Download the CBS News app: https://cbsnews.com/mobile/ Try Paramount+ free: https://paramountplus.com/?ftag=PPM-05-10aeh8h  For video licensing inquiries, contact: licensing@veritone.com

Transcript

00:00Ever feel like social media is a rigged experiment and we're the subject?

00:06One branch of that experiment, Twitter, was founded on this day in 2006.

00:11Yesterday was the birthday of one of the great psychological experimenters, B.F. Skinner.

00:17That one birthday follows the other proves the universe is sometimes right on the nose.

00:22Skinner experimented with rats in a box.

00:25If they pressed a lever after a stimulus, like a light, it released a food pellet.

00:30Then he made the rewards unpredictable.

00:33Sometimes it took two presses.

00:35Sometimes more.

00:36Uncertainty about the rules made rats press constantly.

00:40They grew vigilant, always pressing, never sure when the reward would come.

00:46You see why this reminded me of social media.

00:49We post and look for rewards, likes or comments.

00:53They supply an emotional charge.

00:55If the feedback is good, we press the lever again.

00:58More please.

01:00If it's bad, we press the lever again, chasing the high.

01:04Soon, we lull, dead-eyed, drawing our finger time and again over the smartphone glass.

01:12Tech executives have admitted that features like infinite scroll, notification badges

01:17and algorithmic feeds were explicitly designed to keep us pressing that lever.

01:23Long before Twitter, Skinner's ideas raised alarms about human freedom.

01:28In a 1971 Time cover story on Skinner, a psychologist warned,

01:33any manipulation of others' behavior violates their essential humanity,

01:39regardless of the goodness of the cause that this manipulation is designed to serve.

01:45We're all in an experiment with uncertain consequences.

01:48Unlike Skinner's subjects, we could leave the box.

01:51But Skinner's findings explain why we find it hard to leave.

01:55If the original symbol for Twitter was a bird, it probably should have been a rat.

Category

Transcript

Recommended