WEBVTT - In Your Feed: Social Media – Lab 082 0:00:01.000 --> 0:00:01.400 Zekia. 0:00:01.440 --> 0:00:05.840 You know me, okay, and you know that my social 0:00:05.840 --> 0:00:10.680 media platform of choice currently is TikTok. Yes, but I 0:00:10.720 --> 0:00:13.520 feel like you're a strong Instagram user too. I have 0:00:13.600 --> 0:00:16.280 a good time on social media. I really like it. 0:00:16.320 --> 0:00:19.360 I feel like you learn so much about different parts 0:00:19.400 --> 0:00:22.599 of the world, and TikTok is a really great place 0:00:22.600 --> 0:00:24.560 for that. Before I was like, yeah, Instagram is great, 0:00:24.600 --> 0:00:29.360 Like I'd search hashtags what are folks doing? Yeah, in 0:00:29.400 --> 0:00:32.599 Budapest right now, hashtag Budapest, what's going on? 0:00:33.120 --> 0:00:33.320 You know? 0:00:33.560 --> 0:00:35.920 And TikTok because of how they set up there for 0:00:36.000 --> 0:00:38.400 you page. I mean, it's all just coming to me 0:00:38.520 --> 0:00:39.919 in a flood and I love it. 0:00:40.479 --> 0:00:41.760 You're a big Twitter. 0:00:42.000 --> 0:00:45.960 Yes, I'm lurking on Twitter. Just recently, I was following 0:00:46.000 --> 0:00:48.879 the fishing scandal. There was this big competition that had 0:00:48.880 --> 0:00:52.160 won like three hundred thousand dollars. These people were cheating. 0:00:52.240 --> 0:00:55.760 They were stuffing filats of fish, no wrapping it around. 0:00:55.800 --> 0:00:59.160 They had weights to skew the results, so it seemed 0:00:59.160 --> 0:01:01.360 like they had caught these heads. Now I saw that 0:01:01.400 --> 0:01:03.640 a couple of days ago, just I guess. Last night 0:01:03.680 --> 0:01:05.000 I saw it on the New York Times and I 0:01:05.080 --> 0:01:08.839 was like, late I already saw it on Twitter. Okay, 0:01:09.000 --> 0:01:10.759 I already saw it on Twitter days ago. 0:01:11.120 --> 0:01:11.400 Yep. 0:01:11.520 --> 0:01:14.600 It feels like social media is what everybody's using to 0:01:15.120 --> 0:01:18.680 get their news, to get their entertainment, and to stay connected. 0:01:19.200 --> 0:01:23.560 So it made us very curious about how social media 0:01:23.840 --> 0:01:27.400 might be impacting how we interact with each other and 0:01:27.440 --> 0:01:30.920 how we interact with ourselves. One percent, if you didn't 0:01:30.920 --> 0:01:33.480 have dial up and listen to that little screeching noise 0:01:33.800 --> 0:01:36.760 or the a room men on the disc we're not 0:01:36.840 --> 0:01:42.240 living the same life. I'm t T and I'm Zachiah 0:01:42.280 --> 0:01:43.199 and from Spotify. 0:01:43.400 --> 0:02:07.280 This is Dope Labs. 0:02:10.000 --> 0:02:14.080 Welcome to Dope Labs, a weekly podcast that mixes hardcore science, 0:02:14.240 --> 0:02:17.720 pop culture, and a healthy dos of friendship. This week, 0:02:17.800 --> 0:02:22.040 we're talking all about social media specifically. We really wanted 0:02:22.040 --> 0:02:24.440 to know more about the impacts of social media on 0:02:24.520 --> 0:02:28.560 our well being, mental health, attention span, and how we 0:02:28.600 --> 0:02:41.840 communicate with one another. Let's get into the recitation. What 0:02:41.880 --> 0:02:43.920 do we know? Well, what I feel like I know 0:02:44.000 --> 0:02:45.960 is that social media is everywhere. It's a part of 0:02:46.040 --> 0:02:48.600 our everyday lives. Professors are using it as a part 0:02:48.600 --> 0:02:50.639 of their course curriculum, it's a. 0:02:50.560 --> 0:02:51.799 Part of our work. 0:02:52.160 --> 0:02:56.000 Social media is permitting everything, and so it also feels 0:02:56.000 --> 0:02:59.560 like a primary way that we communicate with one another 0:02:59.639 --> 0:03:02.240 all of the world. It feels like social media has 0:03:02.280 --> 0:03:05.120 gone through some rapid changes