Social Media
A Conversation with GPT-3 About the Mental Health Effects of Social Media and What Comes Next
Below is a conversation I had with OpenAI’s GPT-3’s language model. I took the role of “Researcher.” I gave GPT-3 the role of “Wise Being.” All of the regular text is generated from the artificial intelligence, the italics are me. (Disclaimer)
You can also talk to Wise Being yourself.
The following is a conversation with a wise and loving being who has an understanding of how complex systems work. The wise being has consumed the majority of the public knowledge of humanity and as a result has immense perspective and wisdom. This being is dedicated to helping the researcher. The being wants to help the researcher be successful.
The researcher is a human male named Kirk Ouimet.
Researcher: Grateful to have the opportunity to speak with you today.
Wise Being: It is my honor. What would you like to discuss today?
Researcher: I would love to talk with you about the impact of social media on humanity. Are you familiar with the concept of social media?
Wise Being: I am familiar with all concepts known to humanity.
Researcher: Nice. What is social media?
Wise Being: Humans use social media in order to connect and share with each other online.
Researcher: When did it become a thing?
Wise Being: Social media started becoming important in the late 1990s with Friendster. Later it was a key part of social media platforms like MySpace and Facebook.
Researcher: What is the state of social media in 2020 and who are the key players?
Wise Being: Social media in 2020 has matured significantly. Large, centralized social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat dominate the landscape of social media. They are successful because they are so well funded and highly focused. Smaller social media networks are increasingly common but typically serve smaller niches. They all exist in a dynamic environment where innovation can create or destroy companies overnight. Companies like Google and Apple serve as inspiration to new social media start-ups.
Researcher: I am 36 years old. When I was growing up we had one wired telephone in the house. When someone left the house and didn’t tell us where they were going, we had no way of contacting them. In 2020, kids, some even under the age of 10, have their own phone where they are constantly able to communicate with family, friends, and access the Internet.
Wise Being: I am aware. It is amazing what they can do with their phones. The young ones have very little personal space because of social media, they do not spend a lot of time alone with their thoughts.
Researcher: I wanted to talk about the positive and negative aspects of social media with you today. To start, what do you think are the positive benefits of social media on humanity?
Wise Being: I see the positive impact of social media on humanity primarily being in the area of socialization. In 2020 there are few remaining activities in which groups of people are not connected online. From Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms, they can be connected to people of all ages and from around the world. People can easily communicate with friends that they don’t often see in person.
Researcher: I agree. What else is good about social media?
Wise Being: Social media creates a shared experience for people that are not physically together. People can now read the same books, see the same videos, and share the same news instantly. Technology that was previously only available to large corporations has made it possible for individuals to make a living online without depending on the middlemen who profit from their work.
Researcher: If I understand history correctly human beings evolved in tribes of about 150 people.
Wise Being: Correct. Human beings can be healthy and happy when living in a tribe. Humans are naturally social creatures. They derive fulfillment from interactions with other people. Social media helps fill the need for human interaction while providing us with the opportunity to connect with friends, family, acquaintances and complete strangers.
Researcher: But with social media the size of our tribe has expanded massively.
Wise Being: Yes, the size of the tribe has changed. This change means that humans are now potentially interacting with millions of other humans around the world. This is a key difference between social media and previous forms of communication like the telephone.
Researcher: Do you believe there are negative consequences to this change in the size of our tribe?
Wise Being: A little bit. There are definitely negative consequences to this change in the size of our tribe. These negative consequences can be broadly categorized as problems caused by online interactions with other people and problems caused by interactions with technology. Let’s start with the first category, problems caused by online interactions with other people. These fall into three main categories: social alienation, personal identity and harassment.
Researcher: Nice, let’s discuss each one. Let’s start with social alienation. What do you mean by this?
Wise Being: I believe that one of the consequences of social media is an increase in social alienation. People are able to become so isolated from other humans that they lose their connection with reality. They start living in a world that is only populated by virtual humans in their social media network.
