What obligation do social media platforms have to the greater good?
-
0:01 - 0:04I was talking to a guy
at a party in California -
0:04 - 0:06about tech platforms
-
0:06 - 0:09and the problems
they're creating in society. -
0:09 - 0:13And he said, "Man, if the CEOs
just did more drugs -
0:13 - 0:14and went to Burning Man,
-
0:14 - 0:16we wouldn't be in this mess."
-
0:16 - 0:17(Laughter)
-
0:17 - 0:20I said, "I'm not sure I agree with you."
-
0:21 - 0:24For one thing, most of the CEOs
have already been to Burning Man. -
0:24 - 0:25(Laughter)
-
0:25 - 0:29But also, I'm just not sure
that watching a bunch of half-naked people -
0:29 - 0:30run around and burn things
-
0:30 - 0:32is really the inspiration
they need right now. -
0:32 - 0:34(Laughter)
-
0:34 - 0:36But I do agree that things are a mess.
-
0:37 - 0:39And so, we're going to come
back to this guy, -
0:39 - 0:41but let's talk about the mess.
-
0:42 - 0:44Our climate's getting hotter and hotter.
-
0:44 - 0:47It's getting harder and harder
to tell truth from fiction. -
0:47 - 0:49And we've got this global
migratory crisis. -
0:50 - 0:53And just at the moment
when we really need new tools -
0:53 - 0:56and new ways of coming
together as a society, -
0:56 - 1:00it feels like social media
is kind of tearing at our civic fabric -
1:00 - 1:02and setting us against each other.
-
1:02 - 1:05We've got viral
misinformation on WhatsApp, -
1:05 - 1:07bullying on Instagram
-
1:07 - 1:10and Russian hackers on Facebook.
-
1:11 - 1:14And I think this conversation
that we're having right now -
1:14 - 1:16about the harms that
these platforms are creating -
1:17 - 1:18is so important.
-
1:19 - 1:21But I also worry
-
1:21 - 1:25that we could be letting a kind of good
existential crisis in Silicon Valley -
1:25 - 1:27go to waste
-
1:27 - 1:30if the bar for success is just
that it's a little harder -
1:30 - 1:33for Macedonian teenagers
to publish false news. -
1:34 - 1:37The big question, I think, is not just
-
1:37 - 1:40what do we want platforms to stop doing,
-
1:40 - 1:44but now that they've effectively
taken control of our online public square, -
1:44 - 1:47what do we need from them
for the greater good? -
1:48 - 1:52To me, this is one of the most
important questions of our time. -
1:53 - 1:56What obligations
do tech platforms have to us -
1:56 - 2:01in exchange for the power we let them hold
over our discourse? -
2:01 - 2:03I think this question is so important,
-
2:03 - 2:05because even if today’s platforms go away,
-
2:05 - 2:07we need to answer this question
-
2:07 - 2:11in order to be able to ensure
that the new platforms that come back -
2:11 - 2:12are any better.
-
2:13 - 2:16So for the last year,
I've been working with Dr. Talia Stroud -
2:16 - 2:17at the University of Texas, Austin.
-
2:17 - 2:20We've talked to sociologists
and political scientists -
2:20 - 2:21and philosophers
-
2:21 - 2:23to try to answer this question.
-
2:24 - 2:25And at first we asked,
-
2:25 - 2:29"If you were Twitter or Facebook
and trying to rank content for democracy -
2:29 - 2:32rather than for ad clicks or engagement,
-
2:32 - 2:33what might that look like?"
-
2:34 - 2:36But then we realized,
-
2:36 - 2:39this sort of suggests that
this is an information problem -
2:39 - 2:41or a content problem.
-
2:42 - 2:46And for us, the platform crisis
is a people problem. -
2:47 - 2:50It's a problem about the emergent
weird things that happen -
2:50 - 2:52when large groups of people get together.
-
2:53 - 2:56And so we turned to another, older idea.
-
2:56 - 2:57We asked,
-
2:57 - 3:01"What happens when we think
about platforms as spaces?" -
3:01 - 3:05We know from social psychology
that spaces shape behavior. -
3:06 - 3:10You put the same group of people
in a room like this, -
3:10 - 3:12and they're going to behave
really differently -
3:12 - 3:13than in a room like this.
