Same Song, Different Tune

Nathan Hall

Midland SDA Church

October 31, 2020

A few weeks ago, I was on Facebook. Now, let me stop and say that I don’t like Facebook. All I really want from Facebook is to see pictures of friends and family and keep up with what is going on in their lives. However, my feed, or my page, is usually filled with advertisements, political posts and lots of articles and videos that are just being reposted and shared. And besides all of the annoying aspects of Facebook, I just don’t have time for it.

So, as I was saying, I was on Facebook. Most likely, it was because I had a notification that my wife, Hilary, had posted pictures of our family, that I was checking, or I had just posted something for sale on Marketplace. During those precious few moments that I was on there, I noticed a post from an Adventist speaker that I follow, Ty Gibson. In his post, he said that he had just watched the scariest movie he had ever seen. It was called “The Social Dilemma” and he said that it was a documentary about how social media is “altering human consciousness to our utter demise.”

Now as I said, I don’t like Facebook. So, I was immediately interested. And within a few days, Hilary and I had watched the film. PAUSE Now, I’m not sure if I would call it scary. However, I would label it something like, disturbing and eye-opening. I would also say it is a must-watch for anyone who uses social media or the Internet.

This is not just some conspiracy theory movie that is based on unproven facts. No, this film features interviews from legitimate professionals that have worked at many of the popular social media and Internet companies, as well as professors from some of the nation’s top universities.

Now the film is about 90 minutes long, and does a good job of revealing to you the goals and driving force behind social media and other Internet sites. JOKINGLY As it turns out, the main goal of these Internet companies and social media websites is to make money. SMILE Now, I know what you’re thinking. And even though I may not know exactly how you’d say it, it goes something like this, “Duh!”

But really, think about it for a bit. How does a company, make money, on a free service? What are they being paid for? What is the product their providing? And who are their customers? Now, I’m going to go ahead and spoil it for you. You are not the customer. The advertising/marketing agencies are the customers. You are the product.

Now because most of you have probably not seen this documentary, and because it goes along with my sermon this morning, I would like to share with you quotes from some of the interviews that will help you to have a glimpse into how and why they do this.

I also need to mention that the remainder of the time I spend talking about the film, will be filled mostly with direct quotes from interviews in the film. I have mixed in a few comments of my own. However, since there are so many quotes, I will name a few of the people who said them, but I will not take the time to mention every single name for every single quote. I want to make sure that you get the point of the film and keep the sermon flowing smoothly.

There is a man named Jaron Lanier, who is an author and also one of the founders of virtual reality technology. He says that the product that these sites provide to advertisers is “the gradual, slight, imperceptible change in your own behavior and perception. Changing what you do, how you think, who you are. It’s a gradual change, it’s slight.” (About 14 minutes)

So how do they do this? What is it that they have, that they are able to provide to advertiser’s, that will result in a slight change in your behavior and perception? And why would advertiser’s pay for this service?

Dr. Shoshana Zuboff, who is also an author, and a professor at Harvard’s Business School said, “This is what every business has always dreamt of, to have a guarantee that if it places an ad, it will be successful. That’s their business (speaking of tech companies). They sell certainty. In order to sell certainty, you need great predictions. In order to have great predictions, you need a lot of data.” (About 15 minutes)

Tristan Harris, who is a former Design Ethicist at Google and also one of the main contributors to the documentary, says “People call this Surveillance Capitalism. Capitalism profiting off the infinite tracking of everywhere, everyone goes by large technology companies, whose business model is to make sure that advertisers are as successful as possible.”

“Everything you’re doing online is being watched, is being tracked, is being measured. Every single action you take is carefully monitored and recorded. Exactly what image you stop and look at, for how long you look at it.” (Jeff Seibert, Former Executive at Twitter)

“They know when people are lonely. They know when people are depressed. They know when people are looking at photos of their ex-romantic partners. They know what you’re doing late at night. They know the entire thing. (Tristan Harris) Whether you’re an introvert or an extrovert, what kind of neuroses you have, what your personality type is like.” (Justin Rosenstein, Former Engineer at Facebook)

Sandy Parakilas, who is a former Operations Manager at Facebook, says that “all of this data that we’re just pouring out all the time, is being fed into these huge computer systems that have almost no human supervision.”

