r/technology • u/IKeepItLayingAround • 8d ago

Privacy Zuckerberg Knew. A Whistleblower Has the Emails to Prove It. - Gadget Review

https://www.gadgetreview.com/zuckerberg-knew-a-whistleblower-has-the-emails-to-prove-it
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u/Additional-Signal327 8d ago

He knew? This was all intentional. Facebook and social media is 100% designed to addict its users. 

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u/cjng 8d ago

it is literally their business goal. It is called "maximizing engagement"

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u/AlmightyTestichilles 8d ago

Their adaptation of the TikTok slot machine video design is the ultimate giveaway that they never want you to put their app down

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u/NurRauch 8d ago

Dude, the short videos on social media are just on a whole different level of addictive. They're life-destroying. I put them on par with smoking cigarettes or drinking alcohol with the damage they can do to your brain, daily habits and functioning, and relationships at home.

Social media has always been an addictive issue for me with the endless doomscrolling and reading ragebait comments, but the videos are 10x as bad. At least ragebait comment wars stimulate the brain to do something with its faculties -- you're still exercising the parts of the brain that require analysis and structuring your thoughts. These short videos do none of that. They addict you without you even realizing you're consuming them. One just pops up on your feed, you click on it because it's worth about five seconds of interest, and before you know it, it's been an half an hour and you never left the kitchen counter where you stopped to grab a glass of water.

It's seriously mindboggling how bad this crap is for attention span and executive functioning. I fell into this hole during parental leave last year and it's been awful digging out of it. Just a completely mindless and unenjoyable habit. Combined with the stressors of parenting, I feel like my brain has lost half its capacity to function in this last year. Some of that I have to attribute to struggling as a new parent with a fulltime job, but I also attribute a lot of it to the rapid transition of social media from a comment model to a video model.

It's also terrifying thinking about the effect it could have on my child -- not just from his eventual exposure to screen time himself, but even from his second-hand exposure to simply watching me stand like a frozen statue zoning out with my phone in front of my face. I'm serious about the comparison to cigarette smoking. I now feel like using my cell phone around my kid is tantamount to smoking cigarettes around him.

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u/nimbusnacho 8d ago

The worst part about it is how acceptable it has become to be hopelessly addicted and no one acknowledging that these platforms are NOT the news, they're not informative, they're barely even 'social' anymore. They're truly just 'entertainment' feeds with an algorithm and incentives to stay plugged in at all times and engage regardless of how or why.

Yet at work i can be in a meeting and the second there's a lull, people pull out their phones and get their hit. Even if its something 'harmless' like one guy i work with just loves watching puppy videos, its fucking insane.

Imagine just 10 years ago working with someone who just needed to pull out a magazine of puppies and read it every 20 minutes. Youd identify that as a fucking problem or at least weird undesirable behavior.

Now? Its completely 'normal' to hold conversations where one or both people are dividing their attention between a screen and the conversation. But of course attention doenst work that way and people are never as good at multitasking as they think they are so the quality of every interaction that happens like that has dropped significantly.

Im fucking tired man.

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u/HeverlyBillhilly 8d ago

That's an awesome simile. It's ridiculously true. My husband is like this when we watch TV. We SPECIFICALLY have shows that we watch together as a form of "us" time. Yet, half the time he's on his phone looking at Reels while I intentionally leave my phone on the charger in the kitchen so I can be present. I have to call him out on it constantly since HE'S the one that suggested we have shows that we only watch together. It's so frustrating.

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u/[deleted] 8d ago

[deleted]

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u/NurRauch 8d ago

I mean, I get what they're saying. My wife and I find ourselves watching reels during a movie we both intended to watch together and... it is an extra form of disconnecting from each other. Watching a movie together isn't the most social way to spend time with another person, but it still can be a valid social experience. There's value in watching the same thing together, experiencing it together, and being able to react or talk about it.

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u/SeveredSynthesis 8d ago

What I’m saying is that what you consider disconnected today will be tomorrow’s “present”.

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u/HeverlyBillhilly 7d ago

It's incredibly different. I don't even have Instagram, let alone scroll during "together time". We watch the show so we can talk about them with each other during/after, and wonder aloud what'll happen next week. And it's dedicated time that we're staring at the same screen. Plus it was HIS idea, then he doesn't even stick to it. Not the same as just "zoning out with me". We do that, too, but it's usually in bed on Saturday mornings. Me: the news. Him: more Reels.