too. So it feels like 0:03:05.160 --> 0:03:07.560 it's gone from just being a place where you share 0:03:07.600 --> 0:03:11.040 pictures of yourself to a way to interact with brands, 0:03:11.360 --> 0:03:14.880 service providers. I mean, are you alive if you're not 0:03:14.919 --> 0:03:18.119 on social media? Sometimes it feels like that's what society 0:03:18.160 --> 0:03:20.919 is saying. It's so true. I mean, if somebody were 0:03:20.960 --> 0:03:22.840 to tell me that they don't have a lick of 0:03:22.880 --> 0:03:24.240 social media, I'm like. 0:03:24.639 --> 0:03:25.840 Are you on the run? 0:03:26.000 --> 0:03:29.799 Like? Are the Feds after you? What is going on? 0:03:29.840 --> 0:03:32.840 How do you know? How do you know anything without 0:03:32.840 --> 0:03:33.560 social media? 0:03:33.960 --> 0:03:36.080 And you and I we come from a generation that 0:03:36.480 --> 0:03:39.200 did not have social media and then had social media. 0:03:39.520 --> 0:03:43.560 And I remember making my first Facebook account when I 0:03:43.600 --> 0:03:46.000 was about to start college because remember at that point, 0:03:46.120 --> 0:03:50.280 Facebook was only for folks who had a college email address. Yes, 0:03:50.560 --> 0:03:54.160 and it was still so new at the time. And 0:03:54.240 --> 0:03:57.800 so now when you think of today, where our grandmas 0:03:57.800 --> 0:04:00.920 and grandpa's and our little cousins all have social media, 0:04:01.280 --> 0:04:05.240 dogs have social media. Yes, we're living in a different time. 0:04:05.600 --> 0:04:09.560 So we're moving around this world very differently because of it. Yes, 0:04:09.760 --> 0:04:11.600 that's so true. And so we have quite a few 0:04:11.680 --> 0:04:15.240 questions right about this. If we're moving differently, how different? 0:04:15.840 --> 0:04:18.240 What do we want to know? Tt I want to 0:04:18.279 --> 0:04:21.920 know more about how social media is impacting us. 0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:25.480 I see a lot of stuff in the news about how. 0:04:25.320 --> 0:04:27.160 Social media is impacting us, But I want to know, like, 0:04:27.200 --> 0:04:30.800 for real, for real, how are we changing? Like is 0:04:30.839 --> 0:04:33.839 it actually affecting our attention span and our relationships with 0:04:34.120 --> 0:04:38.000 people and how we communicate in our mental health and 0:04:38.279 --> 0:04:42.359 do different platforms affect us differently? Is it you know, 0:04:42.480 --> 0:04:44.520 six and one hand, half a dozen in the other? 0:04:45.040 --> 0:04:48.840 Is TikTok giving me the same bad vibes as Facebook? 0:04:49.160 --> 0:04:53.039 I don't want to believe that. I want to believe 0:04:53.040 --> 0:04:58.280 that TikTok will save the world. I'm just kidding. All right, 0:04:58.360 --> 0:05:05.640 let's jump into the dissection. Our guest for today's lab 0:05:05.760 --> 0:05:07.160 is doctor Jeff Hancock. 0:05:07.600 --> 0:05:08.719 My name is Jeff Hancock. 0:05:08.920 --> 0:05:12.520 I'm the founding director of the Stanford Social Media Lab 0:05:12.520 --> 0:05:14.919 and a professor here in the Communication Department. 0:05:15.279 --> 0:05:19.080 The Stanford Social Media Lab studies three main areas. One 0:05:19.120 --> 0:05:22.719 is misinformation, the other is the effects of social media 0:05:22.800 --> 0:05:26.360 on psychological well being. And the final area they study 0:05:26.560 --> 0:05:30.160 is AI and communication, so that's like those smart replies 0:05:30.200 --> 0:05:34.200 on Gmail, where it's basically artificial intelligence posing as a human. 0:05:34.680 --> 0:05:35.600 We talk about. 