Information underpins how we function as societies – and right now there is something very wrong with how we are engaging with that information.
I like social media. I enjoy seeing what my friends all around the world are up to, sharing my adventures with others, learning different perspectives on issues that interest me and sharing my views on matters where I think I am competent to do so.
I also saw its value during the Covid-19 pandemic in getting life-saving information out quickly and efficiently – but also its ability to spread dangerous misinformation like wildfire.
So on balance I’m increasingly conscious that our affection for social media isn’t all good. I miss eye contact as everyone walks around with their heads down, eyes glued to their screens. We’re all too busy on our smartphones to be the social beings we’ve been for millennia, even when we’re all in the same room, supposedly “present”.
But are we really busy or are we simply distracted or hooked? Social media consumes endless amounts of the time that we used to use – and should still be using – to think, engage, communicate and be present in.
Interestingly, this phenomenon cuts all the way across society. Instagram and Facebook have managed to corner social media retail and so-called influencers dictate, to a certain extent, what we wear, eat, and think. Twitter’s clever algorithms pick up on our likes and dislikes and reinforce our social and political leanings. Instagram and TikTok encourage us all to share how good our lives are (whether they really are or not).
Apparently “liking” and having something you have done “liked” triggers small shots of dopamine – the rewarder chemical – in our brains. But this desire for the dopamine hit causes mindless scrolling, and as we graze through these bits of information, liking and commenting, smart consumer-driven algorithms managed by companies that exploit that knowledge are learning all about us.
Why does all this matter in the context of planetary health? I think there are a number of reasons that we should be concerned.
Firstly, there’s “don’t look up-ism”, referring to the film Don’t Look Up that was released in December. That movie, while extreme, spoke to our interesting relationship with crisis and, in that instance, the hopelessness over what was to come, combined with decision-making that was warped by the influence of the digital age. The difference between that film and the crisis we are facing is that our real-world emergency can be addressed, and the planet can be brought back to a state of health which can sustain our presence on it.
Secondly, it seems to me that there is an increasing sense of powerlessness, which is odd given the old adage that “information is power” and that we all have access to more information than at any time in human history.
This seems to be most acute for the social media natives, those who grew up alongside the rise of social media – the young millennials and particularly the Gen Zs.
It’s both fascinating and frightening that an entire generation that feels stuck in a world that looks like it is quite literally falling apart (with social media unhelpfully highlighting every decay) copes through a culture of humouring this seemingly inevitable doom. “Meme-efying” serious national and global issues if you will.
But somewhere within this space of frustration and powerlessness is what drives actions too, as we have seen with youth-led climate action movements globally.
Thirdly, this state of confusion and overload is making longer-term policy coherence next to impossible. Yes, scientists and policy thinkers are warning us of the real and present dangers of the planet’s state of health. Yes, politicians are aware of what is happening. But even the good ones are as caught up as the rest of us in fighting for space to inform and influence, and they are up against the Kardashians, Harry and Meghan, Siew Pui Yi, Neelofa, and many more, as well as the myriad and usually clashing opinions of everyone who has access to Twitter.
And so we seem to be in a state of planetary attention deficit disorder – at a time when our very existence is challenged by threats that are seemingly too complicated to address.
So we retreat into our comfortable echo chambers where we can join the chorus blaming “others” as we flick through our apps and soothe ourselves with images of people and places which are largely meaningless to our everyday existence.
The problem, it seems to me, is the lack of regulation and the fact that the current business model used by the social media giants is designed to be addictive.
So trying to wean ourselves off social media probably isn’t the answer. Including the social media giants and regulators in the planetary health conversation is.
Without the ability to discern fact from fiction, real from virtual, it’s hard to make decisions that are aligned with improving the health of the planet. Without putting planetary health issues onto the agenda and providing them prioritised time and space, it’s hard to see how we can make progress in securing the health of the planet for future generations. But the social media companies have the technical capacity to do this.
Information underpins how we function as societies – and right now there is something very wrong with how we are engaging with that information.
Dr Jemilah Mahmood, a physician and experienced crisis leader, was appointed the executive director of the Sunway Centre for Planetary Health at Sunway University in August 2021. She is the founder of aid organisation Mercy Malaysia and has served in leadership roles internationally with the United Nations and Red Cross for the last decade. She writes on Planetary Health Matters once a month in StarLifestyle.