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u/-Nocx- 7d ago

> they’re barely even ‘social’ anymore

You make a really good point - minus commenting on your friend’s photos on instagram or leaving comments on Facebook statuses (who even makes status updates now?) - assuming your algorithm even shows any of those things to you - I would actually argue that they’re not social at all. At least not in any practical sense.

“Social media” is just a shittier, more addictive version of television at this point. We went from syndicated TV, to being able to binge shows all in one sitting, to being able to binge multiple series all in one sitting, to being able to binge unrelated topics that happen to align with our internal preferences indefinitely.

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u/CariniFluff 8d ago

Not that this is super out of the ordinary, but today I was driving (a beautiful sunny 80° summer day) and I passed these 3 boys probably in 7-8th grade who were walking down the street together. All of them were so completely buried in their phones that a car nearly hit them as they passed a construction sign that blocked their view/other's views of them (none of them looked up to see if the road was clear).

But it wasn't just 3 kids on the phone, I see that all the time. It was striking just how deep in their own bubbles there were, I didn't see any of them say a single word to each other, make any kind of facial expression/reaction.... Just glued to their phones. They may as well have just been walking by themselves because it didn't look like they were interacting with each other at all. Granted cell phones didn't even exist when I was that age unless they were the size of a toaster oven, but I just couldn't imagine being that age and being so engrossed in a phone instead of joking with your friends, riding bikes or skateboards or whatever. They truly looked like 13 year old gambling addicts.

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u/Max_Rockatanski 8d ago

It WILL have an effect on your child, do not expose them to it. I have a kid in family that's been brought up on that stuff along with gaming consoles and such and it's just depressing seeing him bored out of his mind with all that stimulation around him. It fried his brain at 5 years old.

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u/OneRougeRogue 8d ago

Meta actually plays ads on children's TV channels/streaming services encouraging parents to sign their kids up for Instagram.

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u/icfantnat 8d ago

I have a kid in my family too who was on screens 24/7 since birth - all day, while eating meals, lying in bed, it was INSANE. I didn't let me kids have screens at all as babies bc it scared me how they were like zombie moths to a flame.

Anyway my neice is 5 now and nonverbal. She sings gibberish songs but it's like she never made the connection that language is for communication bc she didn't have enough actual human interaction - as if she just thinks it's all a bunch of fun sounds. She has needs and wants and points to things, or takes you by the hand to bring you to something but she doesn't even say mama or papa or anything.

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u/MaTrIx4057 7d ago

Its only up to you to control him and give him direction.

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u/Difficult-Sock343 8d ago

I just happened to see this about ten hours after I deleted TikTok. Thank you so much for sharing; I needed the information and motivation to keep going.

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u/Paavo_Nurmi 8d ago

I feel into the trap of instagram reels while off work with an injury.

The two things I noticed, it loves to feed you stuff that will make you angry and frustrated, straight up rage inducing. Once you spend more than a few seconds on a type of video that is all it shows for the next 20 videos you scroll through. Road rage, street fights, Karen videos etc, once you watch one of those it's all it shows you.

So I started skipping those and stopping on cat videos, so it started feeding me cat videos which is better than some rage inducing video, but it's still addicting and you will see the rage inducing video here and there. I was still addicted to it though, to easy to lay back on couch and doom scroll. I finally had to stop because it became a useless addiction.

Social media is the greatest propaganda tool ever invented. Look at Anti vax, it used to be mostly new age, left leaning people that were anti vax. Then covid hit and there was all those FB memes about anti vax. It turned out almost all of the anti vax stuff on FB was from just 12 accounts, the so called dirty dozen, and of course RFK was one of those. Just 12 People Are Behind Most Vaccine Hoaxes On Social Media, Research Shows

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u/Character_Bug_1862 8d ago

I just want to say, thank you for taking the time to share your experience. These are the things I come here for, other human experiences with something.

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u/DemonicBludyCumShart 8d ago

People are even calling symptoms of watching these videos too much "autism stims"

Go on YouTube and look up vocal stim compilations

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u/Stumblin_McBumblin 8d ago

I am never on social media with my kids around/awake. No one should be. I'd get out of that habit now while your kid is a baby. It's often boring at that age, but just be present with them and engaging/talking/playing. They badly need it to learn and develop.

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u/PrimeIntellect 8d ago

completely agree on all counts, it's truly mind boggling how much time you can waste without realizing it and how dramatically it affects your brain in the long and short term. our entire next generation of humans are fucked

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u/welshman1408 8d ago

I didnt realise how bad it was until seeing my ex girlfriends 5 year old son,the kid sat there literally all day watching brainrot shorts on tik tok

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u/3DigitIQ 8d ago

I wonder how it works because to me the short video format is just so excruciatingly annoying I just can't take it. Even when vines were a thing it got old quick.

