Facebook’s ex-Prez went off script

Ex-President of Facebook and tech billionaire Sean Parker was at an Axios event. At the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. Talking about cancer innovation and efforts to advance it. His foundation, the Parker Institute of Cancer Immunotherapy was the main context of it. But then the Napster found went off script to discuss the adversaries caused by social media. That kind of talk was a bit weird from the person who was the President of Facebook recently. He says, “God only knows what it’s doing to our children’s brains.” and he’s kind of sorry for it, “I don’t know if I really understood the consequences”.

Is this really a big problem?

Facebook has been around for a while, currently boasting over a billion users. While doing so it has also created some problems that were non-existent before the age of social media. Parker seems genuinely concerned about the effect as went saying, “It literally changes your relationship with society, with each other. It probably interferes with productivity in weird ways.” Facebook’s goal was always to monopolize user’s attention. We all know at least one friend who spends way too much time on social media.

The basic thought process behind it to put it in his words is, “When Facebook was getting going, I had these people who would come up to me and they would say, ‘I’m not on social media.’ And I would say, ‘We’ll get you eventually’”. That’s one terrifying line you expect to hear from ISIS or your bank or detectives. Not from the place where you post what you are up to. 

Kind of it is. But not for Facebook.

The problems he described are a reason for growing concern in silicon valley. Apps have a playbook of moves to make you stick to them for as long as possible. By exploiting your psychological vulnerabilities. Because of the simple fact, the longer you stay the more money the make.

Former Facebook president Sean Parker hits the company for its effect on society: “God only knows what it’s doing to our children’s brains” pic.twitter.com/8GI0DykJGB

— Axios (@axios) November 9, 2017

Look, Facebook didn’t start this movement. Not even for social media, the social validation is part of our society for a long time. But undeniably, Facebook was one of the first to ask the question, “How do we consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible?”It’s basically a social validation feedback loop. Each time you get a new like or a comment on your new post, you get a dopamine hit. Your brain’s reward system see likes and comments as a way to get those rewards. That makes you contribute to the social media again and again.

The most disturbing part about this is what Parker said at the event, “The inventors, creators – it’s me, it’s Mark, it’s Kevin Systorm at Instagram, it’s all of these people – understood this consciously” he said. “And we did it anyway”.

So, what’s the solution to this? Giving up doesn’t look like an option, but there is something we can do. Understand how this exploits you to make money, then it’s on you if you are fine with it go on. Otherwise, you will be with quite a few reasons to minimize your use of the social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. I’m not saying that you should totally cut-off social media from your lives. Cause we both know, that’s not possible. But we can balance it with real life, that’ll minimize the effects it’s having on our generation. What do you think about this? Comment down below.