The age of technology is among us and we are in deep shit folks! What if I told you Facebook was slowly and methodically programming your mind? He said, "It was unintentional." Would you believe him or would you call bullshit? Let's take a look at the former Vice President for User Growth at Facebook and see what he thinks.
In an interview, Chamath Palihapitiya, the former Vice President for User Growth over at Facebook condemned the social media giant, telling students at the Stanford Graduate School of Business that “we have created tools that are ripping apart the social fabric of how [our] society works. That is truly where we are.” Facebook is a giant platform for celebrities and athletes among other high profiled people. Chamath Palihapitiya said, “Bad actors can now manipulate large swaths of people to do anything you want. It’s a really, really bad state of affairs”
Explaining that our brains are being rewired for super-fast, short-term feedback, the former Facebook exec advised, “You don’t realize it, but you are being programmed. It was unintentional, but now you’ve got to decide how much you’re willing to give up—how much of your intellectual independence.” Sean Parker said, “it’s a social validation feedback loop, exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology.” Palihapitiya’s advice for what to do about it? He said, “It is a point in time when people need to hard brake from some of these tools and the things that you rely on." His solution is simple, stop using these tools!
Justin Rosenstein, who helped build the Facebook “like” button has said, “everyone is distracted all the time.” This refers to what the Guardian says is “a growing concern that as well as addicting users, technology is contributing toward a so called continuous partial attention severely limiting the ability for people to focus, and possibly lowering IQ.” A study done by the researchers from the University of Texas called “Brain Drain: The Mere Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity” concludes that the persistent presence of smartphones may come at a cognitive cost, stating that “the mere presence of one’s own smartphone may occupy limited-capacity cognitive resources, thereby leaving fewer resources available for other tasks and undercutting cognitive performance.
In short, Facebook is ruining our lives but is it really as bad as they claim? How many of you beautiful Steemians out there use Facebook? If you do, could you be able to leave Facebook alone completely? If not completely then maybe 25%, 50% or 100%? Let me know in the comments.