COMMUNICATION AND MANIPULATION THROUGH SOCIAL NETWORKS
Remus RUNCAN
Introduction
Communication is the great gift that God gave to men and women, in order for them to enter into relationship with Him and with each other. One of the most wonderful experiences for Adam and Eve was to meet God and communicate with Him. They could hear God’s voice, and this experience served to bring the created being closer to the Creator.
Communication was also involved in the Fall of mankind. A dialogue with the serpent was no less than lethal for the first family. It is highly important who do we communicate with and how we do it. God does not manipulate anybody, but the devil has done it since the beginning, manipulation being one of his destruction weapons.
This paper has as a purpose to define the concepts of “communication” and “manipulation” in specialized literature and afterwards as a practical part, to discover some of the manipulation methods through which the owners of social networks make huge profits by taking advantage of the naivety of some people who believe that they receive for free information storage spaces on the servers of these social networks.
What Is Communication?
There are many definitions for the word “communication” out of which we will select only those which are relevant for this article.
Communication is “a process of emission of a message and its transmission in an encoded manner, by means of a channel, with the purpose of reaching a receiver.” (Vlăsceanu, 1993). From a contextual point-of-view, communication can be direct, “relying on the existence of a direct contact between a source and a receiver.” (Nadolu, 2007, 24); or indirect. The latter “infers that the interaction between the involved parts is mediated. In this case spatial proximity is substituted by: letters, telephone, radio, TV, Internet.” (Nadolu, 2007, 24).
At the beginning of the 19th century, communication was cumbersome, and took a lot of time, “nothing moved faster than a horse, …no letter, no information, no idea.” (Ambrose, 1996, 52). A few decades later, in the era of the telegraph, communication gained speed. In 1844 Samuel Morse succeeded in sending a message 60 kilometers away, almost instantaneously. With Radio and Television, communication became so much faster. But it was the Internet that revolutionized our entire understanding about long-distance communication; a communication that is fast, accessible, and efficient.
In the last decade a new kind of communication began to dominate and even replace the traditional way in which people interact. Much of the communication between humans has moved on social networks.
Depending on the nature of the message, communication can be verbal, para-verbal, and non-verbal. 55% of the message is conveyed in a non-verbal manner (gestures, mimics, body posture etc.); 38% through the quality of the voice (accents, punctuation, rhythm, tone, expression); only 7% is conveyed through content, through words. (Cameron, 2005, 11).
Facebook was launched on 4th February 2004. With it communication and socialization, for many young people, moved into the virtual space. Although, Facebook encourages its users to accept Friend Requests only from those whom they know personally, the facts say a different story.
For my PhD research I am using the Facebook account of a company which has a name that can easily be mistaken for that of a woman. I sent Friend Requests to many friends and acquaintances who approved it, thinking that I’m a lady with a real identity.
On the internet, communication is based mostly on those 7%, in which you have to perform incredibly well in order to get your true message across to others and at the same time fulfill within yourself the strong desire for socialization.
The question which we want to answer is if this kind of communication is real and acceptable for the 7.2 million Romanians with Facebook accounts (http://www.facebrands.ro/demografice.html) – without taking into consideration other social networks launched in the last couple of years.
It is quite hard to find an answer because dependence on a certain type of communication can hinder you from seeing whether that type of communication is indeed the best or it is just a surrogate that does nothing but keep you busy most of the time; and when you think you are engaging in genuine enriching communication, it actually isolates you and turns you into a loner.
In his book, Serge Tisseron says that in this new world “the one who is far away becomes a close one, and the close one becomes a stranger.” (Tisseron, 2011, 9).
What Is Manipulation?
Manipulation is “the act of convincing a social actor (person, group, community) to think and act in a way that is compatible with the interests of the initiator, and not with its own interests, by intentionally distorting the truth, giving the illusion of freedom of thought and action.” (coord. Zamfir, Vlăsceanu, Dicționar de sociologie, 1998, 332).
Those who control social network websites have found a clever way to manipulate over 2 billion men and women, who together have over 5.7 billion different accounts (http://incomemagazine.ro/articole/adobe-a-publicat-lista-celor-mai-mari-retele-de-socializare-pe-internet). Many of them are logging in on a daily basis to post, to check what’s new, to play games, to watch or to Like ! what others are posting. There, of course, they will be exposed to ads for products and services that they do not necessarily need, but these ads have a great impact on their brains, their desires etc. Furthermore, their activity is being monitored, so that their interests might be known by companies who pay big money to have access to the user’s brain. Recently it was discovered that words which were written but not published on Facebook, are actually stored, which sounds almost like an attempt to mind-control.
Communication is becoming more and more persuasive and manipulative. This was anticipated by Ion Drăgan back in 1980 when he was talking about “an activity of informing and influencing, of shaping or changing of ideas, attitudes and behaviour.” (Drăgan, 1980, 310).
Manipulation on Facebook uses the information’s widest gate to the brain, the human eye. Our Lord Jesus Christ, in His Sermon on the Mount said that: “If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light.” (Matthew 6:22).
Is There Manipulation Or Just Communication On Social Networks?