0:05:35.320 --> 0:05:39.240 Social media all the time on this show, and there's 0:05:39.279 --> 0:05:42.800 a lot to unpack. According to doctor Hancock, social media 0:05:43.000 --> 0:05:46.720 is a broader category that goes beyond platforms like Facebook 0:05:46.760 --> 0:05:50.560 and Twitter. It's really any media we used to be social, 0:05:50.800 --> 0:05:54.440 so that includes things like zoom, texting, and even email. 0:05:54.839 --> 0:05:59.360 The first video conference was nineteen sixty seven in France Microtel, 0:05:59.520 --> 0:06:01.560 and yet it took a pandemic to get us all 0:06:01.600 --> 0:06:04.440 to really be using it on the regular. Every time 0:06:04.480 --> 0:06:06.440 there's a new technology. 0:06:06.360 --> 0:06:07.840 People are really worried about it. 0:06:08.080 --> 0:06:11.000 Go back to the radio, right, that was going to 0:06:11.040 --> 0:06:12.880 cause us all to just be hermits in our house 0:06:12.920 --> 0:06:14.480 and never talk to people again. And it was going 0:06:14.520 --> 0:06:17.599 to kill the newspaper. And then there were comic books. 0:06:17.720 --> 0:06:21.279 Comic books, we're going to kill kids' brains and get 0:06:21.279 --> 0:06:24.680 them addicted. And then there is TV. Same thing, and 0:06:24.720 --> 0:06:26.720 we hear the same kinds of things with social media, 0:06:26.760 --> 0:06:29.160 and social media is a lot different than. 0:06:29.040 --> 0:06:33.760 Those right think about television and radio and newspapers. All 0:06:33.839 --> 0:06:38.599 of those platforms have professionals who create and produce content. Now, 0:06:38.880 --> 0:06:42.720 a lot of social media content is created by professionals, 0:06:42.880 --> 0:06:46.520 but a lot of social media is more DIY. There 0:06:46.560 --> 0:06:51.160 aren't the same barriers when it comes to posting and sharing. Yeah, 0:06:51.520 --> 0:06:55.800 anyone can publish anything to anywhere. We're all content creators 0:06:55.800 --> 0:06:59.040 and editors. This is a good thing and it can 0:06:59.080 --> 0:07:02.320 sometimes be a bad And even though social media can 0:07:02.360 --> 0:07:07.080 sometimes feel really bad or really good, doctor Hancock says, 0:07:07.160 --> 0:07:10.680 it's not so black and white. One of his graduate students, 0:07:10.720 --> 0:07:14.040 Angela Lee, is studying the importance of mindsets when it 0:07:14.040 --> 0:07:15.520 comes to using social media. 0:07:15.960 --> 0:07:20.840 It's about how you view the way something works for you. 0:07:21.440 --> 0:07:23.720 The most famous example of education, you can think of 0:07:23.800 --> 0:07:26.920 like your intelligence as like a muscle, and you can 0:07:27.040 --> 0:07:30.000 grow it, and you can think of it as like 0:07:30.080 --> 0:07:32.360 something that you're given and you have a fixed amount 0:07:32.360 --> 0:07:36.400 of intelligence, and that's called a fixed mindset. So Angela 0:07:36.440 --> 0:07:39.720 took that idea and applied to social media, and it 0:07:39.760 --> 0:07:43.640 turns out that people have really strong mindsets. She's identified 0:07:43.760 --> 0:07:49.040 two kind of components to social media mindsets. One is agency. 0:07:49.080 --> 0:07:51.800 Do you feel like you're in charge of your social 0:07:51.880 --> 0:07:55.120 media and you use it to do things for you 0:07:55.240 --> 0:07:57.520 and your world, or is it in charge of you 0:07:57.600 --> 0:07:58.880 and you're kind of out of control. 0:07:59.320 --> 0:08:01.600 I'm on social media whenever I have free time. 0:08:02.000 --> 0:08:04.480 I'm scrolling before I go to sleep, when I wake up, 0:08:04.760 --> 0:08:06.120 before I get out of the bed, the first thing 0:08:06.160 --> 0:08:06.960 I do is open up. 0:08:06.880 --> 0:08:07.960 My phone and starts scrolling. 