By Joanna Stern
Please join me on your smartphone's home screen.
Locate the social-media apps you find most irresistible. (For me
it's Twitter and Instagram.) Place them in a new folder entitled
"DO NOT USE UNTIL ELECTION IS OVER." Now hide this folder deep
inside your phone.
Congratulations! You have done your job as a responsible citizen
of the United States of America.
You may have heard there is a U.S. presidential election
happening this week. You may have also heard that an epic mess is
forecast on social-media platforms because of it. Facebook,
Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, they're expecting it all:
misinformation, voter intimidation, talk of election-related
violence, you name it.
Think of it like an amusement park. For this special event, the
companies have added lots of safety measures -- even closed off
parts of the park -- to control the chaos.
Facebook, for instance, is prepared to use technology to slow
the spread of viral posts, according to a report from my
colleagues. Instagram has temporarily removed the "Recent" tab from
hashtag pages to prevent the spread of misinformation. Twitter has
put some restrictions around its retweet feature. (Makes you wonder
if those changes shouldn't just be permanent.)
But if the park is really expected to be so crazy and full of
troublemakers, maybe -- I don't know -- just don't go to the park!
You have control, regardless of how these companies' algorithms and
tricks try to manipulate you. Which brings us to my rules for the
week ahead:
Don't use social media
The first rule of election social media is: You do not use
election social media. We should all take the occasional
social-media break in our lives -- right now's a great time.
My colleague Christopher Mims inspired me to go this somewhat
extreme route. He has entered into a friendly bet to stay off
social media until Nov. 16. I'm planning to stay off for the next
few days.
There are a couple of reasons for my decision. First,
doomscrolling. The algorithms have been designed to keep us hooked
and in times of high, collective national anxiety I can't look
away. Not even with the help of screen and app timers that warn me
when my time's almost up.
Second, even I have fallen for a manipulated video and a tweet
with news that proved not to be true. In the next few days, where
unvetted news will be moving faster, why even put myself in that
situation? Luckily, there are reputable news outlets that can give
us factual, up-to-the-minute information -- and you're already
reading the best one right now.
The best way to rid your life of all these apps is to delete
them from your phone entirely or move them into a hidden folder. If
you go with the latter, don't forget to turn off notifications.
Worried about how you'll keep in touch? One option: "Get your
friends to collectively agree to only text, email or call for a few
days," said Martin Skladany, a professor of law and technology at
Penn State Dickinson Law, who has argued that social-media
platforms should go dark for the week to protect democracy.
Some of you may be wondering: Can't you just mute all
election-related stuff? Sure, that's an option if you love playing
Whac-A-Mole. Facebook's snooze feature and Instagram's mute feature
allow you to stop seeing posts from specific people you follow in
your feeds. Twitter allows you to do that and mute specific words.
YouTube doesn't have a mute feature, but you can signal that you
aren't interested in certain recommended content and manage your
recommendations and search results.
Don't share
OK, so if you can't possibly leave behind 5,000 of your closest
friends while the fate of our nation hangs in the balance, I urge
you at least to stop sharing.
Sure, the platforms themselves have rolled out tools to try to
prevent you from sharing misleading and inaccurate information. But
why even take the risk right now? What does your link and meme
sharing really do? Get you a few more likes? Finally change Cousin
Fred's mind?
The Netflix documentary "Social Dilemma" only tells one side of
the power of social media, but it should resonate with many of us,
especially its depiction of our lives being controlled by
algorithms and sharing rewards designed to feed our primal
emotional needs.
For the record: I usually share more than I should. Not this
week.
Don't believe everything
OK, so even that's too much? You do you, but first, do your
homework.
This is the strategy of my friend, whom you also might know as
the Journal's original Personal Tech columnist. "My No. 1 rule is
to be super careful about what you share and what you believe on
social media, " said Walt Mossberg, now a board member of the News
Literacy Project, a nonprofit that offers free information and
classes in media literacy.
Even the most innocuous-sounding posts about topics like the
election or Covid-19 should be checked with "lateral reading."
That's where you seek out additional information on the same topic
from other authors and publications. My colleague Nicole Nguyen
recommends GroundNews, a service that shows you how many outlets
have covered top stories at a glance.
And if you're looking on the platforms themselves for trusted
info, Twitter has added an elections section on its Explore tab,
with only news from vetted outlets. Facebook and Instagram have a
curated Voting Information Center. YouTube will link to Google's
election-results page, and when polls close it will show live
streams of coverage from authoritative news partners.
Don't be a jerk
Finally, the most obvious -- but needed -- rule came from Kelly
Mendoza, senior director of education programs at Common Sense
Education. She oversees the Digital Citizenship curriculum used by
schools nationwide.
"We teach kids that a difference of opinion doesn't need to mean
a difference of character. Don't attack someone just because they
have a different opinion on what should be done. Keep a level
head," she said.
There's discourse and then there's division. And sadly, social
platforms are pushing Americans to be ever more polarized -- not in
our opinions on issues, mind you, but in how we feel about opposing
groups. You can all but guarantee high levels of vitriol, anger and
attacks on social media in the next few days. So yes, all together
now: Long press on those apps and move them far, far away.
-- For more WSJ Technology analysis, reviews, advice and
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Write to Joanna Stern at joanna.stern@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 02, 2020 07:46 ET (12:46 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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