So, what do they do with the data? Well, according to the film, they don’t sell the data (Aza Raskin, Former employee of Firefox and Mozilla Labs).

They use the data to “build models that predict our actions. And whoever has the best model wins.”

 “All the things we’ve ever done, all the clicks we’ve ever made, all the videos we’ve watched, all the Likes, that all gets brought back into building a better model. The model, once you have it, can predict the kinds of things that a person does.” So, the model, with the help of artificial intelligence, is constantly improving. The more information it collects, the better it gets. (Tristan Harris former Design Ethicist at Google)

“At a lot of these companies, there are three main goals.”

Engagement Goal – to drive up usage and keep people scrolling

Growth Goal – to keep people coming back and to have them invite friends, who invite more friends

Advertising Goal – which is to make as much money as possible from advertising while doing the other two things

“Each goal is powered by algorithms whose job is to figure out what to show you to keep those numbers going up.” An algorithm, is basically a formula or a computation, that is defined by very specific criteria. It includes a step-by-step process for these super computers to follow in order for them to accomplish these goals.

Now, it isn’t just a couple of websites that use this type of business model. It is all the major websites such as Google, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest, Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn.

Many of you know that I am a financial analyst. So, this type of data collection really strikes a chord with me. I deal with analyzing data and trends on a daily basis. However, the types and amounts of data that I work with are nowhere near what we’re talking about here. But the principle is still the same.

One of the major differences between what I do and what these tech companies do is that they take their data collection methods to a whole other level. They aren’t just satisfied with data collection and predicting behaviors. No! They actually want to influence and change.

Tristan Harris, who I mentioned before, went to Stanford University. At Stanford, they have what’s called the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab. Students who go through this program study how to take everything they know from psychology, about what persuades people and build that into technology. (About 23 minutes)

There are many people that work at these tech companies that have gone through this program. So, these companies come up with ideas of how to keep users engaged or how their users can be influenced and then they test these theories out in real time. They perform lots of little experiments to see how people will react to subliminal changes to the website. They use this information to create design features such as “Likes” and photo tagging. All of these design elements are used to play at you emotionally and to keep you engaged as long as possible.

“Studies have shown that we can affect real world behavior and emotions without ever affecting the user’s awareness.” (Dr. Shoshana Zuboff - about 28 minutes)

Another aspect of these algorithms, is that no one sees the exact same information. Even two friends who are close to each other, who have almost the same exact same set of friends will not see the same things because these computers calculate something different for each person. (About 55 minutes)

Rashida Richardson, who is an Adjunct Professor at the NYU School of Law, says “We all have a different set of facts. When that happens at scale, you are not even able to consume information that contradicts with that worldview that you’ve created. That means we’re not being objective constructive individuals.” When you see someone who doesn’t believe the same thing you do, you think “How can they be so dumb”? Don’t they know the truth? Haven’t they seen the same videos and articles that I’ve seen? And the answer is no. This type of situation leads to polarization, which is an increasing division in our society, where you have sharply contrasting groups or sets of opinions or beliefs.

Another problem with these algorithms is that they bias toward false information, not because the developers want them to, but because false information gets more attention and more clicks from users. This in-turn makes these companies more money and skews the algorithm so that it promotes falsehood more than the truth. There was a study done at MIT that showed that fake news on Twitter spreads 6 times faster than true news. That’s because the truth is boring. There are trillions of posts on these sites. Even the tech companies can’t know everything that is true and everything that is not. (About 1 hour 3 minutes)

Now, there is way more information in the film and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested to know more. I will just put out a disclaimer that there are some references to evolution as well as it contains some mild language that would be objectionable. However, I’m sure that most of you can to handle the content.

And as disturbing as all of this sounds, we should not be surprised. 

