LAB
economic
unconscious
SOCIAL
MEDIA
The Hidden Influence of Economic Codes on LinkedIn: Navigating Professionalism in a Market-Driven Platform
LinkedIn, as a professional networking platform, stands apart from visually oriented and lifestyle-focused platforms like Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok. However, despite its more serious tone and emphasis on professional matters, LinkedIn operates within a framework deeply shaped by economic codes and values. Designed to facilitate career development, networking, and job opportunities, the platform also serves as a marketplace for advertisements and sponsored content promoting professional products and services. These economic imperatives are woven into LinkedIn’s structure, influencing user behavior from how profiles are crafted to the types of content prioritized. The manifestation of these codes varies depending on users' goals, industries, and strategies, yet their presence is undeniably pervasive.
​
76
REASONS TO STOP USING MASS DESTRUCTION WEAPONS CALLED SOCIAL MEDIA
Dangerous mechanisms exploited by social media:
​
-
Spreading misinformation and fake news.
-
Promoting extremist ideologies and hate speech.
-
Creating echo chambers and filter bubbles that reinforce certain beliefs and attitudes.
-
Encouraging mindless consumption and comparison through social media influencers and adverts.
-
Collecting and selling user data for targeted advertising, potentially leading to privacy violations.
-
Progressive destabilization of your environment.
-
Causing addiction and reducing attention spans through constant scrolling and notifications.
-
Increasing anxiety and depression due to feelings of inadequacy and comparison with others' lives.
-
Enabling the spread of harmful content like explicit or extremist material.
-
Exploiting human psychology and influencing behaviour through algorithms and targeted advertising.
-
Gaining intimate knowledge of your personal life and deep state of mind.
-
Exacerbating internal demons.
-
Stimulating fragile segments of the personality.
-
Disrupting the brain's natural defense mechanisms.
-
Replacing the self.
-
Manipulating perceptions, emotions, and behaviors.
-
Fostering communities fueled by anger and paranoia.
Beyond Adolescents: Rethinking Social Media Regulation and the Overlooked Burden on Adults
What is striking, however, is the lack of attention given to the broader impact of social media on adults, particularly concerning cognitive load and its psychological implications. While adolescents are often the focus of social media discourse, adults are by no means immune to its effects. Platforms are deliberately designed to capture and sustain attention through infinite scrolling, algorithmic feeds, and notifications, all of which place an enormous cognitive burden on users. Adults are expected to multitask between professional, personal, and digital lives, often navigating a constant influx of information, opinions, and stimuli that can overwhelm the brain’s capacity to process effectively. This unrelenting cognitive load can lead to decision fatigue, decreased productivity, and heightened stress, with implications for mental health that are comparable to, if not greater than, those experienced by adolescents.
​
Samuel Harvey and the Digital Neo-Nihilism
What is particularly alarming is how these destructive tendencies can become models for further harm. Vulnerable individuals can be drawn into cycles of manipulation and violence, perpetuated by the mimetic nature of online behavior. The same platforms designed to foster connection—social media, messaging apps—are turned into tools for surveillance, coercion, and harm. This dual-use nature of technology calls for greater ethical oversight and design considerations to prevent its misuse.
​
When Algorithms Decide: How Digital Power is Winning Elections Over People
The Romanian case is not an isolated incident but rather a symptom of a broader transformation in how societies process information and make collective decisions. Social media platforms have fundamentally altered the way information is disseminated and consumed, often outpacing the ability of regulatory frameworks to keep up. The pervasive reach of these platforms, combined with their capacity for micro-targeting and content personalization, allows them to exert influence on a scale that is both global and deeply individualized. This power is not merely technological; it has profound political, economic, and psychological implications. The Romanian election is a vivid example of how these dynamics can be exploited, with external actors leveraging algorithmic systems to manipulate public opinion and disrupt electoral processes.
READ MORE
The Impact of Economic Warfare and Scopic Colonialism on Kenya’s Health Landscape in the Age of Social Media
In Kenya, where social media consumption is particularly high, the intersection of economic warfare and scopic colonialism significantly influences the country’s disease burden.
The psychological impact of pervasive social media use also contributes significantly to Kenya’s disease burden. Exposure to curated, idealized lifestyles fosters feelings of inadequacy and stress, particularly among young people. Cyberbullying and online harassment further exacerbate mental health challenges, leading to higher rates of anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation. These issues are particularly concerning in a context where mental health infrastructure is still underdeveloped, leaving many individuals without adequate support. Social media’s role as a vehicle for foreign narratives also deepens systemic vulnerabilities, creating dependencies on imported pharmaceutical products, wellness trends, and healthcare services, which are often inaccessible to lower-income populations.
​
[Trans]phobia between Polarization and Algorithms: An Algorithmic Vicious Circle?
Transphobia, far from being a mere reflection of individual social prejudices, today finds a new dynamic in the algorithms of digital platforms. These platforms, by reinforcing polarization and promoting extreme content, play a key role in the proliferation of transphobic discourse. At the same time, transphobia is instrumentalized in political and economic strategies, complicating the analysis even further. This article explores how the convergence of algorithmic polarization, attention economies, and the disengagement from public debate fuels this phenomenon.