Social media apps are counterfeits. Their sophisticated designs understand and capitalize on our deeper needs without actually meeting those needs. As tech designers have admitted, Facebook and other social media sites were created with a profound awareness of our tendency to become addicted. Though social media use is far less stigmatized than other forms of addiction, what’s true of one addiction is true across the board: addictions promise us everything, but in the end, only manipulate, disappoint, and leave us wanting more.
As tech designers have admitted, Facebook and other social media sites were created with a profound awareness of our tendency to become addicted.
According to current statistics, adults spend between ninety minutes and four hours per day on social media or playing computer games. If you’re spending that much time every day online, according to author Sherry Turkle, “there’s got to be someplace that you’re not. And that someplace you’re not is often with your friends and family.” As she stated in a recent TED Talk, “We’re letting [social media] take us in directions that we don’t want to go. These little devices not only change what we do, but who we are.”
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