SOCIAL MEDIA, LAW AND HEALTH

Introduction

The article aims to interpret the topic covered in the documentary “Network Dilemma” by Jeff Orlowski, from a realistic perspective, highlighting the impact on the health and well-being of the user and the interpretation of the problem from the point of view of the law Brazilian.

The documentary deals with how recommendation algorithms analyze users' behavior and seek to keep them on the platform for longer than previously stipulated, making the user increasingly addicted and engaged on the platform. It turns out that the content presented on platforms often only reinforces pre-existing beliefs and opinions, leading the user to conflict and the fragmentation of society.

The collection of personal data through social media and possible violations of Brazilian legislation are discussed, in addition to damage to the user's mental health, who becomes increasingly vulnerable when faced with the exploitation of the platform in their personal life. Once data's collected, it's used by the platform to target ads and influence user behavior in highly targeted ways. In turn, this causes mental health problems in the individual such as anxiety, depression, body dimorphic disorders and low self-esteem.

In addition to all the problems mentioned above, it's also worth highlighting the exploitation of social media to disseminate misinformation, which ends up generating fake news, which can have serious consequences for the lives of users and non-users, after all, you don't need to be a user to be a victim of fake news. Furthermore, misinformation and fake news directly threaten democracy, as we can see in election times. The use of social networks has gone from a healthy practice to rampant use and abusive conduct that results in several victims, whether they are users or not.

Furthermore, we can see the negative effect on the use of social media for health, violation of personal rights and data protection and society in general. As the documentary says, “when we don't buy a product it's because we are the product”, and that's what worries us. Where will this take us? Furthermore, as surprising as it may seem, our individual rights were flagrantly violated and as surprising as it may seem, we've regressed significantly and we've to fight again for our most basic rights, let us take Bertolt Brecht's words as our own, when this says: “What are these times, when we've to defend the obvious?” and this is exactly the discussion we'll address next.

Development

The power of algorithms

Basically what maintains social media are algorithms, they're responsible for personalizing and optimizing the user experience. In this way, it's responsible for exorbitantly influencing people’s behavior and perceptions.

In social media, the algorithms are used to analyze and understand the user's interests, preferences and behaviors, in this way, everything you click, watch, the time you use, is stored and this database and used so that the user has the best experience on the platform, so that the content that best suits your profile's recommended, the recommendation that best suits you and thus the chances of you staying on the platform and acquiring everything that's recommended by them increase significantly.

Algorithms can often work to create a filtering bubble, in which the user'll only be exposed to expectations that differ from their own. Therefore, platforms explore the individual's previous interests and take advantage of this by reinforcing and expanding existing points of view and opinions, which leads to the isolation of contrary ideas, in this way, the user only has restrictive information on a certain subject, however, it's enough for him to change his life and form an opinion on a certain topic, all he has to do is believe faithfully and start defending it, often generating misinformation that results in a threat to democracy. But a healthy debate about the diversity of points of view is essential.

Algorithms also've the surprising ability to influence user behavior. To understand this, just remember how many times you unconsciously picked up your cell phone and accessed your social media, then stopped to think... “Hmm, what am I doing here?” Or you logged into your social media account to do a certain search or check out a certain topic and spent hours scrolling through your feed. Your goal was just to check out a topic, but you were unconsciously influenced to stay on the platform. The article isn't a conspiracy theory, I'm not writing this article to turn you into a “hater” on the platforms or express my disgust, I just write to raise awareness about the underlying truth. These algorithms are used to not only influence you to spend more time on the platform, but also to interact, actively participate, influence your political opinions, your emotions and even make you make purchases that you don't actually need, but are convinced of that you deserve or that you need, like that blouse in your closet that you only wore once or that teddy bear keychain you saw and said you needed.

Use of personal data

You probably already know that social media collect personal data so they can exploit it. Raising immense concerns about privacy and security. But perhaps what you don't know's that in Brazilian legislation there are some laws that regulate the protection of personal data, such as the LGPD and the Marco Civil da Internet.

