When was the last time you double checked the sources in a news story before sharing it, did a little research into the other side of an argument before joining in with trolling a celebrity on Twitter, or posted an Instagram story without checking every few minutes to see who had viewed it?
Can’t remember? Then you’ll probably agree with former Facebook executive Chamath Palihapitiy who says social media is tearing society apart.
The former vice president for user growth said he felt ‘tremendous guilt’ over his role in helping Facebook become the social media mammoth it is today.
Speaking to an audience at Stanford Graduate School of Business, he went on to explain how exactly he thinks sites like Facebook and others harm society; ‘The short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops we’ve created are destroying how society works. No civil discourse, no cooperation; misinformation, mistruth. And it’s not an American problem — this is not about Russians ads. This is a global problem.’
‘I think we have created tools that are ripping apart the social fabric of how society works,’ he added.
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He’s referring to the instant gratification we get when someone likes, retweets or shares our social media posts, the never-ending stream of content we can access on our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram feeds, and the fake news and false stories that get shared and regurgitated daily.
Palihapitiy also talked about the more sinister side of social media, that it gives predators access to victims and vulnerable people; ‘…bad actors can now manipulate large swathes of people to do anything you want. It’s just a really, really bad state of affairs.’
So bad that he doesn’t even let his children use Facebook, and tries to use it as little as possible himself.
You can watch the full interview below.
Palihapitiy is not the first ex-employee to criticise the company, The Verge reportsthat early investor Sean Parker has been a ‘conscientious objector’ to social media and former product manager Antonio Garcia-Martinez says Facebook actually lies about how much influence it has on people.
More recently Facebook has been criticised for a whole host of questionable behaviour, from allegedly listening to our conversations to banning women who hit back at male trolls, and enabling the spread of fake news.
Yet, Facebook still has over 2 billion monthly users, according to Tech Crunch, more than any other social media network. Palihapitiy suggests we take a ‘hard break’ from social media, and that sounds like a VERY good idea.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.