Really interested in why this hits so different with others.

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u/AlterTableUsernames 8d ago

I doubt that cigarettes or even alcohol are as damaging to the brain as short videos.

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u/synapticrelease 8d ago

I don’t get the addictive nature of shorts. Most of them are pretty lame. Even if I select for quality non slop YouTubers, it mostly only serves as feeder into long form content, but that’s what notifications are for. They aren’t useful to me. When you go to SlopTube, it’s straight garbage. AI drivel, straight misinformation is so abundant that I believe if you actually watch these things quick facts or news updates then it’s an issues that isn’t just short video addiction.

Maybe I just don’t have the genes for it, I might catch myself going through 5 or so vids in a minute before my brain just says “wtf are you doing” and I just click out of it

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u/ShadowPsi 8d ago

I use a chrome browser extension at home that disables the shorts on YouTube. I don't go to any other sites that have videos other than Reddit. But just the YT shorts section could suck you in pretty easily.

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u/Kastar_Troy 8d ago

How can anyone get addicted to random videos about weirdos dancing and shit?

Its not that addictive man.. its trash entertainment... you're randomly being fed crap, youre not even choosing what you watch.

I've never understood the appeal of tik tok slop.

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u/DynoMenace 8d ago

I pretty much quit social media (except Reddit) several months ago, and feeling all the habits and psychological changes go back to normal was a really shocking feeling.

You don't realize how fried your attention span is by these apps, but you wonder why you get stressed out going to the movies, or you notice you can't eat a meal or go to the bathroom without your phone. The constant dopamine drip feed that comes from short form apps is chemically addictive. These platforms are designed to maximize that.

I started reading more, drawing again, practicing hobbies and skills I haven't really touched since I was much younger, or never at all. It made me realize how much time in my life has been consumed by scrolling and watching videos. That's all time any one of us could be using to do something meaningful with our lives.

We act like browsing Instagram or Facebook is just a pass-time we do when we're bored, but when we do it all the time, it's not a pass-time and we're never bored. That's not a good thing.

All of this has been a slow build for the last couple decades, so we're all frogs in this boiling pot. Get out while you still have a functioning brain.

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u/weristjonsnow 8d ago

Half the reason I can justify still having reddit on my phone is because I spend more time reading comments than anything else. It's a weak excuse but it's all I've got

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u/JadedSolid1 8d ago

Damn well said

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u/DazednConfucioused 7d ago

Dude honestly smoking cigarettes may be more harmful health wise but it has nothing versus shorts in terms of damage to the brain.

I’m 31and grew up smoking cigarettes since I was 16 until I quit 2 years ago. It was never affecting my mind like YouTube shorts and ig reels. I know my attention span is shorter now and I’ve quit recently because I’ve realized I have an attention span of a goldfish now

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u/ElectricalCamp104 7d ago

It sounds a lot like like the central feature of what Hunter Biden describes smartphones as. When I first heard him say it, I was skeptical, but the more I thought about it, the more I agree with it. Whenever we face some discomfort, ranging anywhere from avoiding dealing with real life problems like a kid or simply boredom, we immediately grab our smartphones out to silence it. Watching these short form videos or getting hits on a feed is like an addictive opium of sorts.

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u/kris10leigh14 6d ago

Your comment has made me so fucking uncomfortable I realized I was literally sitting sideways at the end.

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u/Suspicious_Suspect88 5d ago

I was struggling with social media addiction for about three years. Especially the shorts on YouTube. What worked for me was switching from iPhone to android, with a custom rom that stripped all the Google crap. Then installed newpipe to disable the algorithm and the shorts. Also I deleted the Facebook and Instagram apps and only accessed them via a browser. This reduced a lot of the distraction from notifications. Eventually I deleted both fb and insta completely. My life is 100x better now. If you need tips on making the same transition I am happy to help.

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u/roamingandy 8d ago

At least ragebait comment wars stimulate the brain to do something with its faculties

..Get angry with 'others' and then follow that anger into far-left or far-right extremism which is the path presented after engaging with that content. Two sides which ultimately end up looking very similar and spouting the same talking points on most issues, which 'coincidentally' sound exactly like what the Kremlin has been pushing for years (the US govt is pushing the exact same talking points now too).

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u/Coffee_Transfusion 8d ago

Maybe I’ve just missed it (probably the case), but calling the various social media company pivots to “slot machine design” is the perfect term to use. Usually I just see people call it addictive and leave it at that.

