Social media is in the dock
Nomophobia (no mobile phobia) and other things. A novel take on tech that's just too big
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The Big Story:
Social media goes on trial in a landmark US lawsuit that accuses tech giants of designing addictive products possibly as harmful as cigarettes.
The California lawsuit features an anonymous 19-year-old who alleges that Meta and YouTube deliberately designed platforms addictive to children. Senior executives, including Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, may testify.
Another US state, New Mexico, has brought a case alleging Meta failed to protect children from sexually explicit material.
These two cases are the first of a wave of 40 lawsuits filed by state attorneys general across the US at a time many countries around the world are thinking of social media bans for children under 16.
Our first book notes social media’s addictive nature:
“Instagram, like so many other social media platforms, is bottomless. Facebook has an endless feed; Netflix automatically moves on to the next episode in a series; Tinder encourages users to keep swiping in search of a better option. Users benefit from these apps and websites, but also struggle to use them in moderation.”
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This Week’s Books:
A scholarly look at digital addiction.
What tech-imperialism might look like.
A bonus free-to-read piece:
Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked
By: Adam Alter
Publisher: Penguin
Year: 2018
Marketing professor Adam Alter took a long hard look at digital addiction and forced a brutal confrontation with reality.
Compulsive scrolling? Constantly checking emails and clicking on social media notifications?
You could be heading for behavioural addiction.
It’s very similar to substance addiction, says Alter. And even though addiction to technology “doesn’t involve directly introducing chemicals to your system” it can produce the same effects. It activates the same brain regions and is fuelled by some of the same basic human needs: social engagement and social support, mental stimulation and a sense of effectiveness.
There are some sobering stats from when the book was published. Back then, Alter notes, most people spent between one and four hours on their phones each day, which amounts to roughly 11 years over the average lifetime.
In 2000, Microsoft Canada found that the average attention span was 12 seconds. By 2013, it had shrunk to eight seconds. Even a goldfish can do better, with an average attention span of nine seconds.
This book asks some key questions: Why do tech company bosses stop their children from going on social media? Why do we increasingly suffer from nomophobia (no mobile phobia)? Why are we content with intrusive tech, which makes it harder to switch off?
Choice quotes:
Why are the world’s greatest public technocrats also its greatest private technophobes? Can you imagine the outcry if religious leaders refused to let their children practice religion?
…in ancient Rome, being addicted meant you had just been sentenced to slavery…This was the first use of the word addiction, but it evolved to describe any bond that was difficult to break.
The Every
By: Dave Eggers
Publisher: Vintage
Year: 2021
This is a mind-numbing take on big tech’s reach. The Every is a sequel to The Circle, Dave Eggers’ celebrated previous novel.
The Circle was about an eponymous giant company that sounded like a mash-up of Google and Facebook. In this book, The Circle has merged with “an e-commerce behemoth named after a South American jungle” and The Every has come into being.
A quasi-sovereign entity bigger than The Circle, The Every takes over chunks of everything we regard as essential. For instance, letting your dog run free on the beach. That’s not allowed anymore on The Every’s watch, just to ensure everything is safer for the dog and for everyone else. In the Every-verse, there’s also the compulsion to be constantly emoting, ticking some box somewhere to promote better interaction and empathy.
The novel feels like a prescient account of what can happen when big tech gets too big.
The Back Story:
The US lawsuits come at a time many countries are launching consultations on banning social media platforms for children under 16:
– Last year, Australia became the first country to ban social media for under-16s.
– In early February, Spain announced plans to protect children under the age of 16 “from the digital Wild West”.
– France, Denmark and Austria have said they are considering national age limits for social media and the UK has launched a consultation on an under-16s ban.
If this is social media’s big tobacco moment, quite a lot of smoking is still going on. Last year, Meta said it added 230 million new users, which is equivalent to the population of Nigeria, the world’s fifth biggest country.
Just over 1 billion people still smoke cigarettes today.1
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https://www.who.int/news/item/06-10-2025-who-tobacco-trends-report-1-in-5-adults-still-addicted-to-tobacco
I didn't know there was a sequel to The Circle - am feeling a compulsion to check it out which feels not unlike the temptation to doomscroll!