False economy What’s in it for me? Understand what makes the

Arguments 5 and 6: Social media pit people 
against each other and destroy our capacity 
for empathy.
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.
Context matters. It not only determines the 
consequences of a given utterance; it’s also 
what makes that utterance meaningful. Shouting 
“Fire!” could also signal the discharge of firearms 
or express your opinion that a particular song is 
hot.
We’re constantly adjusting what we say and how 
we say it based on context. For instance, you 
wouldn’t speak to a group of students in the 
same tone, or with the same forthrightness, that 
you might adopt with your partner during a 
romantic dinner.
BUMMER destroys context – or, rather, it puts 
people in its own context. The context of 
BUMMER is all about numbers that measure 
what you’ve given to the BUMMER machine. 
How many likes have your posts gotten? How 
many followers do you have? Such metrics 
come to represent who you are on BUMMER 
platforms.
Because of this, people will do almost anything 
to improve their numbers, including taking things 
others have said and putting them in absurd 
contexts. And remember: many of these 
“people” are not actually people at all.
This not only makes what you say online 
meaningless; it also makes culture shallow.
BUMMER focuses people on getting more likes, 
more views and more followers, and this trend 
discourages risk-taking. In order to survive in 
this environment, many journalists have had to 
sacrifice quality on the altar of number 
optimization, making their work almost as 
meaningless as any other bit of online clickbait.
Lack of context also erodes empathy. After all, if 
you can’t understand another person, you can’t 
feel for them, either.
This is where component C – Cramming content 
down people’s throats – comes in. Because of 
algorithmic customization, everyone’s personal 
feed on BUMMER platforms looks different. 
We’re each being fed content that’s been 
tailored just for us. This, in turn, makes it 
impossible to understand others, who have seen 
different content.
Imagine sitting in a room full of people on their 
phones. If someone suddenly gets mad or sad, 
there’s no way to know why. Sure, you can 

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assume they saw or read something upsetting, 
but you can’t know what that thing was.
Online, it’s like this all the time. We seem crazy 
to each other because, with customized feeds, 
BUMMER deprives us of a single common 
experience.