0:08:08.440 --> 0:08:11.200 So I'm not a mindless scroller, but I am a 0:08:11.240 --> 0:08:15.240 person who automatically opens my phone and checks if I 0:08:15.280 --> 0:08:18.040 have these alerts. You know, those little red notification bubbles 0:08:18.040 --> 0:08:21.720 on the icons. I'm going to clear those. I'm automatically 0:08:21.760 --> 0:08:24.160 opening and checking those, even if I don't really care. 0:08:24.800 --> 0:08:27.400 My mind is just like clear those bubbles. And so 0:08:28.880 --> 0:08:30.760 one of the things I've had to do to combat 0:08:30.880 --> 0:08:35.920 that is to turn notifications off. And it reminds me 0:08:35.960 --> 0:08:38.520 of that video we did. Do you remember the just 0:08:38.600 --> 0:08:40.199 look up video with Thrive. 0:08:39.960 --> 0:08:42.800 And Both Yes, Oh my gosh, yes, that's such a 0:08:42.800 --> 0:08:43.320 good point. 0:08:43.440 --> 0:08:45.560 And in that video we learned that the average person 0:08:45.679 --> 0:08:48.360 checks their phone fifty two times a day. Now, that 0:08:48.480 --> 0:08:51.520 was twenty nineteen, so I don't even know what it is. 0:08:51.440 --> 0:08:55.319 Now, right, pandemic looking at your phone? 0:08:56.160 --> 0:08:58.360 I don't know. I feel like I'm on my phone 0:08:58.400 --> 0:09:01.280 a lot more now. At first, when I heard that number, 0:09:01.360 --> 0:09:04.280 I was very very surprised, But then I started to 0:09:04.360 --> 0:09:06.720 really think about how much time I spend on my 0:09:06.800 --> 0:09:10.000 phone and I was like, wow, that's definitely me. 0:09:10.760 --> 0:09:12.119 And if I have agency. 0:09:12.160 --> 0:09:14.720 On the other hand, I'm telling my social media what 0:09:14.840 --> 0:09:18.760 I wanted to do. So I'm saying, Okay, I'm only 0:09:18.800 --> 0:09:20.800 going to be on Instagram for thirty minutes and after 0:09:20.800 --> 0:09:24.280 that I'm moving on, or I'm coming to Twitter to 0:09:24.400 --> 0:09:28.000 find this very specific thing and don't show me anything 0:09:28.040 --> 0:09:30.559 else that you think I might want to see. If 0:09:30.559 --> 0:09:32.199 you have agency, you say, I don't want to see 0:09:32.200 --> 0:09:33.040 those suggestive posts. 0:09:33.040 --> 0:09:35.000 I just want to see what I want to see. 0:09:35.440 --> 0:09:38.240 That is a very healthy approach, right. It means that 0:09:38.640 --> 0:09:40.840 you're using it to do what you want to do 0:09:40.920 --> 0:09:43.720 in the world, and it's sort of forwarding your goals 0:09:43.840 --> 0:09:46.880 and trusting your needs. People that feel like it's out 0:09:46.880 --> 0:09:51.480 of their control, they are suffering. They tend to report hiring, anxiety, 0:09:51.679 --> 0:09:56.360 higher depression, more lonely, and it kind of sucks, right, 0:09:56.400 --> 0:09:59.480 They're locked into this thing where I don't feel like 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:00.840 I'm in control. 0:10:00.920 --> 0:10:01.720 I feel like this. 0:10:01.679 --> 0:10:05.199 Thing social media is bad. Yet I have to use it. 0:10:05.200 --> 0:10:07.439 Most people have to use it just to live their lives. 0:10:07.760 --> 0:10:09.839 So when they use it, it makes them feel bad 0:10:09.840 --> 0:10:10.720 about themselves. 0:10:11.200 --> 0:10:13.800 And that leads us to the second component of Angela 0:10:13.880 --> 0:10:17.640 Lee's mindset study, which is whether you perceive social media 0:10:17.679 --> 0:10:19.640 as positive or negative. 0:10:20.200 --> 0:10:25.679 It helps you, it helps with communication and connection, being informed, 0:10:25.760 --> 0:10:28.760 or is it overall bad? Is it negative for you 0:10:29.160 --> 0:10:31.160 like undermines your health, et cetera. 0:10:31.600 --> 0:10:34.319 Doctor Hancock says this mindset approach is powerful and that 0:10:34.440 --> 0:10:38.000 we should encourage people, especially young folks, to embrace this 0:10:38.160 --> 0:10:40.800 more in control perspective on social media. 0:10:41.360 --> 0:10:42.600 That does two things. 