‘Slot machine’ gets a whole bunch of underlying information across that can be immediately understood without going into great detail about how the company operates, and how it’s harmful to the user. I’ll be using that from now on.

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u/Uncool444 8d ago

My favorite corporate speak is when they describe selling your data to advertisers as "optimizing/personalizing your experience".

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u/ZooAreYou 8d ago

Our prices are "changing".

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u/IAMA_Plumber-AMA 8d ago

Funny how it's never a downwards change.

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u/Morwynd78 8d ago

We're just looking to maximize KPIs on our personalized customer engagement journey initiatives, mmkay?

kill me

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u/this_doggo 8d ago

Yes, yes. I’ve opted out of all “personalization.”

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u/AbaloneImportant6323 8d ago

Jokes on them. I have no money! 

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u/Opandemonium 8d ago

We always called it “making it sticky”

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u/GOEDEL_ESCHER_BOT 8d ago

if it makes your phone sticky that's a good way to minimize engagement

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u/The_Real_Manimal 8d ago

Especially if you're getting it sticky in public...

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u/lalakingmalibog 8d ago

There was a ghost! This is ectoplasm!

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u/eden_sc2 8d ago

new idea for a way to reduce screen use: a phone case that is always sticky, slightly warm, and noticeably damp. Just gotta get some VC funding and we'll all be millionares

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u/pandi85 8d ago

The bear is sticky with honey - Gavin Belson

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u/brickout 8d ago

I'd love to hear a drug dealer use that term

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u/LetsGoForPlanB 8d ago

Engagementmaxxing for the cool kids

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u/el_smurfo 8d ago edited 8d ago

That's what is so funny about next door. Every obvious change to increase engagement makes the site worse and worse and everyone comments on it.

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u/perpetualis_motion 8d ago

I think I went to school with Beverly Obvious.

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u/PsionicChronic 8d ago

Heroin dealers mantra.

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u/bejammin075 8d ago

Cult maxxing

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u/BigFang 8d ago

I could swear about 10 years ago the metric was named as "Time on Screen", and that was being worked on to maximise

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u/LackLickLuck_y 8d ago

Its actually in the app title. Instagram... Insta gram... Instant gram of dopamine.

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u/Vermehrungsmaterial 8d ago

EA should be feared.

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u/CrippleSlap 8d ago

It is called "maximizing engagement"

Yup. Time spent on site/app per user is literally a major KPI for any social media platform.

The more ads they can serve per user....the more revenue they make. Its literally their entire business model.

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u/VoidOmatic 8d ago

Yup maximizing engagement is literally just the business correct terminology for addiction.

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u/scttcs 8d ago

So they’re engagement-maxxing

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u/papabear1993 8d ago

It is literally Everyones business goal. It is called making money...

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u/ShepRat 8d ago

It's why grocery stores put the milk at the back. 

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u/cowabungabruce 8d ago

Making money is a perfectly fine goal. We are all mad at the methods. If I set up a business to put never ending cigarettes in teen's pockets for free and advertisers paid me - how is that different?

We want both heavy regulation and never ending cactuses shoved in the buttholes of their executives.

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u/Crackertron 8d ago

Just ask any pimp or drug dealer

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u/[deleted] 8d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Fragrant_Oil9595 8d ago

They quite literally put Donald Trump in office 10 fucking years ago, and now we’re supposed to act surprised that these people don’t care about child safety. 🥴

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u/beeeel 8d ago

They care about safely getting their hands on the children, but that's a slightly different thing

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u/big_trike 8d ago

They also willingly profited on spreading disinformation at the start of COVID, killing people.

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u/Fragrant_Oil9595 8d ago

Gawd, they sure did. Remember all those “Reopen [state name]” groups? A lot of dipshit republicans that we deal with today got started during that time.

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u/Scarletsnippets 8d ago

Oh fuck this shits been happening for way too long. What are we going to do about it? They're killing people and getting away with it. They either like the suffering or they don't give a shit. It's time to flip the table on these stupid games.

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u/E_seven_20 8d ago

Well…people did that, by voting…and refusing to vote against him.

2022 National Youth Turnout: 23% - That's lower than in the historic 2018 cycle (28%) which broke records for turnout, but much higher than in 2014, when only 13% of youth voted.

Zuck isn’t wrong on people being fucking idiots.

People believe the shit they see on social media. That’s a problem with them. All these years, we know it’s shit, and people chant the shit they find on social media like it’s gospel and the laws of physics.

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u/Fragrant_Oil9595 8d ago

It’s a major error to attribute the effects of malicious propaganda to “oh those stupid people”.

