Disinformation, Social Media and Social Justice

In addition to how I saw technology impact the lives of people I worked with, I was also inspired to write about this topic by the 2016 election. More specifically, by how technology was used to sow chaos, confusion and anger in the population. And not only sow, but how that chaos actually disrupted families and communities. Since then, it has been an open question about how intentional that sowing of divisions was and who was responsible. 

Yesterday went some ways in providing an answer to that question. Thirteen Russian nationals were indicted on a number of charges related to using social media to interfere with the 2016 election. More importantly, the U.S. Government openly accused Russia of waging a massive information warfare campaign on not only the US, but other western governments. As we learn more about the exactly nature of this campaign, I think we should also attempt to understand its consequences. 

These Russian trolls were interacting with real American human beings. The emotions that they were inflaming were real emotions, connected to real histories. The fears that were stoked were real fears and relied upon real injustices. In coming days, when talk of "hacking minds" is brought up, it is worth remembering that these are real minds, with senses of safety and security and well-being that were impacted. One of the questions that will need clarification is who participated and who benefited from these actions? 

It is a gross generalization, but as with many of societies problems, its often the poor and marginalized who are most vulnerable. Those without significant safety nets, diplomas and esteemed social networks. The people who are stressed and scared of how they are going to keep everything together. The people for whom life is not something they do, but something that happens to them. One would expect the less agency a person experiences, the most easily they would be swayed propaganda, especially in propaganda that operates within an individuals social and emotional apparatus. 

Now on the other side, one must ask who benefited? This is not complicated, again in a grossly generalized way, to figure out since the Trump Adminstration's policy preferences are not a mystery. Clearly the wealthy in this country have do so well in the last year that it almost seems like there is some sort of smash and grab going on. Wall Street has made more money than it knows what to do with (other than reinvesting that is), deregulation and the crippling of the Consumer Protection Agency has allowed for con artists and scammers to proliferate. And just in case there was any doubt, we now have talk of major cuts to social programs. 

In the coming weeks and months, one of the hopes for is site is to explore  the intersection between social media, technology, disinformation and social justice as new information emerges. 

Motivation

I started noticing that something was wrong during my first year after grad school. No, it wasn't the fact that I had graduated from a master's in social work program and was now working as a child and adolescent therapist and did not know what the hell I was doing. That is something they  at least prepared me for a little in school. No, this latent unease was was harder to pin point. But it did have something to do with a foundational element of my education. 

One of the theoretical pillars of my practice is what is known as attachment theory. I hesitate a little, because on mom blogs in the popular culture, this term can be used to describe a set of often strange practices and ideas which are loosely based on the academic theory. I'm referring to the academic theory which broadly focuses on how human beings develop in the context of relationships, especially in infancy and especially with primary care-givers. One of the hallmarks of the theory is the notion of attunement or the ability to read and respond to the emotional needs of another. 

Attunement is one of the most powerful mechanisms for encouraging healthy development. A child has a need and cries. The caregiver is able to understand that need and respond accordingly. The child, no longer in distress is able to explore their little world and learn. Over time, they learn to trust others, that when they need help, other people can be a source of comfort. When a caregivers attunement is comprised, it can have life long consequences for the child. 

My unease had to do with attunement. In school, we studied the ways in which a parents ability t to respond to their child's needs may be comprised. Depression, stress. resource insecurity, anxiety  can all focus a parents attention more on their own immediate needs in a way that makes it more difficult to be present for the child. But these are all common experiences typically not enough to significantly impact the relationship. However, substance use, can have profound impacts on a parents ability to respond. Especially on the more severe end of the spectrum, where ones brain has essentially become hi-jacked in a way that place that use above everything else. 

I began to see more and more children crying, essentially cuing their parents, and no response. This was not the kind of 'planned ignoring' that parents practice when they suspect their child has become a little too deft at pulling on their heart strings. No, this was the kind of no response you would more often see in drug use. But these caregivers did not appear to be on drugs. Instead they were on their phones. 

It would take me years of observing this to really understand what I was seeing, but once I did it became unmistakable. Parental, especially maternal instinct is one of the most powerful aspects of being human. Its a system that will cause a parent to give their own life some cases. To see it so easily hi-jacked is not only difficult to witness, but raises serious questions about the unseen consequences of our technology. If it can do this to us, what else is it doing?