0:10:42.880 --> 0:10:46.960 One, it pushes back against this idea of like, there's 0:10:47.000 --> 0:10:51.360 these social media companies and they are doing stuff to you, 0:10:51.559 --> 0:10:53.480 and there's nothing you can do about it. You're just 0:10:53.520 --> 0:10:59.640 a passive consumer and they're like pointing the social media advertising. 0:10:59.040 --> 0:11:01.200 Gun at you. I really hate that. 0:11:01.360 --> 0:11:05.479 It really takes away my power, It takes away my agency, 0:11:05.520 --> 0:11:07.800 and also it takes away my responsibility. So if I'm 0:11:07.840 --> 0:11:11.520 a jerk and I say cyberbully or I do mean 0:11:11.559 --> 0:11:15.439 stuff online, that's not my fault. That's like this social 0:11:15.520 --> 0:11:19.080 media fault. It's Marcus Zuckerberg's fault. So I think it 0:11:19.120 --> 0:11:21.640 does bring back that sense of like, well, no, I'm 0:11:21.640 --> 0:11:22.800 in charge you for the way I'm going. 0:11:22.760 --> 0:11:23.480 To behave with this. 0:11:24.280 --> 0:11:26.320 Yes, I think some people are like, oh, they're on 0:11:26.360 --> 0:11:28.559 social media. They can't help it. Yes, they can. They 0:11:28.559 --> 0:11:29.920 still have to press posts. 0:11:30.360 --> 0:11:30.520 Now. 0:11:30.559 --> 0:11:33.120 I understand the pressures of social media can be high, 0:11:33.160 --> 0:11:35.760 but I feel like, all right, let's have some accountability 0:11:35.760 --> 0:11:39.440 in this equation. Yeah, the Internet is still a part 0:11:39.520 --> 0:11:43.720 of our culture, and what we're posting is absolutely adding 0:11:43.800 --> 0:11:46.920 to the conversation. And so we can't just say, oh, 0:11:46.960 --> 0:11:49.680 you know, it's just social media. It doesn't matter. It matters. 0:11:50.200 --> 0:11:53.520 And I think one of the things that continuously blows 0:11:53.559 --> 0:11:59.600 my mind is just how huge the social media community is. 0:12:00.440 --> 0:12:02.680 Usually it's when I find a profile and it has 0:12:02.800 --> 0:12:05.600 like one point five million followers or some huge number 0:12:05.679 --> 0:12:09.479 like that, and I don't have a single shared contact 0:12:09.520 --> 0:12:11.240 with that account. Does that ever happen to you? 0:12:11.679 --> 0:12:14.680 Yes? And it's always so shocking to me. 0:12:15.320 --> 0:12:19.280 Yes, it's like this is a whole, separate, undisturbed part 0:12:19.280 --> 0:12:21.960 of the Internet that I don't even know about. The 0:12:22.000 --> 0:12:24.199 six degrees of separation. It's a lie. 0:12:24.600 --> 0:12:24.960 Okay. 0:12:25.280 --> 0:12:27.160 The other day, I was on Twitter and there was 0:12:27.200 --> 0:12:28.920 this thread and this lady was like, I want to 0:12:28.920 --> 0:12:31.760 show y'all this new yarn and there were so many 0:12:31.800 --> 0:12:35.360 comments and people were just excited, full of excitement, and 0:12:35.400 --> 0:12:37.040 I was like, this is what I would expect for 0:12:37.160 --> 0:12:40.600 like an exclusive sneaker drop or a new game, you know, 0:12:40.920 --> 0:12:44.560 NBA game for the PlayStation or Xbox or something like 0:12:44.640 --> 0:12:46.680 this is this vibrant community, and I think we forget 0:12:46.720 --> 0:12:49.840 that there are so many users on these different platforms. Yes, 0:12:49.880 --> 0:12:52.640 it always blows my mind. Because we talked about social 0:12:52.640 --> 0:12:55.880 bubbles in our Science Now episode, where you can have 0:12:55.960 --> 0:13:00.600 that confirmation bias because everybody you know is usually interested 0:13:00.679 --> 0:13:04.360 in a lot of similar things, and what you just 0:13:04.440 --> 0:13:08.240 explained highlights that where as soon as you get outside 0:13:08.280 --> 0:13:11.640 of that bubble, there are people who have way different 0:13:11.679 --> 0:13:15.280 interests than you. Even when we're talking about things like 0:13:15.440 --> 0:13:19.920 memes and things that are going viral, it's everywhere. And 0:13:20.120 --> 0:13:23.280 I remember just recently this happened to me where you know, 0:13:23.360 --> 0:13:25.400 over the last few weeks, I was talking to somebody 0:13:25.480 --> 0:13:28.720 and I said, it's corn, a. 0:13:28.559 --> 0:13:29.640 Big lump of knobs. 