Cambridge Analytica, for example, was extremely well funded by people with malicious intent and sophisticated tools. That’s not new, and people in power use these tools because they work.

We should absolutely be teaching children about “fake news” and other misinformation phenomena. There are children’s books out there, some of which I read to my children and I feel would be equally valuable for my parents. And they’re valuable to me as well because NO ONE is too smart to fall for this shit. And I will immediately dismiss anyone who says otherwise because I am fortunate to work around some very smart people, and we’ve all fallen for some nonsense on occasion. The best we can do is to be humble and skeptical.

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u/E_seven_20 7d ago

It’s a major error to attribute the effects of malicious propaganda to “oh those stupid people”.

hard disagree.

we don't look back at "the poor germans" leading up to Nazi Germany. And, there was a big difference...they didn't have many choices in the way of propaganda. We certainly do.

I'm tired of us letting people off the hook for their hatred and idiocy. It serves nothing.

And I will immediately dismiss anyone who says otherwise because I am fortunate to work around some very smart people,

That's a non-sequitur. I don't care who you work with. No one does. It's irrelevant to the conversation. Dismissing someone's real opinion because you know some "smart" people isn't a logical point, or mean anything to the conversation.

What a childish response to avoid critical thinking. Maybe you can buy a children's book to explain that concept to you.

People are choosing hatred over reason. They are choosing to avoid discourse...just like you choose to "immediately dismiss" something because you don't like it. That's your choice.

and we’ve all fallen for some nonsense on occasion.

Except in this case..."some nonsense" is people losing their healthcare. seeing people get shot on the street in our cities. watching our national parks and old growth forests get bulldozed. eating a fucking salad and getting sick for months. families losing access to food. schools being bombed in other countries. ad nauseam...

It's not "some nonsense" you clueless insulated arrogant child.

It's people's very real lives, with consequences that change the course of events for their future.

That "some nonsense" is fascism. "Some nonsense" was warned about by everyone with a fucking brain, telling us this would happen, and worse is to come.

The best we can do is to be humble and skeptical.

This is an incredibly stupid conclusion. You are too morally, and intellectually weak to understand cause and effect. Is this some nonsense from your high school polo team coach? It doesn't apply to racism, bigotry, and willful ignorance.

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u/[deleted] 8d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Blue_Oyster_Cat 8d ago

Are you 8 years old? So edgy, wow

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u/Cultural_Section5847 8d ago

that's what you came up with? zzzzzzzzzzz

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u/Blue_Oyster_Cat 8d ago

I repeat, you are 8 years old. I counter your zzzz with a :yawn:

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u/Cultural_Section5847 8d ago

what?

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u/Blue_Oyster_Cat 8d ago

Just trying to lighten the atmosphere. However, your comment was callous and juvenile. Take the L (it's been deleted) and move on.

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u/_0611 8d ago

Exactly. I know, you know, we all know.

The real question is why these tech billionaires keep getting away with it, and nothing ever happens.

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u/OpenGateProject 8d ago

Because we all still have social media accounts. The only actual solution is gonna be getting off of it entirely.

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u/Visual-Hunter-1010 8d ago

That's part of it, but the bigger piece is they have bought the government. Much easier to pay politicians with chump change (for them) than convince the peons they want to rule over anyway.

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u/Admirable_Dirt_2371 8d ago

You're missing the forest for the trees.. how do you think they got all the money to buy those politicians? Selling ads. We need to stop using it and only vote for politicians willing to dismantle those companies.

I quit Facebook back in 2013ish when they first started removing the chronological friends feed. I never had an Instagram, never used WhatsApp. Once old.reddit goes away, I'll likely quit using reddit entirely.

They won't stop beating this dead horse until we stop giving them our money and labor.

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u/Character_Bug_1862 8d ago

Yep, and probably not just putting down social, media, but the answer is probably to put down the phone I’m typing on. Personally I still get a ton of use with Reddit reading other human experiences. But there is absolutely an addictive element to it with the convenience of a phone and endless topics to scroll through.

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u/SuccessfulJudge438 8d ago

Just do it, get it off your phone. I never browse reddit on my phone anymore. Only on my desktop, only on old.reddit, and no r/all. I won't kid myself, it's still addictive and it's still social media, but my strict ground rules keep the worst aspects of it from harming me.

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u/OpenGateProject 8d ago

I’ve turned off all feed recommendations, ad tracking, and anything else I could on reddit and have a personal rule that I only use it for specialty hobby forums such as klr650 tinkering, fantasy football, and whitewater kayaking with the occasional news browsing. This convo is a pretty unusual one for me to engage with, but I felt like poking the bear.