-
3:14 - 3:17When researchers put
softer furniture in classrooms, -
3:17 - 3:20participation rates rose by 42 percent.
-
3:21 - 3:23And spaces even have
political consequences. -
3:24 - 3:28When researchers looked at
neighborhoods with parks -
3:28 - 3:29versus neighborhoods without,
-
3:29 - 3:32after adjusting for socioeconomic factors,
-
3:32 - 3:36they found that neighborhoods with parks
had higher levels of social trust -
3:36 - 3:39and were better able to advocate
for themselves politically. -
3:40 - 3:42So spaces shape behavior,
-
3:42 - 3:45partly by the way they're designed
-
3:45 - 3:50and partly by the way that they encode
certain norms about how to behave. -
3:51 - 3:54We all know that there are some behaviors
that are OK in a bar -
3:54 - 3:56that are not OK in a library,
-
3:56 - 3:58and maybe vice versa.
-
3:58 - 4:00And this gives us a little bit of a clue,
-
4:00 - 4:02because there are online spaces
-
4:02 - 4:05that encode these same kinds
of behavioral norms. -
4:06 - 4:09So, for example, behavior on LinkedIn
-
4:09 - 4:11seems pretty good.
-
4:11 - 4:13Why?
-
4:13 - 4:14Because it reads as a workplace.
-
4:15 - 4:18And so people follow workplace norms.
-
4:18 - 4:21You can even see it in the way
they dress in their profile pictures. -
4:21 - 4:22(Laughter)
-
4:22 - 4:26So if LinkedIn is a workplace,
-
4:26 - 4:27what is Twitter like?
-
4:27 - 4:28(Laughter)
-
4:28 - 4:32Well, it's like a vast, cavernous expanse,
-
4:32 - 4:34where there are people
talking about sports, -
4:34 - 4:36arguing about politics,
yelling at each other, flirting, -
4:36 - 4:38trying to get a job,
-
4:38 - 4:40all in the same place,
with no walls, no divisions, -
4:40 - 4:43and the owner gets paid more
the louder the noise is. -
4:43 - 4:44(Laughter)
-
4:44 - 4:46No wonder it's a mess.
-
4:47 - 4:49And this raises another thing
that become obvious -
4:49 - 4:52when we think about platforms
in terms of physical space. -
4:53 - 4:56Good physical spaces
are almost always structured. -
4:57 - 4:58They have rules.
-
4:59 - 5:06Silicon Valley is built on this idea
that unstructured space is conducive -
5:06 - 5:07for human behavior.
-
5:07 - 5:10And I actually think
there's a reason for this myopia -
5:10 - 5:13built into the location
of Silicon Valley itself. -
5:14 - 5:17So, Michele Gelfand is a sociologist
-
5:17 - 5:20who studies how norms
vary across cultures. -
5:20 - 5:25And she watches how cultures like Japan --
which she calls "tight" -- -
5:25 - 5:27is very conformist, very rule-following,
-
5:27 - 5:30and cultures like Brazil are very loose.
-
5:30 - 5:32You can see this even in things like
-
5:32 - 5:35how closely synchronized
the clocks are on a city street. -
5:35 - 5:40So as you can see, the United States
is one of the looser countries. -
5:40 - 5:43And the loosest state
in the United States is, -
5:43 - 5:46you got it, California.
-
5:47 - 5:52And Silicon Valley culture came out
of the 1970s Californian counterculture. -
5:52 - 5:54So, just to recap:
-
5:54 - 5:56the spaces that the world is living in
-
5:56 - 5:58came out of the loosest culture
in the loosest state -
5:58 - 6:01in one of the loosest
countries in the world. -
6:02 - 6:05No wonder they undervalue structure.
-
6:06 - 6:10And I think this really matters,
because people need structure. -
6:11 - 6:13You may have heard this word "anomie."
-
6:13 - 6:16It literally means
"a lack of norms" in French. -
6:16 - 6:18It was coined by Émile Durkheim
-
6:18 - 6:22to describe the vast, overwhelming feeling
-
6:22 - 6:24that people have in spaces without norms.
-
6:25 - 6:28Anomie has political consequences.
-
6:28 - 6:33Because what Gelfand has found
is that, when things are too loose, -
6:33 - 6:36people crave order and structure.
