Well, I think one of the real dangers of social media, and its algorithms, is a similar danger to society that gambling represents.
Gambling payouts are precisely timed to dopamine chemistry in the typical human brain. They have tuned it to that level of fundamental biochemical reaction. That's something that is refined/tuned over decades of focused development.
Let's look at sugar sugar everywhere. Foodstuff companies are doing the SAME THING. Decades of refining the precise amount of sugar (which is absolutely addictive) they can slide into foods to expand people's excessive consumption. Decades of precise biochemical studies, A/B studies, etc.
Marketing has for decades tried to refine certain social psychology with varying degrees of effectiveness to prompt irrational consumption of whatever they are pushing. They've been effective, but I'm can't say that the marketing industry has ever found a "silver bullet" of biochemistry.
But I do think that social media has formulated a social psychology addiction silver bullet. And I think this one may be more pernicious than sugar or gambling or opium. This one can be used for propaganda, not just reliable production of subservient consumer/addicts.
Well, I think one of the real dangers of social media, and its algorithms, is a similar danger to society that gambling represents.
Gambling payouts are precisely timed to dopamine chemistry in the typical human brain. They have tuned it to that level of fundamental biochemical reaction. That's something that is refined/tuned over decades of focused development.
Let's look at sugar sugar everywhere. Foodstuff companies are doing the SAME THING. Decades of refining the precise amount of sugar (which is absolutely addictive) they can slide into foods to expand people's excessive consumption. Decades of precise biochemical studies, A/B studies, etc.
Marketing has for decades tried to refine certain social psychology with varying degrees of effectiveness to prompt irrational consumption of whatever they are pushing. They've been effective, but I'm can't say that the marketing industry has ever found a "silver bullet" of biochemistry.
But I do think that social media has formulated a social psychology addiction silver bullet. And I think this one may be more pernicious than sugar or gambling or opium. This one can be used for propaganda, not just reliable production of subservient consumer/addicts.