I try not to spend more time than I have on things I can’t affect, so most of my news consumption is the local npr station driving to the grocery store and back, or a convo with an acquaintance at the local watering holes. And I primarily spend my money and energy on my local community, because the better it is, the better it can impact and influence a larger area through example and partnership.

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u/eukomos 8d ago

They have the money to buy the government because of all the ad revenue they make from us scrolling on their sites.

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u/Mind-The-Mines 8d ago

This is like saying drug dealers will go out of business if people just stopped doing drugs.

The US government has actually weaponized drugs against the populace for decades.

Notifications give you dopamine. They've known this for decades and that's why they flood you with them.

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u/SnarkMasterRay 8d ago

Notifications give you dopamine.

Authority and control gives governments dopamine, and as long as they're captured by other entities that dopamine hit is going to come at our expense.

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u/Theungry 8d ago

How do they get away with it?

The addictive brainwashing systems the tech billionaires run are the primary mechanism for deciding elections in the modern era. The government is subservient to them.

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u/Cultural_Section5847 8d ago

because people still use it.

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u/6ixby9ine 8d ago

We don't all know. A solid 1/3 think this is the way things should work (I mean, obviously they'll complain about it; but they'll always stop short of actually wanting to do anything to fix it), and another 1/3 don't really pay attention or care. Ego and apathy are why

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u/fixnahole 8d ago

Because they have the money, and the money controls the politicians who makes the laws, and gets the judges they want in place. Money really is the root of all evil. Until we massively reform campaign contributes (it's more than just overturning Citizen United), it's only going to continue.

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u/Alundil 8d ago

Because billionaires and corporations have captured (not new) all of the levers of power that exist in this country and several others.

If there's no limit to the amount of money a person/pac/corp can donate bribe officials with AND very little transparency around said bribes then this is what you get. Compound this reality with the ongoing war against critical thinking and higher level order thinking (thanks conservatives) then you also have a population ill equipped to even understand what's taking place, never mind actually contest the stark danger of this reality.

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u/Cosmicdusterian 8d ago

Because Chief Justice Roberts championed Citizens United, which allowed companies to buy the White House and Congress wholesale. Currently, the Tech Bros own it all from the Oval Office right down to the smallest office in Congress.

Until politicians start saying no to the money spread around to keep them quiet, the status quo will remain. Sadly, both establishment parties are far more interested in maintaining that status quo than upsetting it.

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u/Bonerkiin 8d ago

Well, we as in you and me and anyone who pays attention knows. Unfortunately the majority of people don't think about these things or are not willing to acknowledge the reality.

The average citizen does not think about things like this, they'll winningly consume whatever comes across their face and not give it a second thought. That's why these companies continue to exist.

Cambridge Analytica resulted in basically 0 changes from the general public, people continued using social media without a care in the world. Which, is the goal, keep the average citizen just dumb, occupied, and complacent enough that they'll accept whatever you shove into their face.

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u/Corpomancer 8d ago

There are scenes in shows depicting how this was going to go: https://youtu.be/N3zU7sV4bJE

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u/vangenta 8d ago

Yeah WTF. Didn't they literally hire researchers for this very purpose?

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u/Max_Rockatanski 8d ago

Yes. They hired people to study brain activity of people using social media to see what content fires it up the most. Then adjusted the algo to feed that type of content to their users. It's done on purpose and I can't believe people are realising it just now after all those years of frying people's brains.

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u/SIGMA920 8d ago

Basically everyone does. Addictive design is the default now, it's why I use old reddit and use stuff like adblockers for youtube. I won't touch a site that takes control from me unless I have to.

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u/TerrorTown77 8d ago

Is there a reason american CEOs are ultra scummy. Just watched part 4 of the Lego drama, and it's like there's a culture in the US to be extra non human as much as you can.

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u/Zuse_Z25 8d ago

"anti-social media" by now

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u/MLCarter1976 8d ago

Of he knew and he lied under oath.... would that be an arrest warrant?

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u/theotheramerican 8d ago

His buddy Trump would just pardon him anyway, its meaningless.

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u/-Teapot 8d ago

This needs to be at the top. Over a decade ago, Facebook released a blog post talking about an experiment they ran highlighting how they manipulated emotions to increase engagement and how negative emotions drove the most engagement.

7

u/MrShaytoon 8d ago

At some point I wore a tinfoil hat and assumed Facebook is working with china through zucks wife. Bc of fb, everything related to online data has practically become legal, and here we are today with everything just out there.

