I was just reading a short article about Meta being taken to court for the addictive nature of its platforms, with a maximum penalty around its market capitalisation amount. Of course, even if all the maximums were applied for each case, it would be in the courts for many, many years anyway. But while I wouldn't shed a tear if all the centralised social platforms disappeared, I can't help but marvel at the gall of the governments, who have been supporting these very same businesses for a couple decades already.
It was clear very early on that there were going to be problems, with the first recognisable signs of social media addiction being all the way back in 2011, as smartphones mainstreamed. Once people could carry their computer screen around with them and have access to the internet all of the time in their palm, the trajectory was clear. And, even back then, the sticky mechanisms were in place. For instance, infinite scroll is one of the points of complaints against Meta, but it was actually mainstreamed by Microsoft for image search - to remove friction so browsing is easier. Even the first creator later criticised his invention because it removed natural stopping cues and fuels compulsive habits.
Ah... hindsight.
But for a couple decades now, the social platforms have hired teams of behavioural economists and interface designers to team up and find ways to hack our brains through their designs, like a drug enacting on a specific receptor. There are hundreds and hundreds of little triggers that offer dopamine micro-dosing opportunities, and it was clear that it was having an impact. Not only were there extreme addicts, but the attention span of people has been dropping, they invented "fidget gadgets" so that kids could do something when they were away from their phone and well, despite all the social "food" people have been eating, society itself has fallen off a cliff.
The evidence has been clear for a long time.
Because regardless of social media specifically, addiction has been pretty well understood for many more decades, and the understanding is developing all of the time. This means that the warning signs of early addiction were ignored by the very people who are now suing the companies for causing addiction. Not only that, the same governments have been profiting from the companies, not only directly through corporate tax, but indirectly through all of the knock-on implications that put money in their coffers.
Should they have known better?
Yes!
Because we have lived with alcohol, nicotine, and drug addictions for hundreds of years now, and the problem with repetitive over-consumption of anything (junk food addictions too) will lead to addiction. It isn't hard to predict, because we have multiple clear models that all show the exact same thing.
Nothing is addictive in moderation.
But, social media has been kept "unmoderated" despite it being highly curated from both a design and a content perspective that unabashedly has been target to keep users using. They are called "users" for a reason, right?
The platforms are the dealers.
But what that means is that the governments are the crooked cops being paid-off in order to keep the business churning, introducing more and more users into the marketplace, and finding increasing ways to keep them coming back for more. For instance, I was appalled a few years ago when schools were forcing children to be in Facebook groups in order to get updated on school content and homework. And many parents encouraged this.
Didn't adults see the signs of addiction?
Yes. Yes they did. So, so many of my friends for many years have complained about various behavioural aspects of their children citing addiction to screens as the reason for argument, and bad grades, and lack of sleep and everything else - but they did nothing about it. Instead, what did they do? They kept on encouraging it when it was convenient, because the same parents were addicts also. Rather than spending time with their kids, it was far easier to put them in front of a screen playing a game, watching clips, or chatting with strangers, than being a parent aiming to raise a healthy child.
Dad, I'm bored.
Here son, have some crystal meth.
We have failed as a society to protect our children from the dangers of addiction, because we ourselves are addicts. We are all addicts, of something. Even if it isn't social media, the same mechanisms come into play across the broad spectrum of human activity. It is just that the ones that can be heavily monetized are going to get the most effort put into their development and distribution. And when it comes to digital addiction, it doesn't require smuggling across borders (unless in North Korea), as it is sanctioned by the governments. There are no warning labels showing the effects of addiction, no pictures of lonely 30-somethings who are unable to hold an effective conversation. No jail time for the companies, politicians, teachers and parents who have dealt addictive substances to children.
Facebook has approximately 3.07 to 3.12 billion monthly active users (MAUs) and roughly 2.11 to 2.17 billion daily active users (DAUs) worldwide
Instagram has approximately 3 billion monthly active users worldwide, with over 500 million people using the app every single day
Twitter (now rebranded as X) has approximately 550 to 600 million monthly active users and around 240 to 250 million daily active users worldwide
TikTok has approximately 1.9 billion to 2.2 billion global monthly active users. Exact daily active user counts are not officially published by ByteDance, but analysts estimate roughly 875 million to 950 million people use the app daily
WhatsApp has over 3.3 billion monthly active users globally. Around 2.3 billion of these users log in and use the app every single day
YouTube has approximately 2.58 billion to 2.7 billion monthly active users worldwide. Over 122 million people log in daily.
WeChat has over 1.43 billion total monthly active users globally, with the vast majority based in mainland China where the domestic version is known as Weixin
The problem is, everyone.
Taraz
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