Therefore, as parents we really want to set time limits for how long our children should spend on social media.
In addition, the advertising business models and the algorithms that the social media companies use are one of the primary reasons that America has become so divided as a country.
The algorithms are designed by the social media companies to push a continual stream of articles to each social media user that match what the user has previously read.
Likewise, the advertising business models generate more revenue by attracting users to advertisements on the articles that the users are interested in reading, based on the algorithms that are designed to get users to look at the articles that match the users’ viewpoints, so that the users will read more articles and gain more advertising revenue for the social media companies.
Therefore, it is in the financial interests of the social media companies to keep sending articles to users with content that matches what the users already think is accurate and true, because the more articles the users read then the higher the amount of revenue brought in by the social media companies.
However, what is good for the finances of the social media companies is also what is causing the division of America, because social media users are only reading articles with content that supports one side of every issue.
As a result of only seeing media content that supports their own personal viewpoints, then social media users become very firm in their belief of these one-sided viewpoints because they do not ever read any of the facts that support different viewpoints.
In fact, they usually do not even know there are other viewpoints besides their own.
As a result, a primary reason that America is so divided is because the social media companies have caused a situation where half of America only reads articles that support their viewpoints, and the other half of America only reads articles that support the opposite viewpoints, with very few people reading both viewpoints that allow them to fully understand the issues.
A second primary reason that America is being divided by social media is because human beings, at our core, have a deep desire to be part of a group that we feel accepted by.
When these two primary reasons combine, then human beings have a desire to be included as an accepted member in the only group of people they read about in the one-sided string of articles they are sent by the social media algorithms.
In fact, many social media users are not even aware that there are any other groups of people to choose from, or between, because they are only aware of the group of people who on social media share the same viewpoints as they do.
We have designed a solution for this social media dilemma through the implementation and enforcement of several rules that we would require of social media companies.
These are the Rules we would implement with social media companies:
1) We will require every political, contentious, or debatable issue covered in an article to have a set of survey questions included at the end of the article for the reader to answer. These questions will be carefully worded so that the results of these surveys will provide the percentage of readers who hold the various viewpoints associated with each political, contentious, or debatable issue.
A different survey will not have to be written for every individual article because the same survey will be used for all articles that are written about the same topic.
2) We will require every political, contentious, or debatable issue covered in an article to have a percentage table included at the top of the article that shows the percentage of users who agree with each of the different viewpoints about an issue. These percentages for each different viewpoint will be computed from the answers and results of the article surveys.
3) Along with this percentage table of different viewpoints that is show with every article, we will require that a list be included of several articles from varying media sources that support each of the different viewpoints that are shown in the percentage table.
By social media users seeing these percentage tables that are based on surveys, then they will be able to see and know that there are varying opinions about every issue, which will result in social media users not being so extreme in their views.
In addition, the social media users will be motivated to look at the lists of articles from other media sources that are shown with the percentage tables and support different viewpoints.
As a result, social media users will often choose to read some of the articles that support other people’s viewpoints, which will allow them to gain a better understanding of why some people think differently than they do.
In our current social media situation, social media users do not even know where to go to look for these articles that support other people’s viewpoints because any contradicting articles are often not shown or even blocked from the internet search engine that a person uses.
However, with these percentage tables, and with the lists of articles that are included with the tables, then social media users will realize that their own personal viewpoints are not the only reasonable viewpoints available, and they will also get the opportunity to read articles and facts that support other people’s viewpoints.
The result of this will be the elimination of most of the division between our American People that we currently have in Our Country.
Although this law, at first glance, might appear to add a large amount of work for the social media companies, conducting these surveys on the various issues will actually increase social media user involvement by keeping readers on their social media platforms longer.
Social media users will stay longer on the companies’ social media platforms, and therefore, social media companies will greatly profit from these surveys, from the tables showing the percentages of all the different viewpoints, and from the lists of articles provided.
Having these lists of articles that support other viewpoints will result in users reading more articles about the subject, and spending more time on the social media site, which will again increase the social media companies’ profits.
In addition, Our Rules for social media companies will not require as much work for the social media companies as it would initially appear because there are not actually that many different issues and topics that a table and lists would need to be produced for since most political articles cover similar topics.
As a result, there are not that many tables and lists that would need to be produced because most tables and lists can be used repeatedly with all the articles that are written about that same topic.
We would also implement these additional Rules for social media companies:
4) The social media companies would need to disclose the algorithms that they use, and all algorithms would need to be approved by a government department that oversees social media.
5) Social media companies would be required to have a software that eliminates bots and fake news influencers from their sites, because it is the bots and the fake news influencers that are often intentionally posting incorrect information in an unethical effort to try to divide Americans.
If they wanted to, social media companies could consider going to a subscription-based model as an option that would help with the removal of bots and fake news influencers because the subscription information gathered would be designed to keep bots and fake news influencers from being able to register.
6) Make adjustments to the Section 230 law that currently provides immunity to social media and internet companies when there is disinformation, hateful language, and false information on their sites.
These adjustments would not remove all immunity, but would make the social media and internet companies legally responsible if they are not making specific and required efforts to keep disinformation, hateful language, and false information off their sites.
In addition, Section 230 immunity would be entirely removed for social media and internet companies who have any algorithmically elevated content on their websites that includes disinformation, misinformation, hateful language, and false information. Making companies legally responsible for their algorithms would force companies to have fair and honest algorithms that are not intentionally pushing and promoting one side of an issue.
7) Our Constitution allows free speech, but that does not mean that social media algorithms should be allowed to amplify false or hateful free speech to millions of people.
Therefore, social media companies need to be legally responsible for algorithms that incorrectly amplify false and hateful posts and articles.
8) Social media companies need to make it more difficult, and a slower process, for social media users to do things like retweet posts, because when retweeting is too quick and easy then users are often retweeting posts before they have time to actually think about whether they agree with the post, or not. By making retweeting a slower and somewhat more difficult process, then users have more time to think about whether they agree with the post before they repost it to a large number of people.
9) Social media companies should not be allowed to have advertisers who target a certain group of people with their ads. A recent study found that there was a 75% reduction in fake news on Facebook when an advertising system was designed to stop advertisers pushing articles at a target group of people.
In conclusion, the internet and social media companies are amazing technological advancements that are very valuable and important to Americans and to people from all over the world.
However, since it is a newly created technology, then it was only after the internet and social media sites had been invented that people have had the opportunity to look at and evaluate how we can improve the rules for these social media sites so that we maximize their benefits, while also minimizing and eliminating the dangers and the disadvantages.
With the Rules we have put forward here, then social media companies will be able to grow from strength to strength, without the current negativities associated with them, which will allow social media companies to provide huge advantages and benefits for everyone.
The people who created and own these social media sites are outstanding Americans who have the deep desire to help America, and who have the deep desire to help Our American people as much as they possibly can.
Implementing these Rules will be a Win-Win solution for Everyone because these Rules will still allow social media companies to achieve their goals and social media owners to fulfill their dreams, while also allowing our Wonderful American People to understand all the different viewpoints so that we can eliminate our polarization and come together to communicate with each other in a Respectful, Loving, Thoughtful, and Understanding way.