Article 7 of the LGPD deals with the legal bases for the processing of personal data, such as the consent of the data subject, therefore, according to the article, the consent of the data subject's necessary for the exploitation of personal data. Starting from the premise and bringing it to the specific case, so that personal data can be explored, the platform must inform the user. Maybe what you don't know's that it actually informs you, through the terms and conditions, the question that remains's “Did you read the terms and conditions before creating your account?” It's possible not, I believe that if you knew that you were being told that your camera would be monitored even without you opening it, you would not agree. Or that your microphone is recording you even when you're not accessing the app, you wouldn't allow it.

The LGPD contains several articles that directly deal with the protection of individual's personal data. These provisions are effectively complied with by the platform, but users do not understand them. What users don’t know's that “Data's the new oil of the 21st century”.

The civil framework of the internet, in turn in it's articles 7 and 10 “guarantees the inviolability and protection of the privacy and personal data of Internet users and establishes the need for express consent from the user for the collection, use and storage of their personal data ." However, even if there's legal regulation that guarantees inviolability, this still occurs, because for platform owners, it's better to exploit individuals' data until the practice becomes unfeasible for them, than to follow the legislation of a particular It turns out that, for these large developers and entrepreneurs, it's better to pay a small compensation to users who continue to be violated and harmed than to lose millions by ceasing to practice it.

What the user needs to keep in mind's that, just as the developers of large platforms say in the documentary “If you aren't paying for the product, then you are the product”. (Network dilemma) That's exactly it, you don't pay to use the platform and for 4 hours of daily satisfaction when using it, but your data pays for it, you are the main product, your data's! Remember what I said above about data being the oil of the 21st century? Unfortunately, you gave away your precious possession for nothing.

Impact on health

It's use can cause great harm to the physical and psychological health of users and those around them. It isn't news that people have become more radical than ever, nor's it news about the growing statistical margin of depression, anxiety and suicides among young people and teenagers.

Unfortunately, this may have been caused by the use of social media. The design, constant notifications, immediate feedback and constant rewards are ways that platforms use to keep the user for longer, it's like a drug house, where at the beginning you try it and say “No, I'm not going to get addicted, I’ll just use 5 minutes, it’s okay!” Then the hours pass and you continue there, thinking about the photo you posted: “Will I get a lot of likes? The platform also thought about this, the reward is in the likes and comments, your mind pays attention to this, you create expectations, you constantly update your feed in search of fulfillment and more satisfaction, then the notification arrives. It's like the energizing effect at the height of drug use. Then the notifications for that photo end and the app reminds you to post a new photo or share a new meme, and the cycle repeats itself, for hours, days, months, years. It works exactly like the effect of drugs, which is why you get so addicted and attached to the platform. And with addiction comes damage to mental health, insomnia, anxiety, dependence, irritability, lack of self-control.

Anxiety's present because excess information, social pressure and the need to always be connected end up resulting in high levels of stress and anxiety. Depression, in turn, results from social comparison and, as mentioned above, exposure to negative content, the feeling of being alone and missing special and unique moments. Because while social media can connect people virtually, it also alienates those closest to them. “How many times have you been in a place where there were two people sitting next to each other and they were both on the phone? How many times have you met a friend and instead of talking, you two spent time on your cell phone, you two took a selfie and put a cute caption, but you really didn't like being with this person? Many times, right?"

Furthermore, because we are not talking about idealized versions of perfect people, of perfect bodies, of perfect and standardized faces, since the fashion of the moment is to look natural, many influencers sell the perfect and natural image, while secretly, they have had more than 15 surgeries to obtain this result, but the worst thing is that users, followers and viewers, also want to have a natural or perfect appearance. Natural's so perfect that everyone wants to be. It turns out that, when we enter the virtual world, we lose sight of reality and when we look in the mirror, we begin to hate ourselves. “Why am I so ugly? Why isn’t my nose thin or why is my body like this?” As a result, we develop not only low self-esteem, but perhaps bodily disorders, anorexia, bulimia, body dimorphic disorder. How many times have we admired parts of ourselves, until someone said something bad and you started to hate yourself.

Regulation, responsibility, awareness, action and conclusion

Technological platforms must be severely punished for constantly violating laws that regulate data protection, individuals constantly have their privacy violated. 100 years ago, our ancestors fought for respect for their individual rights, their human rights. Today, once again we fight for our individual rights, it's absurd that we've to fight for something that's obvious, but not respected.