-
6:36 - 6:41And that craving for order and structure
correlates really strongly -
6:41 - 6:43with support for people like these guys.
-
6:43 - 6:45(Laughter)
-
6:45 - 6:48I don't think it's crazy to ask
-
6:48 - 6:53if the structurelessness of online life
is actually feeding anxiety -
6:53 - 6:56that's increasing a responsiveness
to authoritarianism. -
6:59 - 7:02So how might platforms
bring people together -
7:02 - 7:04in a way that creates meaning
-
7:04 - 7:06and helps people understand each other?
-
7:07 - 7:10And this brings me back
to our friend from Burning Man. -
7:11 - 7:13Because listening to him, I realized:
-
7:13 - 7:16it's not just that Burning Man
isn't the solution -- -
7:16 - 7:19it's actually a perfect metaphor
for the problem. -
7:19 - 7:20(Laughter)
-
7:20 - 7:23You know, it's a great place
to visit for a week, -
7:23 - 7:27this amazing art city,
rising out of nowhere in the dust. -
7:27 - 7:29But you wouldn't want to live there.
-
7:29 - 7:30(Laughter)
-
7:30 - 7:32There's no running water,
-
7:32 - 7:34there's no trash pickup.
-
7:34 - 7:36At some point, the hallucinogens run out,
-
7:36 - 7:39and you're stuck with a bunch
of wealthy white guys -
7:39 - 7:40in the dust in the desert.
-
7:40 - 7:41(Laughter)
-
7:41 - 7:45Which, to me, is sometimes
how social media feels in 2019. -
7:45 - 7:47(Laughter)
-
7:47 - 7:51A great, fun, hallucinatory place to visit
has become our home. -
7:53 - 7:55And so,
-
7:55 - 7:57if we look at platforms
through the lens of spaces, -
7:57 - 7:59we can then ask ourselves:
-
7:59 - 8:03Who knows how to structure spaces
for the public good? -
8:04 - 8:06And it turns out, this is a question
-
8:06 - 8:09people have been thinking about
for a long time about cities. -
8:10 - 8:12Cities were the original platforms.
-
8:12 - 8:14Two-sided marketplace?
-
8:14 - 8:15Check.
-
8:15 - 8:19Place to keep up with old friends
and distant relatives? -
8:19 - 8:20Check.
-
8:20 - 8:22Vector for viral sharing?
-
8:22 - 8:23Check.
-
8:23 - 8:25In fact, cities have encountered
-
8:25 - 8:29a lot of the same social
and political challenges -
8:29 - 8:31that platforms are now encountering.
-
8:32 - 8:37They've dealt with massive growth
that overwhelmed existing communities -
8:38 - 8:40and the rise of new business models.
-
8:42 - 8:45They've even had new,
frictionless technologies -
8:45 - 8:47that promised to connect everyone together
-
8:48 - 8:52and that instead deepened
existing social and race divides. -
8:53 - 8:56But because of this history
of decay and renewal -
8:56 - 8:59and segregation and integration,
-
8:59 - 9:01cities are the source
of some of our best ideas -
9:01 - 9:05about how to build functional,
thriving communities. -
9:06 - 9:10Faced with a top-down,
car-driven vision of city life, -
9:10 - 9:13pioneers like Jane Jacobs said,
-
9:13 - 9:17let’s instead put human relationships
at the center of urban design. -
9:18 - 9:22Jacobs and her fellow travelers
like Holly Whyte, her editor, -
9:22 - 9:26were these really great observers
of what actually happened on the street. -
9:26 - 9:30They watched: Where did
people stop and talk? -
9:30 - 9:32When did neighbors become friends?
-
9:32 - 9:34And they learned a lot.
-
9:35 - 9:39For example, they noticed
that successful public places -
9:39 - 9:43generally have three different ways
that they structure behavior. -
9:43 - 9:45There's the built environment,
-
9:45 - 9:49you know, that we're going to put
a fountain here or a playground there. -
9:50 - 9:52But then, there's programming,
-
9:52 - 9:56like, let's put a band at seven
and get the kids out. -
9:57 - 9:59And there's this idea of mayors,
-
9:59 - 10:02people who kind of take this
informal ownership of a space -
10:02 - 10:04to keep it welcoming and clean.
