How Social Media Stokes Mob Mentality

In response to last Monday's (10/11/21) post titled The Tyranny of the Crowd a student wrote me the following explanation of how social media platforms stoke a mob mentality. I wanted to share it because it's quite interesting:

I would like to explore a few different social media apps, how they operate and how they relate to the subject of mob mentality. The apps I would consider in order from worst offender to least are Facebook, Reddit and Tik Tok. This initial assessment is based on my personal experience and knowledge of how the app operates and how they “reward” the user.

Starting with Facebook, the app has been constructed in a way to maintain the user to give them enough gratification that they feel good but not so much that they feel satisfied. A recent leak proved this long running theory.

The easiest way to maintain that happy medium of always needing more is with fear or outrage, Facebook actively shows you posts or information that it knows will elicit an emotional response, typically anger. It then gives you an avenue to express your disgust or anger and move on, feeling like you’ve done something.

Then to reinforce the behavior the app lets you know when somebody has “liked” your comment with a ding and a vibration giving your position validation. The aspect of the mob or the crowd comes into play when we address Facebook groups or pages where any number of individuals may come together and express the same view together.

A person could come to express an opinion that is counter to the majority and they will likely be ridiculed and insulted and possibly removed from the group depending on the administration's level of tolerance.

Moving on to Reddit we find that they have a very similar model and reward mechanism with one key difference. The algorithm does not decide what is popular or what you see, this is determined by “upvotes” and “downvotes." A group on Reddit is referred to as a subreddit, in a subreddit a user can post what they want pertaining to the sub and if other users in the sub like it or dislike it they can cast their vote. More upvotes means your post will be higher up on the list and the opposite for downvotes.

Further in the comment section of these posts things operate very similarly with one key difference, if a comment receives enough downvotes the comment will be replaced with a reveal button essentially punishing the user for upsetting the echo chamber. This goes even further when we consider Reddit's karma system, good and bad karma are given out by how many upvotes or downvotes you have received.

A number of groups have taken the position that you must have x amount of positive karma to post or comment in the group. This incentivizes the user to not try to counter the echo chamber.

This all sounds much worse than Facebook, however I rank Facebook worse as they are the ones in control whereas users on Reddit at least have the option of control.

When we take a look at TikTok it's a little less clear how things work. The user is shown videos at random and then as the user likes videos they are slowly shown more of what they like with random videos mixed in. The app has a very free feeling to it, less control by all parties where the comment section of the video is the only place for an echo chamber to exist.

The trouble surrounding this app is that it is seemingly a Chinese propaganda machine.

This is quite subtle but your posts are removed or your account is removed when you start addressing genocide in China or expressing the view that Taiwan is not part of China or expressing any view too loudly that is counter to what is popular in the mainstream.

We are reminded once again that this app isn't free and the user is being manipulated. This is lowest on the list as it seems this app maintains the least control over the user despite its constant manipulation of content.

In summary it seems that the user is the victim and that the way we counter this mob or crowd mentality isn’t by expressing an opposing view but instead by educating the entire public on the addictive properties of social media.

I suppose regular users of these platforms were probably aware of all this, but as someone who doesn't use social media, or know much about its ins and outs, it was helpful to read this analysis.