Addictive Tech


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Recently, Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri proposed a bill which takes aim at the addictive nature of social media. Causing a stir in the tech world, Sen. Hawley’s bill would restrict social media companies from using features like endless scrolling, autoplay, and achievement badges on their platforms. Hawley says, “Big tech has embraced a business model of addiction.”

Is it so?

We now spend over two hours a day on social media—50% more than in 2012. It’s no mystery; it’s well known that social media is designed specifically to “consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible,” according to ex-Facebook President Sean Parker. To accomplish this, Facebook coaxes a little “dopamine hit” with every like and follow, teaching the brain to repeat the behavior that produced the hit.

One doesn’t have to reach far to find parity with something similar to social media’s effect on the brain. In 1971, a ban on cigarette advertising on TV and radio went into effect. By 1980, cigarettes were made illegal for those under 16. By 1987, it was raised to 18 and advertising for all forms of tobacco was banned. Why? Among other things, tobacco produces that same habit-forming release of dopamine that makes social media addictive.

Should we begin to treat social media like Marlboro? Should we think twice before reaching for that pack of Swisher Tweets?

TIME reports that cigarettes were first age-restricted not because of the dangers (unknown at the time), but because the habit was taking hold of vast swaths of children around the turn of the century. If substances should be regulated simply for their addictive properties, minors not excluded, should we call for further regulation of the media giants?

We are all familiar with the recent Facebook/FTC privacy settlement, as well as the controversies of censorship from platforms like Twitter and Youtube. None from the center to center-right are excited about the future of media and yet we continue to scroll and like and share, just as they’d have us do. 

Those on the well-intentioned libertarian front may make the case that not only should cigarettes not be regulated, but weed (and other drugs) made legal, with legitimate justification. After all, who are we to tell someone they can’t consume what they want? Don’t tread on us. Those in this camp might also espouse the hard-line, free-market approach to business regulation; live and let live.

Conservatives, while touting the values of freedom of speech and deregulation in all things business, itch to strangle the giants with the hands of the government in the name of privacy and fairness. Right now, it seems all conservative commentators are carefully straddling this lukewarm line, from Crowder to Shapiro.

Is tech simply creating a better product, like McDonalds’ suspiciously delicious McDouble, or are they creating an environment of addiction? Are we able to fault them for tapping deeply and directly into the desires of the consumer, as any good business would?

As you click away from this page and undoubtedly toward Instagram, consider whether, like a fresh can of Skoal, social media should be restricted for its addictive nature; or if the companies are simply creating a super-product that the masses desire. While you consider, ask yourself also, in light of all the recent controversies, if tech companies are discriminating against and dismantling your right to free speech; or are they free, as you are with your own company, to do as you see fit?

The media war is a complicated and nuanced one, but you’ll soon need to parse out exactly where you land.