-
10:06 - 10:09All three of these things
actually have analogues online. -
10:09 - 10:11But platforms mostly focus on code,
-
10:11 - 10:14on what's physically
possible in the space. -
10:15 - 10:20And they focus much less on these
other two softer, social areas. -
10:20 - 10:21What are people doing there?
-
10:21 - 10:23Who's taking responsibility for it?
-
10:24 - 10:27So like Jane Jacobs did for cities,
-
10:27 - 10:30Talia and I think we need
a new design movement -
10:30 - 10:32for online space,
-
10:32 - 10:33one that considers
-
10:33 - 10:38not just "How do we build products
that work for users or consumers?" -
10:38 - 10:41"How do we make something user-friendly?"
-
10:41 - 10:44but "How do we make products
that are public-friendly?" -
10:46 - 10:50Because we need products
that don't serve individuals -
10:50 - 10:54at the expense of the social fabric
on which we all depend. -
10:55 - 10:56And we need it urgently,
-
10:56 - 10:58because political scientists tell us
-
10:58 - 11:03that healthy democracies
need healthy public spaces. -
11:05 - 11:10So, the public-friendly digital design
movement that Talia and I imagine -
11:10 - 11:11asks this question:
-
11:11 - 11:15What would this interaction be like
if it was happening in physical space? -
11:15 - 11:17And it asks the reverse question:
-
11:17 - 11:19What can we learn
from good physical spaces -
11:19 - 11:22about how to structure behavior
in the online world? -
11:22 - 11:25For example, I grew up
in a small town in Maine, -
11:25 - 11:29and I went to a lot of those
town hall meetings that you hear about. -
11:29 - 11:33And unlike the storybook version,
they weren't always nice. -
11:33 - 11:36Like, people had big conflicts,
big feelings ... -
11:36 - 11:38It was hard sometimes.
-
11:38 - 11:41But because of the way
that that space was structured, -
11:41 - 11:43we managed to land it OK.
-
11:44 - 11:45How?
-
11:45 - 11:47Well, here's one important piece.
-
11:48 - 11:51The downcast glance, the dirty look,
-
11:51 - 11:53the raised eyebrow, the cough ...
-
11:54 - 11:58When people went on too long
or lost the crowd, -
11:58 - 12:01they didn't get banned or blocked
or hauled out by the police, -
12:01 - 12:04they just got this soft,
negative social feedback. -
12:05 - 12:07And that was actually very powerful.
-
12:08 - 12:11I think Facebook and Twitter
could build this, -
12:11 - 12:13something like this.
-
12:15 - 12:18(Laughter)
-
12:19 - 12:22I think there are some other things
that online spaces can learn -
12:22 - 12:24from offline spaces.
-
12:24 - 12:27Holly Whyte observed
that in healthy public spaces, -
12:27 - 12:31there are often many different places
that afford different ways of relating. -
12:31 - 12:35So the picnic table
where you have lunch with your family -
12:37 - 12:41may not be suited for the romantic
walk with a partner -
12:41 - 12:43or the talk with some business colleagues.
-
12:44 - 12:46And it's worth noting that in real space,
-
12:46 - 12:50in none of these places are there big,
visible public signs of engagement. -
12:51 - 12:54So digital designers could think about
-
12:54 - 12:57what kind of conversations
do we actually want to invite, -
12:57 - 13:00and how do we build specifically
for those kinds of conversations. -
13:01 - 13:05Remember the park that we talked about
that built social trust? -
13:05 - 13:09That didn't happen because people
were having these big political arguments. -
13:09 - 13:11Most strangers don't actually
even talk to each other -
13:11 - 13:14the first three or four
or five times they see each other. -
13:15 - 13:18But when people,
even very different people, -
13:18 - 13:19see each other a lot,
-
13:19 - 13:20they develop familiarity,
-
13:20 - 13:23and that creates
the bedrock for relationships. -
13:24 - 13:27And I think, actually, you know,
-
13:27 - 13:32maybe that early idea of cyberspace
as kind of this bodiless meeting place -
13:32 - 13:34of pure minds and pure ideas
-
13:34 - 13:36sent us off in the wrong direction.