2 Timothy 3:13 But evil men and imposters will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.

Satan’s Methods

The main reason I wanted to tell you about the film and share with you some of these quotes is because I believe there is an underlying message that seems pretty obvious to me. It goes back to one of the quotes that I mentioned earlier. It is the quote by author Jaron Lanier that caught my attention the most. He says it is “the gradual, slight, imperceptible change in your own behavior and perception. Changing what you do, how you think, who you are. It’s a gradual change, it’s slight.” When I heard this quote, I immediately thought of the methods that Satan uses to deceive people. You see, these methods didn’t originate with the advertising industry or social media. These methods originated with Satan.

John 8:44 You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.

Satan is extremely smart and he knows just how to play on our weaknesses. Just like the algorithms on super computers, he knows more about our weaknesses than we even do. He knows that certain temptations work on us more than others do. He knows how to place us in situations where we are more likely to fail. He knows every trick in the book and he knows exactly how to use them against us. He makes things look attractive. He makes things seem harmless. He plants doubts in our heads. All of it with the goal of getting us to fall into sin.

These days, you hear the term “fake news” a lot. We are especially hearing this term more and more, the closer we get to election day. And no matter what political views you have, there seems to be a whole lot of misinformation out there.

Some have called this the “disinformation age”. And you know what, I’m inclined to agree with them. You don’t even know what’s true anymore or who to believe. Everything on the TV, the internet, the newspapers, the radio; it’s all biased. Everyone has their own agenda. No one is bipartisan. Everyone is looking out for themselves and they want to win. Win whatever the cost, as long as they gain personal power or wealth.

Whether it’s who to vote for, how to handle the coronavirus or how to deal with all of the civil unrest in our nation, it’s hard to know the truth.

And you know what, Satan is absolutely loving it right now. His whole goal is passing off a lie that is mixed with truth. Just like a counterfeiter knows you can’t pass off Monopoly money at a bank, he knows that his deceptions must be as close to the truth as possible in order for people to believe them.

And if all of this weren’t enough, he goes one step further. You see, he’s not just satisfied that he is able to get you to sin. No! That’s not good enough for him. What he really wants is for you to be separated from God. He knows that God will forgive any sinner who is truly repentant. So, he tries to preempt that by kicking you while you’re down. As soon as you sin, he makes you feel worse by telling you that God can’t forgive you because you are too bad of a sinner.

Hallmark Movies Are Predictable

Tomorrow is the first day of November, as well as the end of Daylight Savings Time. So, don’t forget to turn back your clocks tonight! SMILE And now that we are finally moving past Halloween, we will be ushering in the unofficial Christmas season. You know Thanksgiving seems to get passed over by retailers for some reason. It may be because there’s not much that they can sell to people. So really you go from Halloween with all of the candy and costumes, to Christmas with all of the ornaments, lights and gifts.

One of the things my family enjoys about this time of year is getting to watch all of the Hallmark movies. I’m sure you’re familiar with these movies. And they are all so similar, that they get to be pretty predictable. You know, the story about a girl, who is very successful, but has suffered a setback in her career, or needs to help out her family in a crisis (i.e. sick family member, family farm being sold, struggling business). Because of this situation, she comes home to the small town where she grew up and rekindles a past love with her high school sweetheart or meets a guy whose wife recently died leaving him a single parent to a cute little girl. During the movie, there is some kind of wedding or festival that the whole town is preparing for and by the end of the movie, they either get married or the couple is madly in love and you assume they will someday. Evelyn especially likes the movies that have weddings in them. Despite the cheesy acting and predictableness of the story lines, there’s a certain comfort that we get from knowing that the movie will be safe for our whole family to watch.

Satan’s Methods Are Also Predictable

Now I am going to go out on a limb here and say that I believe that Satan’s methods are as predictable as the next movie that Hallmark produces.