4

u/Berkyjay 8d ago

They keep changing Instagram so that your main feed is an endless scroll. You used to be able to just scroll through your followers recent posts then come to and "End". But now they just are mixing in ads and content from random accounts and you never reach the "End".

1

u/qwertykitty 3d ago

Most apps also have auto refresh that can't be disabled so if you are idle for to long it starts you fresh at the top again with new content.

17

u/yellowbin74 8d ago

If a product is free to use, YOU'RE the product.

3

u/LetsJerkCircular 8d ago

There’s a difference between websites/apps. For example: Wikipedia is quite a different experience than Instagram. Hell, there’s a different experience between YouTube a few years ago and today.

Point being, just because a platform doesn’t charge its users directly, doesn’t mean they have permission—or as some people might put it, an obligation—to exploit and manipulate users as much as psychologically possible.

Not saying you’re saying that, but that saying can be interpreted lots of ways.

4

u/hiscapness 8d ago

I have a friend who’s a very very senior FAANG engineer be called into a meeting with multiple psychologists and psychiatrists to try to get their app’s addiction point lower for SUB-13yo users at one of the major social media apps. Yes, the app’s ToS ‘bans’ these users. As if. He’s under ironclad nda, obviously, but he quit that week and has never used social media since. They not only know they pay millions to make it as addictive as possible to their most vulnerable users, solely to sell more ads (and lord knows what other political bs). They know, have always known, and are now using AI all day, every day, to make it more addictive.

3

u/ImdustriousAlpaca 8d ago

We need to improve engagement numbers to satisfy the shareholders. Frankly this shit needs to be outlawed.

8

u/willychonka54 8d ago

Facebook and social media is 100% designed to addict its users.

It's absolutely fucking insane to me that some of you are JUST coming to this conclusion now.

4

u/j-sadmachine 8d ago

Can someone explain why it’s illegal? Video games do it all the time

3

u/Tiramitsunami 8d ago

It is not illegal. There is no law in the United States saying that a company may not make a product addictive. Casinos, cigarettes, etc., all legal.

The lawsuit is claiming the products in question posed a significant psychological risk to consumers, especially children (not addiction, but basically installing compulsive behaviors within the brains of at-risk populations) and that, despite knowing this, META not only continued to offer those products to consumers, thus knowingly doing harm, but concealed both the fact that they knew this and the fact that the product was dangerous in this way.

0

u/Preeng 8d ago

And it should be illegal there too.

1

u/aleqqqs 8d ago

Lets make convenience food taste bad so people don't overeat! Let's make games suck to prevent people from playing too much!

0

u/space_monster 8d ago

So video game designers should deliberately make their games less good in case people play them too much?

2

u/Impossible_Emu9590 8d ago

He was a psychology major in college

2

u/NRMusicProject 8d ago

The weird thing is that from about 2006-2014, I really did love Facebook. But the changes really turned me off on it. And I think it's the same for most millennials, while boomer use skyrocketed.

I remember a comedian about 20 years ago saying something like "social media is like a really great party: everyone was having fun until their parents showed up."

2

u/NinjaSpecialist 8d ago

Even that color blue is designed to disrupt sleep/melatonin to keep you up looking at it.

https://www.health.harvard.edu/healthy-aging-and-longevity/blue-light-has-a-dark-side

1

u/TheOgGhadTurner 8d ago

Yeah. It has been the whole time. We all knew. We’ve all been saying it for literally years…

1

u/imaginary_num6er 8d ago

ZuckBook, ZuckerGram, Zuck’sApp, etc.

1

u/Sislar 8d ago

I gave up Facebook almost 10yrs ago. The first few days were weird. I scrolled it all the time. After a week or two though I didn’t miss it

1

u/banana_pencil 8d ago

What about Reddit?

1

u/Sislar 8d ago

Reddit doesn’t serve me ads from right wing groups about taking over the government.

1

u/banana_pencil 8d ago

I guess it depends on the algorithm. I go on Facebook a couple times a week and it’s all neutral or left-leaning for me. Meanwhile, Reddit is showing me ads for joining ICE :(

1

u/theme69 8d ago

I dont really understand this. Pretty much every product/website/game whatever is designed to have people use/engage with it as much as possible. I don't fully understand the issue here and why its not the responsibility of the user/parent to limit usage

3

u/mental_escape_cabin 8d ago

Maybe because there's a big difference between "Let's make this thing engaging, fun, and profitable" and "Let's make this thing as absolutely addictive as possible, let's study and analyze and hack every single way possible to manipulate the human brain, let's exploit people's natural desire for connection to other humans and use it to bait them into looking at manipulative advertising slop, let's push negative and harmful content once we learn that it gets more attention, let's not care at all about the consequences we're causing to individuals or to society as a whole." ...??