A universal political plan capable of punishing violations of individual rights and the exploitation of users is urgently needed.

However, it's certain that if there are no users there will be no exploitation, if there isn't a product there'll be no sales. Awareness's extremely important, because it's through awareness that one can see clearly, it's impossible to live today away from all technologies, the world has changed, evolved, but society as a whole must be aware of the position in which it finds itself putting. What position are you occupying? Are you the one who sells himself for a minimum of satisfaction?

The recommendation is awareness, you need to be aware of what you are accepting or accessing. By increasing awareness, many things can be re-evaluated and avoided. Initially it may seem like an exaggerated view of reality, but such thinking easily collapses when you realize that the creators of the platforms in most cases do not use it, nor do they allow their children to use it. If it's for pure satisfaction and momentary pleasure, why don't creators and developers use it? The answer's simple, whoever creates the “drug” capable of generating addictions does not use it, as they know how it works and the consequences. And for any questions that may have arisen in your head, I recommend researching the subject in depth and watching the documentary “The Networks Dilemma”.

Bibliography

· Andreassen, C. S., et al. (2017). Development of a Facebook Addiction Scale. Psychological Reports, 110(2), 501-517.
· The ANPD is the body responsible for monitoring and regulating the LGPD in Brazil. It’s official website (www.gov.br/anpd) offers up-to-date information on legislation, guidelines and guidelines for the protection of personal data.

· "Building a Better Data Economy", Data & Society Research Institute, disponível em: https://datasociety.net/pubs/building-a-better-data-economy/
· Documentary "The Network Dilemma" - Directed by Jeff Orlowski, released in 2020.
· Fardouly, J., Diedrichs, P. C., Vartanian, L. R., & Halliwell, E. (2015). Social comparisons on social media: The impact of Facebook on young women's body image concerns and mood. Body Image, 13, 38-45.
· "Echo Chambers in Online Social Networks" - ACM Transactions on Information Systems, 2015.
·"The Age of Surveillance Capitalism" - Shoshana Zuboff, 2018.
· "The Filter Bubble: How the New Personalized Web Is Changing What We Read and How We Think" - Eli Pariser, 2011.
· "Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy" - Cathy O'Neil, 2016.
· Kross, E., et al. (2013). Facebook Use Predicts Declines in Subjective Well-Being in Young Adults. PLOS ONE, 8(8), e69841
· Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados (Brasilian General Data Protection Law) (LGPD) - Law Nº. 13,709/2018.
· Lin, L. Y., et al. (2016). Association between Social Media Use and Depression among U.S. Young Adults. Depression and Anxiety, 33(4), 323-331
· State consumer protection bodies, such as Procon, can also provide guidance and information on the protection of personal data on social networks. It’s recommended to consult the Procon in your region for more details.
· Primack, B. A., et al. (2017). Social Media Use and Perceived Social Isolation among Young Adults in the U.S. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 53(1), 1-8
· " Online Privacy Regulation ", Federal Trade Commission (FTC), disponível em: https://www.ftc.gov/privacy-and-security
· "Screen Time and Mental Health: A Systematic Review of Reviews", PLOS ONE, disponível em: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0228010
· "Social Media and Mental Health: Benefits, Risks, and Recommendations for Young People's Use", Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH), disponível em: https://www.rsph.org.uk/our-work/campaigns/status-of-mind.html
· "Screen Time and Mental Health: A Systematic Review of Reviews", PLOS ONE, disponível em: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0228010
· "Social Media and Mental Health: Benefits, Risks, and Recommendations for Young People's Use", Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH), disponível em: https://www.rsph.org.uk/our-work/campaigns/status-of-mind.html
· "Taking a Break from Social Media: Understanding the Effects on Well-being", Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, disponível em: https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/cyber.2016.0259
· "Taking a Break from Social Media: Understanding the Effects on Well-being", Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, disponível em: https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/cyber.2016.0259
· "Taking Back Control: A Comprehensive Approach to Tackling Online Manipulation", Center for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), disponível em: https://www.cigionline.org/publications/taking-back-control-comprehensive-approach-tackling-online-manipulation