He started with the angels in Heaven. He sowed a spirit of dissatisfaction among many of the angels. To conceal his real motives, he worked secretly and appeared to maintain a reverence for God. He began to plant doubts in their heads by saying that angels should not be held to any laws, that they were incapable of sinning and that he, Lucifer, should deserve equal treatment with the Son.  While secretly seeking to promote rebellion and discontent, he caused it to appear that he was just trying to promote loyalty and preserve harmony and peace. PP 38.2 His deceptions were so subtle that they were spreading fast in the heavenly courts. PP 37.1 He took advantage of the trust that the angels had in him.

Revelation 12:9 So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

After he and his angels were thrown out of Heaven, where do you think he went next? Yup, you got it. He came to Earth. He wanted to spoil the perfect world that God had just created. God could’ve just destroyed Satan and his angels, but He didn’t want people to serve Him out of fear. He wanted the universe to see what Satan was really up to and let everyone choose for themselves. Now God did not leave Adam and Eve without warning. And He only allowed Satan to setup shop in only one small part of the garden. I like to imagine the location of the tree of knowledge of good and evil was somewhere they passed by every day. That way they had to choose daily to obey God’s command to stay away.

For a while, Adam and Eve obeyed God and stayed away. But one day while absorbed in what she was doing, Eve found herself alone. At first, she was afraid, but then she decided it would be okay and started walking around the garden alone. She suddenly found herself in front of the tree. Gazing up at the tree, she wondered why God didn’t want them to eat the fruit as it looked so beautiful. As she was thinking this, the serpent started talking to her, flattering her with his words. She let her guard down when her response should’ve been to run away. Instead of running away, she stayed to listen to him. Even though she hadn’t eaten the fruit yet, Satan already had her in his trap when she started talking to him. You see, Satan’s deceptions are so great that if we give him an inch, he will take a mile. He is the great enemy and is not flesh and blood like us. We do not stand a chance on our own against him. Eve knew the truth and sin had not yet entered her heart. God had warned her about an enemy and had told her to stay away from the tree, but Satan still got her. (Genesis 3:13 The serpent deceived me and I ate)

Ephesians 6:12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

There are two more Bible stories that I want to highlight for you. I am not going to go into too much detail on either one, but I do want to point out some similarities between the stories and how each man reacted differently when presented with temptation.

The first story is about King David. At this point in his life, he had already survived King Saul’s many attempts to kill him and for many years had been enjoying the ease and luxury that came with his position as king. One day he was on his rooftop overlooking the city, when he saw a woman bathing. Now any true gentleman would’ve looked away once he realized what he had seen. However, he lingered, he gazed. Just like Eve in the garden, he gave opportunity for temptation to take root in his heart. She was very beautiful and despite the fact that he had several wives already, he couldn’t control his desires for her. He could’ve saved himself and the nation of Israel much heartache if he would’ve looked away and gotten out of there as fast as possible.

The second story is about Joseph. Joseph was in a completely different situation than David. Joseph was sold as a slave by his brothers and had worked his way up to the head of Potiphar’s household. Joseph was a good-looking young man. And I’m sure that Potiphar’s wife was also very beautiful. However, in this story, she was the one that was chasing after him. More than once she had approached him and he had told her that he couldn’t go against God and his master, Potiphar. But one day, she caught him in the house alone with her. No one else was around and she grabbed him. He knew he was in trouble and he got out of there as fast as he could. He left in such a hurry that she was left holding a piece of his clothing.

Now, I believe this is exactly how we are to respond when presented with temptation or other deceptions that Satan may present to us. We are to run away. Don’t linger. Don’t gaze. Don’t let him have the opportunity to talk you into it.

1 Corinthians 10:12-13 Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. 13 No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.

There is a saying, “same song, different tune’.  Often songs that have the tune changed are ones that have classic songs with familiar lyrics such as hymns and Christmas songs. The lyrics are recognizable even without the original tune, so a musician is able to successfully change the tune and the listener can identify with the original song. Yes, time and time again, Satan uses the same approach. By mixing subtle deception with just the right amount of truth and pleasantness he gets people to let their guard down. So, really it is, the same song, but with a different tune.