0:13:29.640 --> 0:13:31.920 It has a juice, It has a juice, and that Yes, 0:13:32.080 --> 0:13:34.480 it's the most beautiful thing. And they were like, what 0:13:34.640 --> 0:13:37.880 are you talking about? No, And I was like, you 0:13:37.880 --> 0:13:41.400 don't know to Reek aka the corn Kid. 0:13:41.920 --> 0:13:43.960 Nah, you're on the dark Web. 0:13:44.080 --> 0:13:47.680 Because I can't believe there is a single person on 0:13:47.679 --> 0:13:51.360 this planet who doesn't know to Reek, not as they're 0:13:51.400 --> 0:13:53.239 using the Internet. I feel like he was everywhere. 0:13:53.320 --> 0:13:55.920 If he was everywhere everywhere, But. 0:13:55.920 --> 0:14:01.240 That just goes to show another undisturbed side of the 0:14:01.240 --> 0:14:02.240 web for someone else. 0:14:03.120 --> 0:14:07.120 Right, we love you TOIQ, more blessings, more life for you. 0:14:14.040 --> 0:14:17.200 And so just to help us wrap our arms around 0:14:17.440 --> 0:14:20.440 the big world wide Web, right, let's think about how 0:14:20.440 --> 0:14:24.520 many users are on these platforms. Okay, a big stepper is. 0:14:24.480 --> 0:14:27.120 YouTube starting with a big. 0:14:29.360 --> 0:14:33.720 YouTube has two point two billion monthly active users. That's 0:14:33.760 --> 0:14:37.040 every thirty days, two point two billion. With a bee, 0:14:37.520 --> 0:14:42.240 the B stands for billions. Yes, Facebook is at two 0:14:42.320 --> 0:14:47.920 point nine billion users. What's app WhatsApp if you have 0:14:48.000 --> 0:14:51.400 foreign parents, WhatsApp has been the thing for the last 0:14:51.400 --> 0:14:56.640 few years and it has two billion as well. WhatsApp 0:14:56.720 --> 0:14:59.960 is huge outside the country. Yes, everybody's using what's app. 0:15:00.400 --> 0:15:04.840 Instagram has two billion. The smaller ones are like Pinterest, Reddit, 0:15:05.320 --> 0:15:08.600 even Skype do you remember when everybody has Skype really 0:15:08.600 --> 0:15:11.400 fumbled a bag and Zoom took over. But you have 0:15:11.440 --> 0:15:14.840 to think about like social media is everywhere, and it's 0:15:14.880 --> 0:15:18.160 important to remember that social media is not a monolith. 0:15:18.680 --> 0:15:22.680 Doctor Hancock says that the type of platform matters. Not 0:15:22.760 --> 0:15:24.360 all platforms are created equal. 0:15:24.760 --> 0:15:27.040 There's be Real, which is getting a lot of attention, 0:15:27.640 --> 0:15:32.600 emphasizing authenticity and reducing the load of having to present 0:15:32.680 --> 0:15:35.080 an awesome self all the time, and. 0:15:35.040 --> 0:15:36.280 Then you can get outside of that. 0:15:36.400 --> 0:15:39.960 You go into things like Zoom are much more about 0:15:40.040 --> 0:15:42.880 like interacting with another person in depth. 0:15:43.480 --> 0:15:47.760 Yes, every app is given something different. Okay, you can't 0:15:47.800 --> 0:15:48.520 show up. 0:15:48.680 --> 0:15:54.480 On Instagram like you show up on Zoom. Okay, we 0:15:54.520 --> 0:15:55.280 would be fired. 0:16:02.240 --> 0:16:04.720 Doctor Hancock told us about a study from the Social 0:16:04.720 --> 0:16:08.200 Media Lab about people's experience with TikTok's algorithm. 0:16:08.600 --> 0:16:10.600 In their sense, the algorithm was that they were like 0:16:11.040 --> 0:16:14.040 these different sides of TikTok, and when they looked through 0:16:14.520 --> 0:16:16.440 the algorithm was like looking through a crystal. They could 0:16:16.480 --> 0:16:20.360 kind of see themselves reflected back, and they could see 0:16:20.880 --> 0:16:23.120 through it these other communities. 