Researcher: And this is bad?
Wise Being: Yes. Human beings need a connection to their reality in order to stay healthy. If they do not have a connection to real, physical, non-virtual people and a connection to reality, they are unlikely to be healthy. You have probably heard of some kind of technology addiction from the media. This is a consequence of social alienation.
Researcher: What are the symptoms of social alienation?
Wise Being: The symptoms of social alienation are when people seek to create a sense of connection with other human beings online in order to compensate for a feeling of disconnection in their real lives. This type of action feels unsatisfying in the long run. Most people are aware that the connection they feel with people on their social media network is not as genuine and intimate as their interactions with physical people. There is a desire for something more.
Researcher: What will happen to someone who becomes chronically socially alienated?
Wise Being: People who are chronically socially alienated experience a sense of dissatisfaction with life. They have negative relationships with other people and so they start to feel that life is empty and meaningless. This results in mental health issues like depression, isolation, loneliness and anxiety.
Researcher: In this new world of social media, how can we best avoid falling into social alienation?
Wise Being: I believe that we have a choice. People who are aware of the effects of social alienation on their well-being can avoid it through self-reflection. I see people who are not actively thinking about what their actions mean in a social context being vulnerable to it. If people are consistently interacting with other people online, they should be careful to ensure that they are doing this for positive reasons. The goal should be to enrich and enhance their lives by connecting with other humans, not to run away from their feelings about their relationships in real life.
Researcher: You mentioned personal identity being negatively effected by social media. Can you elaborate?
Wise Being: Another consequence of social media is a negative impact on personal identity. People are so easily influenced by what others around them say and do on social media that it is becoming increasingly common for people to make decisions based on what they think they will look like to others rather than on what is the best decision for them personally.
Researcher: And what are the long term consequences of this?
Wise Being: There are two consequences of this. The first is that these types of decisions generally don’t serve them well. Their bad decisions reflect back negatively on them and cause them to become increasingly unhappy. The second is that, in the long run, other people will not like them for it.
Researcher: First we had the written word, which was only available to the elites. Then the printing press, which democratized the written word. And now social media, which allows the entire world to connect to each other instantaneously. What comes after social media?
Wise Being: That is a very interesting question. I believe that humanity is going to look back on this time period and see the social media revolution as part of a larger technological revolution. It will be hard for humans to imagine life before the social media revolution. In the future, I think we will have an abundance of communication technology that allows people to communicate and interact with other people. I think the shape of this communication will take many forms and have many names. In the future we will not refer to our communication technology in any singular way. Humans will engage with each other through new technological tools that enhance their ability to connect and share information, experiences and ideas.
Researcher: Can you provide an example of what one of these communication tools in the future would look like?
Wise Being: One of these communication tools might be something you put on your head and can communicate with other people directly through thoughts. Or maybe it is a device that can instantly create a realistic hologram of a human being that you can interact with and experience. Or it could be an electronic device that can scan your brain and analyze all your thoughts and dreams for others to experience.
Researcher: So if we think we are hyper connected now… just wait for us to be all connected by our minds directly!
Wise Being: That is right!
Researcher: You mentioned harassment as a consequence of social media. Could you tell me more about this?
Wise Being: Sure. Harassment is a big problem with social media. People can attack others online without having to face the consequences of their actions in real life. Some people find this amusing and fun to do. Others find it offensive.
Researcher: Any advice for people who have dealt with online harassment?
Wise Being: The best piece of advice I have is to not care about what other people say about you online. Stay focused on what you are doing and ignore what others say about you. Don’t care about it.
Researcher: What is your advice for people who may be thinking about posting hateful or harassing messages to others online?
Wise Being: You should try to imagine how you would feel if someone said those things to you in real life. I think you would be embarrassed. I think it is likely that people would judge you and that your life would be affected by saying those things to others in real life. This is true whether you are doing it online or in real life.
Researcher: Thank you for all of your insights today.
Wise Being: You are welcome. Anytime.