-
13:37 - 13:40Maybe what we need instead
is to find a way to be in proximity, -
13:40 - 13:42mostly talking amongst ourselves,
-
13:42 - 13:45but all sharing the same warm sun.
-
13:46 - 13:48And finally:
-
13:48 - 13:52healthy public spaces create
a sense of ownership and equity. -
13:52 - 13:56And this is where the city metaphor
becomes challenging. -
13:56 - 13:57Because, if Twitter is a city,
-
13:57 - 14:00it's a city that's owned
by just a few people -
14:00 - 14:03and optimized for financial return.
-
14:04 - 14:07I think we really need
digital environments -
14:07 - 14:10that we all actually have
some real ownership of, -
14:10 - 14:14environments that respect
the diversity of human existence -
14:14 - 14:17and that give us some say
and some input into the process. -
14:17 - 14:19And I think we need this urgently.
-
14:19 - 14:21Because Facebook right now --
-
14:21 - 14:24I sort of think of, like, 1970s New York.
-
14:24 - 14:25(Laughter)
-
14:25 - 14:28The public spaces are decaying,
there's trash in the streets, -
14:28 - 14:31people are kind of, like,
mentally and emotionally -
14:31 - 14:33warming themselves over burning garbage.
-
14:33 - 14:34(Laughter)
-
14:34 - 14:35And --
-
14:36 - 14:42(Applause)
-
14:42 - 14:45And the natural response to this
is to hole up in your apartment -
14:45 - 14:47or consider fleeing for the suburbs.
-
14:48 - 14:50It doesn't surprise me
-
14:50 - 14:54that people are giving up
on the idea of online public spaces -
14:54 - 14:57the way that they've given up
on cities over their history. -
14:58 - 15:00And sometimes -- I'll be honest --
-
15:00 - 15:04it feels to me like this whole project
of, like, wiring up a civilization -
15:04 - 15:07and getting billions of people
to come into contact with each other -
15:08 - 15:09is just impossible.
-
15:10 - 15:13But modern cities tell us
that it is possible -
15:13 - 15:16for millions of people
who are really different, -
15:16 - 15:18sometimes living
right on top of each other, -
15:18 - 15:20not just to not kill each other,
-
15:20 - 15:23but to actually build things together,
-
15:23 - 15:24find new experiences,
-
15:24 - 15:28create beautiful,
important infrastructure. -
15:29 - 15:33And we cannot give up on that promise.
-
15:34 - 15:39If we want to solve the big,
important problems in front of us, -
15:39 - 15:41we need better online public spaces.
-
15:42 - 15:44We need digital urban planners,
-
15:44 - 15:46new Jane Jacobses,
-
15:46 - 15:50who are going to build the parks
and park benches of the online world. -
15:50 - 15:53And we need digital,
public-friendly architects, -
15:53 - 15:56who are going to build
what Eric Klinenberg calls -
15:56 - 16:00"palaces for the people" --
libraries and museums and town halls. -
16:00 - 16:03And we need a transnational movement,
-
16:03 - 16:05where these spaces
can learn from each other, -
16:05 - 16:07just like cities have,
-
16:07 - 16:12about everything from urban farming
to public art to rapid transit. -
16:13 - 16:16Humanity moves forward
-
16:16 - 16:22when we find new ways to rely on
and understand and trust each other. -
16:22 - 16:25And we need this now more than ever.
-
16:26 - 16:30If online digital spaces
are going to be our new home, -
16:30 - 16:34let's make them a comfortable,
beautiful place to live, -
16:34 - 16:36a place we all feel not just included
-
16:36 - 16:38but actually some ownership of.
-
16:39 - 16:40A place we get to know each other.
-
16:41 - 16:45A place you'd actually want
not just to visit -
16:45 - 16:46but to bring your kids.
-
16:47 - 16:48Thank you.
-
16:48 - 16:53(Applause)
- Title:
- What obligation do social media platforms have to the greater good?
- Speaker:
- Eli Pariser
- Description:
-
Social media has become our new home. Can we build it better? Taking design cues from urban planners and social scientists, technologist Eli Pariser shows how the problems we're encountering on digital platforms aren't all that new -- and shares how, by following the model of thriving towns and cities, we can create trustworthy online communities.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 17:06
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