The psychologist Abraham Maslow talks about eight levels of fundamental human needs. He starts from the bottom with physiological needs and climbs up towards the superior ones of belonging. After discussing level 1 physiological needs like: water, food, warmth, sleep; he moves on to discuss level 2 security needs like: protection, order, law, stability; and at the 3rd level he talks about belonging needs like: family, affection, relationships, affiliation. (Marslow, 1943).
We have a need to socialize, to be part of a community, to communicate, to be part of a family, we need affection.
Although Europe is an exception from this, the Earth’s population increases greatly every year, thus as a consequence the density of the population goes up as well. There is immigration from remote places towards crowded centers, and the economic development of many states happens very fast. But despite all these facts, the individual is drifting further and further away from his peers, becoming more and more isolated in his living space or office. In this context, his need for socialization is not met. Something from within himself screams for help. But many of his peers are too busy or too concerned with satisfying their own needs, so they cannot respond to a soul that desperately longs for meaningful social interaction.
If the needs at the inferior levels are met, then the foundation is laid for the superior ones to follow. If the need for socialization is not met, it will be impossible to find satisfaction at more superior levels like: esteem, respect, responsibility, reputation (level 4); self-knowledge, purpose (level 5); aesthetical needs: beauty, balance, shape (level 6); development, fulfillment, happiness (level 7); and transcendental needs, contribution, higher-purpose (level 8).
Considering the fact that all accounts are hosted on servers of incredible capacity, it is not unusual to ask ourselves what advantage have those who offer all this hosting space for free? Isn’t this just an attempt to manipulate by offering in exchange the possibility of communication with the other users in the network?
I asked 300 young people, from the Timiș county, about their reason for signing up for a Facebook account. 55.6% said that they did it because they want to communicate with friends, with relatives who live far away and with other users.
There is a kind of manipulation that makes the consumer think he or she receives a channel for communication, for socialization, when in fact he is manipulated, spied, sold to companies who want to sell products or services, or made to vote for a candidate who bought the right to enter the private space of the one who got a Facebook account “for free”. When someone is offering you something for free you should always ask yourself: What’s the hidden agenda here?, because quite probably there is one!
Communication is “a personal process that involves transfer of information” (Ludlow & Panton, 1992, 2). From this perspective, Facebook is a channel of communication, but one that has behind it strong means of manipulation of the clients who are under the impression that they’ve found a free virtual space. It can be compared with the “golden ring scam” (Breton, 2009, 32): The con artist is choosing a victim, then he bends down and picks-up a supposedly golden ring; he gives the ring to the victim, who out of greed is very likely to accept it and claim it as his/her own. After a while the manipulator says: “Hey, since I found your golden ring, can you give me 10 euros as a reward?”. The fool ends up with a 50 cents copper ring and 10 euros less in his wallet.
Manipulation method used by social networks
The number of ways in which manipulation happens on Facebook is large, and some of these ways are very subtle. For this paper I have chosen the main three:
- Manipulation through Games
Games are used as the bait to bring more users on social networks. Serge Tisseron when talking about video games said: “How can we understand the influence, if we don’t recognize first its seductive power?” (Tisseron, 2010, 13).
It was the beginning of the 2012 elections campaign and we were trying to bring more people to connect on Facebook with a candidate for the Romanian Senate. In our discussion sessions the PR specialist proposed: “we need to create small games, these will bring many people on the candidate’s page.” I pondered about this: games as bait to gain votes. In other words, does the end really justify the means? In a world in which results are the most important, that can be true, but not in a world of Christian values, where the truth doesn’t enslave but sets free. Jesus, quoted by the Apostle John in his Gospel in chapter 8 verse 32, said: “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
- Manipulation through Advertisement
In the same context of elections, I have found out that you can be promoted on other people’s pages if you pay. So, for a sum of money, Facebook will post (promote) on the page, without asking permission from the user. As a beneficiary of this paid service, you can reach your targets based on their age, interest, region, education etc.
- Manipulation through Likes
I’ve also found out that Likes can be bought in batches that vary in number from 1.000 to 10.000, depending on your budget. But these are virtual Likes. They raise the chances of getting real votes only by creating an aura of success around a candidate, an aura that many appreciate. Many virtual Friends, few real ones. The logic behind it is that where there is a crowd, more will gather. Quite similar with the super-market, stadium, or mega-church mentality.
Conclusions
Undoubtedly there is communication on social networks, but what are the related costs for the user, what does he or she actually get with the package? There is a type of manipulation which is hard to detect, and at the same time it is almost impossible to resist this trend. “Persuasion becomes manipulation not just if the intention is bad, but even if the influences through which the change takes place are not of the argumentative-rational kind, but press more on motivation or unconscious beliefs of the receptor.” (Stanciugelu, 2009, 194).
The hidden purpose of those who offer free space for communication on social networks is that man should stop asking himself questions or seek a spiritual meaning in life; that he or she should stop trying to find out why do they live on this Earth; that man should not try to penetrate the deep mysteries of the soul anymore.
The indirect purpose is the transformation of the masses into slaves of the system, docile and teachable individuals in the hands of those who have the power and the control, by possessing information about billions of people around the world. These people do not need to think too much, because there are others who tell them what they should eat, what to wear, where should they spend their holidays, who should they vote for, etc.
We must be watchful, so we won’t be manipulated, or at least not so easily.