We Are Like Sheep

God knows that as sinners, we are weak and unable to withstand Satan’s deceptions on our own. And that is why I believe the Bible refers to us so often, as sheep. Yes, just like sheep we get lost when we are not following our Shepherd. Sheep don’t intentionally get lost. All they have to do is to stop listening to their shepherd or get distracted by something they see.

Isaiah 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him (Jesus) the iniquity of us all.

John 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.

We are all following someone. Who is it? Do you know the voice of the Good Shepherd? Right now, as never before, it is imperative that we know the voice of our Shepherd. Keep your guard up. Keep a sharp eye. Do not let the enemy lead you astray. You have no excuses because there is nothing in this world that is worth letting go of the strength that is found in staying connected with the Lord.

Satan knows that he has no chance against God. He also knows that the only way he can take us down is if he can separate us from the Lord. That is why he works so hard to keep us busy, to discourage us, to plant doubts in our heads. Then, when we are vulnerable, Satan brings in the temptations. When it comes to temptation, there is no situation that is harmless.

Stay connected with God through prayer and Bible study. Learn what your weaknesses are and avoid those situations. Get rest and eat right so you can think clearly. Things are only going to get worse in this world. And it is only going to get harder to make that time every day.

2 Timothy 3:13-15 But evil men and imposters will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14 But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them. 15 and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

“The Social Dilemma” documentary presents real information to us that is mostly out of our control. We can’t stop these companies from collecting our data. However, there are a few things we can do to limit the control they have over us. We can limit our screen time and limit what we share online. We can turn off our notifications, which is one of the biggest ways they get us to stay engaged. I think the main point of the film is to educate people so they are aware of what is going on, so they can make informed decisions and what they’re willing to submit themselves to. No one expects you to stop using social media as there is a lot of good that has been accomplished through these platforms.

You know, there is another deception that is coming and has been predicted in the Bible. It will be Satan’s grand finale. He has been planning this for a long time and he wants to deceive as many people as possible. Now, I don’t know when it will be or what it will exactly look like. But as I mentioned earlier, I do believe that His methods will be the same as before. He is going to employ every power he has to deceive us. His deceptions will be subtle and they will be as close to the truth as possible while still being an out and out lie.

2 Thessalonians 2:9-12 The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs and lying wonders, 10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, 12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

The only way we will be able to avoid falling for the deception is if we have cultivated a love for the truth. Keep your eyes on God. Read His Word daily. Pray without ceasing. Cling to Him amidst the chaos. And above all, do not fear. Jesus has already defeated Satan at the cross, and there is absolutely no reason to fear Satan if we have our faith grounded in Jesus.

The Social Dilemma Cast

Tristan Harris (Google, Former Design Ethicist)

Jeff Seibert (Twitter, Former Executive)

Joe Toscano (Google, Former Experience Design Consultant)

Sandy Parakilas (Facebook, Former Operations Manager/Uber, Former Product Manager)

Guillaume Chaslot (YouTube, Former Engineer)

Lynn Fox (Apple, Former Director of Corporate PR/Google, Former Corporate Communications)

Aza Raskin (Firefox & Mozilla Labs, Former Employee)

Alex Roetter (Twitter, Former Senior VP of Engineering)

Tim Kendall (Facebook, Former Director of Monetization/Pinterest, Former President)

Justin Rosenstein (Facebook, Former Engineer/Google, Former Engineer)

Jaron Lanier (One of the founders of Virtual Reality/Computer Scientist)

Roger McNamee (Facebook, Early Investor)

Shoshana Zuboff (Harvard Business School, Professor Emeritus/Author, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism)

Anna Lembke (Stanford University, School of Medicine, Medical Director of Addiction Medicine)

Jonathan Haidt (NYU Stern School of Business, Social Psychologist)

Rashida Richardson (NYU School of Law, Adjunct Professor/A.I. Now Institute, Director of Policy Research)

Renee DiResta (Stanford Internet Observatory, Research Manager)