Supposedly, there’s a secret back room with vegetables, although no one seems to know where it is.
What’s the best analogy for social media. Is it like cigarettes? Slot machines? Big Brother? I’m not particularly a fan of any of these similes. Current social media is much more like a cafeteria.
But not just any old cafeteria. Imagine a cafeteria where the moment you sit down the junk food you can’t resist instantly appears in front of you. Not your favorite dessert, but rather the one you can’t stop eating once you start. You know the one, the one you devour until the container is finished. It’s just for you; everyone else has their own mouthwatering treat in front of them.
Imagine as you eat this sweet that appeared in front of you, the plate/bowl automatically refills. Unless you are meticulously counting your bites, or keeping track of how long you’ve been in the cafeteria, you have no idea how much you’ve eaten until you get a headache or start to feel it in your stomach. The cafeteria gradually adjusts and serves you more and more sugary food. As a result, the food becomes increasingly addicting and harder for you to stop eating. Over time, your tastes start to change, and you crave increasingly sugary food whether you are in the cafeteria or not.
They have lots of options there, so you don’t necessarily need to eat the food in front of you. Supposedly, there’s a secret back room with vegetables, although no one seems to know where it is.
The cafeteria magically follows you around wherever you go, 24 hours a day. It’s right beside you at work/school, when you sleep, and even when you go to the bathroom. You still have free will; you can stop eating and leave at any time. You don’t have to go there in the first place.
Everyone knows the cafeteria is not healthy, but people come up with all sorts of rationalizations for going: I don’t go that often, they (theoretically) have vegetables there, everyone else is going, and all my friends are there. Don’t forget, your real friends will happily have lunch with you somewhere else.
We expect kids to go to the cafeteria and exercise moderation and restraint. But even most adults fail to do so. Perhaps young kids shouldn’t be in the cafeteria at all, or at the very least it shouldn’t follow them around 24 hours a day.
In case some of the analogies/metaphors were unclear:
The Cafeteria = Social media
Junk food/dessert = Garbage content
Automatically refilling plate/bowl = Endless/bottomless scroll
More sugary food = More hyperbolic/faster/shorter content
Vegetables = Good (educational/useful) content
Follows you around 24/7 = On your phone
Lunch somewhere else = In real life
About the author:
AJ Rice is the Founder & CEO of Privo Mobile.
