Facebook under the microscope
Former employees accuse it of causing untold damage worldwide
Acliche
of science-fiction is the crazed professor watching aghast as his creation terrorises mankind. These Frankenstein- style nightmares are now haunting former Facebook employees as the website grows bigger and more influential. What began as a useful way to keep in touch with friends and family is now so powerful it’s been accused of spreading hate, deciding elections and sowing division.
The latest former employee to express regret was Chamath Palihapitiya, who was vice-president for user growth before leaving in 2011. Talking in November at a Stanford Business School event, he said he felt “tremendous guilt” for helping to build “tools that are ripping apart the social fabric of how society works”.
His main concern is that Facebook has created a generation of social-media addicts constantly craving approval in the form of ‘likes’ and comments from other users. Palihapitiya said these ‘feedback loops’ trigger hits of dopamine - the reward chemical released by the brain when we do something pleasurable. Even the creator of the ‘like’ button, Justin Rosenstein, admits that social media is as addictive as heroin, and weakens our ability to focus on tasks.
Palihapitiya said the casualties of this addiction are “civil discourse and cooperation”, as attentionseeking addicts poison Facebook with “misinformation and mistruth”. He warns the problem is global, and goes much further than fake news: “It is eroding the core foundations of how people behave by and between each other”.
As an example, Palihapitiya cited how messages on Whatsapp (owned by Facebook) warning about child kidnappers in Jharkhand, India, led to an angry mob lynching seven people. Other former employees lament how Facebook creates ‘echo chambers’ of people with the same opinion, deepening social division.
Palihapitiya was echoing recent criticism of Facebook from Sean Parker, whose role as founding president of the site made him a billionaire. He said that from the start the site’s creators realised they were making something that exploited “a vulnerability in human psychology”, but went ahead regardless. Parker recalled that their main objective was to “consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible”
He added: “It literally changes your relationship with society, with each other. It probably interferes with productivity in weird ways. God only knows what it’s doing to our children’s brains”. Facebook’s effect on children also worries Palihapitiya, who said he doesn’t let his three kids use “that s***”.
Of course, if you’re not glued to Facebook every second, these views may seem hysterical. Facebook hinted as
much in response, saying that its responsibilities have grown since Palihapitiya left. It added that it has worked with “academics to understand the effects of our service on well-being”.
That sounds encouraging. But will Facebook learn the right lessons? Writing in December ( www.snipca. com/26609), two Facebook researchers investigated the “good” and “bad” effects of using the site, asking whether people “connect in meaningful ways online”. Their conclusion? The more you interact with people – by sharing posts and “reminiscing about past interactions” – the happier you are. Well, they would say that, wouldn’t they?
But maybe that’s being too cynical. Just before Christmas, Facebook added a ‘Snooze’ button ( www.snipca. com/26612), letting you block posts from specific people for 30 days. Is this Facebook’s first attempt to solve the problem of addiction? Perhaps. But its critics fear the damage done to society is irreversible.
God only knows what Facebook is doing to our children’s brains