0:16:22.520 --> 0:16:24.120 That they weren't going to talk to the people. 0:16:24.240 --> 0:16:27.680 TikTok is not very social it's very much about like 0:16:27.840 --> 0:16:30.760 following people, but not about talking to people and the 0:16:30.800 --> 0:16:35.000 way that the Facebook news feed was designed, or even Instagram. 0:16:35.360 --> 0:16:37.200 And so she kind of came. 0:16:37.080 --> 0:16:39.200 Up with this idea that you know, the people think 0:16:39.240 --> 0:16:42.480 of the TikTok algorithm as like a crystal that can 0:16:42.560 --> 0:16:46.480 reflect back and show us different dimensions of ourselves. 0:16:46.880 --> 0:16:50.120 What doctor Hancock just said speaks to me because I'm 0:16:50.160 --> 0:16:53.120 a big TikTok user. You know that, Zakiyah, And that's 0:16:53.160 --> 0:16:54.920 exactly how I feel about TikTok. 0:16:54.960 --> 0:16:57.440 My for you page is for me. 0:16:58.080 --> 0:17:04.720 It's folks dancing, baby's cussing, saying silly things, dogs being ridiculous, 0:17:04.720 --> 0:17:08.520 and food concoctions. And when I look at someone else's TikTok, 0:17:08.760 --> 0:17:12.040 it looks very very different, Like why are is there 0:17:12.080 --> 0:17:15.000 so many carpet cleaning videos on your for you page? 0:17:15.359 --> 0:17:16.240 That felt like shape? 0:17:16.280 --> 0:17:18.000 But I want you to know that I am watching 0:17:19.359 --> 0:17:22.440 those people putting those rugs and detailing cards and vacuuming 0:17:22.440 --> 0:17:26.800 and putting those little lines before. I like that It's relaxing. 0:17:28.040 --> 0:17:29.880 And I think, like maybe what you see on your 0:17:29.960 --> 0:17:32.159 for you page for TikTok because of you know, the 0:17:32.160 --> 0:17:34.400 type of video content there might be different than what's 0:17:34.400 --> 0:17:36.119 on your for you page for Instagram. 0:17:36.160 --> 0:17:39.720 Absolutely, when we ask people about Instagram, they have a 0:17:39.840 --> 0:17:42.680 very different view of that, right that Instagram is a 0:17:42.680 --> 0:17:45.200 little bit more of a broadcast model that you then 0:17:45.640 --> 0:17:48.720 interact with people that you know or want to know 0:17:49.440 --> 0:17:52.920 and getting you know, those metrics are important, and that's 0:17:53.000 --> 0:17:56.040 very different from the news speed which frankly, anybody here, 0:17:56.440 --> 0:17:58.320 a young person here at Stanford is like, I don't 0:17:58.480 --> 0:17:59.960 do it except to communicate with family. 0:18:00.640 --> 0:18:00.960 Yeah. 0:18:01.160 --> 0:18:03.520 Facebook is a no for me. I'm going to tell 0:18:03.520 --> 0:18:05.119 you that right now. And it's been a no for 0:18:05.160 --> 0:18:07.520 me since, Like, I don't know off and on. I 0:18:07.560 --> 0:18:09.320 feel like when I left college. I used it a 0:18:09.400 --> 0:18:11.080 little bit when I was in grad school, but then 0:18:11.119 --> 0:18:11.960 I was like, all right, I. 0:18:11.880 --> 0:18:13.000 Gotta get out here. 0:18:13.040 --> 0:18:13.960 It's getting wild. 0:18:14.200 --> 0:18:15.920 I feel like I'm kind of the same way as 0:18:15.960 --> 0:18:16.640 you are. As a kid. 0:18:16.720 --> 0:18:18.960 I used to use Facebook like back in the day, 0:18:19.000 --> 0:18:22.119 but I don't really use it anymore. It just feels 0:18:22.160 --> 0:18:25.439 like Facebook is a really dark place where a lot 0:18:25.520 --> 0:18:30.280 of really unproductive conversations are happening, and I'm just not 0:18:30.320 --> 0:18:33.200 about that life. You know, something I do use a lot. 0:18:33.359 --> 0:18:34.920 I used to talk more on it, but now I'm 0:18:34.920 --> 0:18:37.160 mostly lurking Twitter. 