Former Facebook exec says social media is ripping apart society

Another former Facebook executive has spoken out about the harm the social network is doing to civil society around the world. Chamath Palihapitiya, who joined Facebook in 2007 and became its vice president for user growth, said he feels “tremendous guilt” about the company he helped make. “I think we have created tools that are ripping apart the social fabric of how society works,” he told an audience at Stanford Graduate School of Business, before recommending people take a “hard break” from social media.

Palihapitiya’s criticisms were aimed not only at Facebook, but the wider online ecosystem. “The short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops we’ve created are destroying how society works,” he said, referring to online interactions driven by “hearts, likes, thumbs-up.” “No civil discourse, no cooperation; misinformation, mistruth. And it’s not an American problem — this is not about Russians ads. This is a global problem.”

He went on to describe an incident in India where hoax messages about kidnappings shared on WhatsApp led to the lynching of seven innocent people. “That’s what we’re dealing with,” said Palihapitiya. “And imagine taking that to the extreme, where bad actors can now manipulate large swathes of people to do anything you want. It’s just a really, really bad state of affairs.” He says he tries to use Facebook as little as possible, and that his children “aren’t allowed to use that shit.” He later adds, though, that he believes the company “overwhelmingly does good in the world.”

Former Facebook exec says social media is ripping apart society

 

He's right. It is, at this point, a spectacular unraveling.

 

How do you defend posting here then? (Not challenging you. I struggle with it myself. For the most part, I guess I think that this is a very healthy, honest give-and-take about current events that I don't have access to in my daily life. It doesn't feel frivolous.)

 

If it ever became Facebook or Twitter, I'd be out.

 

Of course he's right. I think anyone with any sense has known this for a while. But social media such a huge part of our culture now, and we are collectively addicted to it, so we're screwed whether we use it or not.

 

The election poisoned social media.
It was not this unpleasant even five years ago.

 

Not one quote from little Zucky.

 

The worst part about this place is the multiple twitter posts, many times from randos in the twittersphere, and without comment from the poster.

 

The thing is, I recently re-read "Catcher in the Rye," written 60-plus years ago. It feels as vital and relevant and in touch as it did, I assume, the day it rolled off the press. Humanity is not actually changing so quickly that you have to stay constantly engaged with Twitter or Facebook in order to keep from being left behind. That's just what those sites are designed to make you feel.

 

The best Zuck quote I can recall wasn't from the king Zuck himself, but from his little sis. In her book about social media, she credits Reddit users with helping solve the Boston Marathon bombing. Yeah, if you count identifying the wrong person and causing him all kind of pain and anguish, I guess Reddit users helped.

 

Guess he's not going to talk for this story, but did he even call Zuck.

 

I was at a Christmas party the other night where people were seated at a beautiful, long dining table, and half of them were scrolling their timelines.
There are cultures around the world where this would be be considered utterly impertinent behavior.