Free Essay Sample on Evolutionary Mismatch

The purpose of this article is to further develop on the Netflix documentary, The Social Dilemma, by adding what Geher believes the be the main factor in our societies social problem, “evolutionary mismatch” (Geher, 2021). To summarize Geher’s explanation of evolutionary mismatch, it is a timeline misalignment of the human brain’s evolution and the current social interactions our brain must manage every day. Due to this mismatch, our minds have not evolved to correctly handle remote communication, which accounts for a high percentage of our communication in this age. Geher adds that, “a landslide of social psychological research over the years has found that when people have their identities downplayed, they are, across a broad range of contexts, more likely to engage in anti-social (i.e., bad, mean, nasty) behavior toward others” (Geher, 2021). The resulting product of evolutionary mismatch has been the start of cyberbullying, increased depression in young adults across the globe, and addiction to the online world. 

Further developing on the reason behind the effects of evolutionary mismatch, our minds are not equipped to deal with online social interaction causing many to believe that their actions have little to no consequence. Cyberbullying and harassment is rampant today, as seen on numerous social media platforms especially ones like Twitter that’s purpose is to promote discourse. It can also be seen in the online gaming community which is heavily dominated by impressionable young men who can be seen screaming at players, saying racial slurs, and threatening others with no thought of the repercussions. The problem, especially for young adults and teens, is that these actions in the online world are being transmitted and accepted in real world social interactions. As it becomes ingrained into face-to-face interactions, conflict and polarization will only increase around the world.

One assumption the Geher made in the article was that he assumed that face to face communication during ancient times, the point our brains were correctly suited for, was generally more peaceful than our current remote communications. In a list of how social media mismatches with our minds Geher states, “People have the capacity for cruel and hurtful behavior in communicating with others that is simply unprecedented” (Geher, 2021). Even though this statement may be true, there is an assumption implied that cruel and hurtful behavior wasn’t at as high of a capacity during our ancestor’s time. However, we know that this isn’t the case. Humanity’s ancestors were incredibly violent and have been even through more civilized eras. The only way that we as a species have been able to counteract our violent nature, is by establishing a civilized culture with structure and rules. But when it comes to remote interactions, our minds don’t apply the social boundaries we are used to in real life resulting in more primitive behavior. I believe that Geher’s statement of the behavior we are seeing online being unprecedented, false, because we have seen it countless times before in human history. 

Geher isn’t trying to exclude or marginalize any specific group in the article, but he isn’t marking on one of the largest alternative possibilities to his evolutionary mismatch theory; that is focused on one primary group: teens. Teens are one of the most prevalent and active groups on social media. They are the ones who introduced cyberbullying onto social media platforms and created the online culture that we have today. However, their actions online aren’t all that different from their day-to-day school life. Bullying, exclusion, social hierarchies, and every other social negative there is you can find in most high schools across the world. It is no surprise  that these kids are translating their daily real-world experience to the online format. Although, this does not fully contradict Geher’s theory. As people grow older, they become more acclimated to the societal norms, and while you may be able to find things like bullying and exclusion in the adult world, they are dulled down compared to teen social interactions. The adults are still however, acting similarly to the teenagers on social media platforms especially places like Facebook. You can see the same patterns, and the same mindset of believing that you can’t be touched in the online world is still prevalent in the adults. 

My personal experiences do not affect my view of this article because I have never been an active member of social media throughout my tenure on the platforms; however, I have heard plenty of stories about people disrupting their lives because of choices made on it. One of the more recent stories includes my friend in high school who was a year younger than me. He was in a social media group chat last year with some baseball friends and decided it would be funny to make some racist jokes, and someone saw that group and got him in trouble. Word eventually got to our high school, he was immediately asked to leave and is now attending school at another institution. Social media is taken extremely serious by institutions, corporations, and others like them because it can tarnish the reputation of the whole if one small part is acting up. Social media grants you so much power over your reputation and others that are connected to you. My friend, who is a very talented baseball player, might not be able to go to the college he wants to anymore because this story is out there. Schools and sports programs won’t take a chance on someone who has a bad reputation because they can easily move on to the next applicant. Every job that people apply for or any other type of organization that is taking a risk by absorbing a person’s reputation into their own is going to go through your social media profiles and make sure that they aren’t in any danger. If they catch anything on your social media, they will always use it as a reason to not get into a relationship. 

I agree with the claims being made by the article because evolutionary mismatch is the most important factor of why people act negatively on social media. In one study researchers found that, “social media use was negatively related to self-esteem, but only when their social network size was within an evolutionarily familiar level” (Lim, Lau, & Li, 2021), and they also found it was, “not related to self-esteem when people's social networks were at evolutionarily novel sizes” (Lim, Lau, & Li, 2021).  The negative relationship between self-esteem and social media network size means that as someone becomes more involved in social media their self-esteem decreases and vice versa. However, when a person is very active on social media, but is still present on the platforms, they are at little to no risk of decreases in their self-esteem. The reason for the negative correlation is evolutionary mismatch. As our connections reach similar amounts in social media as we have in real life, our minds are not able to process the social interactions correctly and people become vulnerable and impulsive. 

According to the evolutionary mismatch theory, humans only adapted to sustain a certain amount of relationships and social media goes far beyond that limit. To specify this limit, “Humans have evolved a neocortex size to maintain a network size of 150 individuals” (Ingram, 2021). The author also states that, “The average adult Facebook user has 338 “friends”; beyond people who they actually are friends within real life” (Ingram, 2021). The human brain is not compatible with so many relationships at once. It cannot organize, converse, and operate inside of social boundaries because of the large number of interactions that happen daily. Polarization, depression, and cyberbullying are going to continue to run rampant on the internet because humans are unfortunately, psychologically inept due to the evolutionary mismatch.