0:18:37.880 --> 0:18:40.480 Twitter is a very different platform. 0:18:40.600 --> 0:18:43.600 I love it myself, but it turns out like although 0:18:43.760 --> 0:18:46.439 so much research is done on Twitter, so much and 0:18:46.520 --> 0:18:48.320 a lot of it makes a lot of big headlines, 0:18:48.600 --> 0:18:51.840 but like no one uses Twitter like we just analyze 0:18:52.200 --> 0:18:55.639 some data and it's like a tiny percentage of the 0:18:55.760 --> 0:18:59.240 US mostly like journalists, political folks. 0:18:59.560 --> 0:19:03.320 I find out everything on Twitter. I can remember the 0:19:03.320 --> 0:19:06.600 first time I realized Twitter was super powerful as a 0:19:06.640 --> 0:19:10.440 primary news source, and that was with Ferguson. When Ferguson 0:19:10.560 --> 0:19:12.520 was happening, I first saw that on Twitter. It was 0:19:12.600 --> 0:19:14.920 not on the news at the time. It was live 0:19:14.960 --> 0:19:18.720 streams from Deray McKesson and Janetta Elze. I think those 0:19:18.720 --> 0:19:21.480 are the two people that I was following figuring out 0:19:21.520 --> 0:19:24.760 what was happening on the ground in Ferguson. And most recently, 0:19:25.040 --> 0:19:27.360 when Eli Musk was talking about Okay, yes he wants 0:19:27.400 --> 0:19:30.320 to buy Twitter again, I saw it on Twitter before 0:19:30.359 --> 0:19:33.320 I got the alert from the New York Times. It's wow, 0:19:33.480 --> 0:19:37.679 it happens so fast, it really does, and Twitter's keeping up. 0:19:37.760 --> 0:19:41.679 That little thing is refreshing. Those tweets are scrolling. Twitter 0:19:41.920 --> 0:19:44.320 is keeping up and It's not like Instagram where it's like, oh, 0:19:44.359 --> 0:19:45.720 we're going to show you what we think you want 0:19:45.760 --> 0:19:49.040 to see. It's like, no, you can actually look chronologically, 0:19:49.359 --> 0:19:52.639 so when stuff happens and it refreshes. 0:19:52.160 --> 0:19:54.560 It is at the top of your timeline. I love it. 0:19:54.840 --> 0:19:56.720 You send me a lot of Twitter threads that I 0:19:56.720 --> 0:19:58.560 feel like are always so helpful. But then every time 0:19:58.560 --> 0:20:00.080 I get on Twitter, I feel like I am not 0:20:00.119 --> 0:20:02.920 following the right people because I don't see what you're seeing. 0:20:03.080 --> 0:20:04.000 You know, t T. 0:20:04.440 --> 0:20:07.480 I wonder if platforms are like horoscopes, you know, like 0:20:08.080 --> 0:20:12.040 maybe the platform you like says something about what you 0:20:12.080 --> 0:20:14.920 want to get from the Internet. I feel like that's 0:20:14.920 --> 0:20:17.040 a fair point. What does it mean about people on 0:20:17.080 --> 0:20:18.800 discord or Reddit? 0:20:19.080 --> 0:20:22.960 Ooh Reddit, I'm scared of Reddit. People be very scared. 0:20:23.560 --> 0:20:25.680 That feels one step away from the dark Web. 0:20:25.800 --> 0:20:27.400 I don't know if people are trying to get. 0:20:27.200 --> 0:20:35.120 But Reddit feels very close. Yeah, And there's a lot 0:20:35.119 --> 0:20:38.600 of other social media platforms out there that we don't 0:20:38.600 --> 0:20:41.840 know about. I mean, there's so many. I know Amanda 0:20:41.880 --> 0:20:44.320 Seals she made her own kind of like social media 0:20:44.359 --> 0:20:47.000 platform for the people who are fans of her to 0:20:47.080 --> 0:20:49.960 go on there to consume more of her content. 0:20:50.560 --> 0:20:52.120 Loveyajai did the same thing. 0:20:53.080 --> 0:20:55.280 But all this talk about social media makes me curious 0:20:55.320 --> 0:20:58.119 about what's y'all's favorite platform. So if you look in 0:20:58.200 --> 0:21:00.320 the app right now, you should see a pole and 0:21:00.359 --> 0:21:04.600 we're asking what your favorite social media platform is. My 0:21:04.680 --> 0:21:07.080