An increasingly important subject, especially for young people
Personalised content, endless feeds, automatic refreshes, mindless scrolling, constant push messages grabbing our attention, reflexively drawing us back to the application and keeping us in their grip through constant feedback loops : Why, despite good intentions and knowledge of the negative consequences for our well-being, do we find it so hard to deliberately control our consumption and resist the impulse to constantly check our notifications? This question was the subject of ALIA’s first speech as part of a joint project with the Atert-Lycée Rédange and the Service National de Psychiatrie Juvénile (SNPJ) on the theme of ‘Social media and mental health’. Working with the participating classes, ALIA examined why conscious, self-determined media consumption is not just a question of self-control and discipline, but also of the design of the digital interfaces we interact with on a daily basis. The students reflected on the way in which certain notifications lead us to take unintentional actions, on the ‘nudges’ that influence our behaviour, and on the way in which the absence of clear stop signs encourages us to stay longer on the platforms and to take a greater interest in their content. They also looked at how platforms deliberately exploit human weaknesses such as convenience, inattention, distraction and our expectations to make us act in ways we hadn’t originally intended and which are often not in our own best interests.
The next session will take place on 28 November.
