Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now summary

Imagine you’re a child, and whenever you say please, you’re instantly given a piece of candy. Unsurprisingly, this would prompt you to say please quite often.

Now imagine that, sometimes, saying please fails to result in the desired sweet. Given this occasional failure, do you think you’d start saying please more or less?

House paint used to contain lead, but, eventually, the evidence of the dangers of lead became impossible to ignore. However, this fact didn’t cause a mass outcry against people painting their houses. Rather, after a period of protest and petitioning, lead-based paints became nonstandard.

We should approach social media in a similar way. We don’t need to do away with the internet or smartphones or online socialization; that would be like banning the painting of houses instead of banning a certain kind of house paint.

Some say you should choose your romantic partner based on how you act when you’re with that person. Well, this nugget of wisdom isn’t only applicable to partnerships – it is also true of technology.

Social media can encourage asshole behavior. Insulting posts, condescending comments, trolling – they’re all very common on social media. Even back in the late 1970s, when social media was pretty primitive, the author noticed that he acted like more of an asshole when he used it.

Online, as in life, our choices are often guided by others. Need a good doctor? You’ll probably conduct a Google search and compare various reviews. Trying to find a funny video to watch? You’ll probably select one with millions of views.

But here’s the thing. That doctor popped up high in your search results, and that video has tons of views, for the same reason: fake people.

Fire!

The effects of shouting this alarming monosyllable in a crowded building could be disastrous. It might trigger a stampede, and people might get crushed. However, if you yell it upon noticing that flames are pouring from an occupied vehicle’s engine, you might save the person inside.

Spending time in a world without context or empathy is a definite recipe for unhappiness. But BUMMER companies are draining your happiness in other ways, too.

Social media platforms inevitably establish unreasonably high standards for physical beauty and social standing. After all, online, it’s not just your neighbors or your colleagues that you’ll be comparing yourself to; it’s everyone on that social media platform. And let’s face it – you’re unlikely to be the most gorgeous or accomplished individual out there.

You’ve probably heard the talk: soon, many jobs will become automated, and the people who worked those jobs will become redundant.

Just take translators, for instance. Today, rather than employing a professional translator, people often use free translation software such as Google Translate. Though such software is often referred to as “intelligent,” it actually relies entirely on information that Google takes from users.

Citizens of democratic countries tend to believe in progress. They don’t think, for instance, that the country they live in will cease to be democratic; rather, they see democracy as the foundation for a series of other positive developments.

But BUMMER is changing this too. Here’s how:

It’s accurate to compare using BUMMER services to being in a cage, and to liken BUMMER companies to behavioral scientists who are constantly analyzing and manipulating your behavior. However, this comparison fails to capture the magnitude of the BUMMER phenomenon.

After all, it’s not just a few people being manipulated in a few isolated studies – it’s society as a whole.