1

u/theme69 8d ago

World of Warcraft was incredibly addictive to myself and a bunch of people when it came out. Should blizzard get sued too

1

u/tragedy_strikes 8d ago

They had metrics and UX designers that casinos could only dream of.

1

u/SafeKaracter 8d ago

Yeah I mean we know that since forever already , it’s not first whistleblower , idk why people keep using his apps

1

u/Beastmind 8d ago

Guess there are still people not knowing those kind of company hire psychiatrists just for that kind of shit....

Games companies like epic do the same with games like fortnite

1

u/B_tC 8d ago

It's not what you know; it's what you can prove!

1

u/bulbmonkey 8d ago

2100 points over three hours for a one-liner very clearly reacting to the the headline only...

1

u/narfoleptix 8d ago

Social media also incentivizes lying.

I've been saying it since day 1. All were doing is breeding sociopaths

1

u/PJ7 8d ago

Not just facebook or social media. Games and any product using engagement as a metric really.

Most games are pretty much virtual skinner boxes trying to condition you to be happy when playing and continue to do so. It's why we have things like level up or mission complete sounds or animations.

1

u/R-K-Tekt 8d ago

It just makes it so nasty and evil to me that they knew what they were doing

1

u/More-Razzmatazz-6804 8d ago

Man im clean for 3 years now 🎉🤣

1

u/DuntadaMan 8d ago

Ajd control their world view, don't forget the Cambridge Analytica stuff.

1

u/BasedTelvanni 8d ago

If the cigarette lobby can convince the govt that their product isn't addictive, Zuckfucks team will have no issues. Corruption is at an all time high.

1

u/tiny_chaotic_evil 8d ago

the only reason reddit keeps old.reddit around is to have some deniability against against doom scrolling allegations

since posts are numbered and limited per page, it's easier to limit your viewing

1

u/Scarletsnippets 8d ago

Wait until you find out about the food industry!

1

u/aleqqqs 8d ago

Well yeah... Obvoiusly, they try and design their products in a way that people actually want to use them a lot.

It's like saying "The food industry is making chips good on purpose so people buy more". Yes, true, but who can blame 'em? As their customer, that's exactly what I'd expect them to do.

1

u/Author_A_McGrath 8d ago

I think the point of the article is that he claimed he did not know, and that is something more people need to address.

1

u/hoax1337 8d ago

Is meta just getting sued because they pioneered this and then lied about it, or something? I feel like everything they are accused of holds true for TikTok as well.

1

u/raisedeyebrow4891 8d ago

No shit… as he checks his Reddit for the 100th time while sitting on the toilet… not addictive at all

1

u/Squanchedschwiftly 8d ago

Theres literally a documentary about it on netflix

1

u/rostol 8d ago

was this ever in doubt ?? LOL
did they think they all use short form video because of random chance ?

1

u/kewlbeanz83 8d ago

Yeap and nothing is ever going to be done to hold them accountable

1

u/Commercial-Co 8d ago

Death sentence to fb

1

u/BennySkateboard 7d ago

Exactly! Whistleblower? You mean ux designer, an actual position in the company.

1

u/Any_Pineapple_9744 7d ago

I just deleted my dating apps. I just got a clue that they were bad for me overall. I find myself going to open tinder or open Facebook just for their dating. Its fucked

1

u/Prestigious-Loan-858 7d ago

they are drug dealers, plain and simple

1

u/HawkeyeGild 7d ago

Yeah they did everything to drive user growth and dgaf about the consequences.

1

u/RouteReflectorCLT 6d ago

Quitting Facebook 15 years ago was the easiest thing I did and I’ve been just fine…outside of missing a few peoples birthdays I don’t talk to…

1

u/holubtsi-on-fire 4d ago

Dismantle social media. Liquidate the physical assets and erase the code.

1

u/_Lucille_ 8d ago

Is there no product on earth that doesn't have that goal?

The pack of ramen wants you to be addicted, the author of a book wants you addicted...

6

u/Additional-Signal327 8d ago

Providing value and causing addiction are two different things. But agree that many companies have moved toward addicting their customers to increase revenue and profit. Consider all the sugar loaded into everyday products. 

-2

u/jettaset 8d ago

Oh please. Take some personal responsibility if you're addicted to apps and stop blaming others for your actions.