No, we’re not talking about Meta CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, but about Sean Parker. However, “Zuckerbucks” has been on the hot seat in a landmark trial in Los Angeles, where he was questioned under oath about Meta’s role in youth mental health harms including a sharp rise in youth suicides.
This trial involved plaintiffs alleging that Meta’s platforms, particularly Instagram, contributed to teen depression, suicidal thoughts, actual suicide, and compulsive-addictive use.
But contrast Zuckerberg’s denials with what was admitted back in November 2019 when Sean Parker let the cat out of the bag in a revealing interview with left-leaning Axios, whose reporter, Mike Allen, filed this report: (Emphases mine.)
QUOTE: Sean Parker, the founding president of Facebook, gave me a candid insider’s look at how social networks purposely hook and potentially hurt our brains.
Be smart: Parker’s I-was-there account provides priceless perspective in the rising debate about the power and effects of the social networks, which now have scale and reach unknown in human history.
He’s worried enough that he’s sounding the alarm. Parker, 38, now founder and chair of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, spoke yesterday at an Axios event at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, about accelerating cancer innovation.
In the green room, Parker mentioned that he has become “something of a conscientious objector” on social media. By the time he left the stage, he jokingly said Mark Zuckerberg will probably block his account after reading this:
“When Facebook was getting going, I had these people who would come up to me and they would say, ‘I’m not on social media.’ And I would say, ‘OK. You know, you will be.’ And then they would say, ‘No, no, no. I value my real-life interactions. I value the moment. I value presence. I value intimacy.’ And I would say, ... ‘We’ll get you eventually.’
“I don’t know if I really understood the consequences of what I was saying, because [of] the unintended consequences of a network when it grows to a billion or 2 billion people and ... it literally changes your relationship with society, with each other ... It probably interferes with productivity in weird ways.
God only knows what it’s doing to our children’s brains.”
“The thought process that went into building these applications, Facebook being the first of them, ... was all about: ‘How do we consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible?’“
“And that means that we need to sort of give you a little dopamine hit every once in a while, because someone liked or commented on a photo or a post or whatever. And that’s going to get you to contribute more content, and that’s going to get you ... more likes and comments.”
“It’s a social-validation feedback loop ... exactly the kind of thing that a hacker like myself would come up with, because you’re exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology.”
“The inventors, creators — it’s me, it’s Mark [Zuckerberg], it’s Kevin Systrom on Instagram, it’s all of these people — understood this consciously. And we did it anyway.”
P.S. Parker, on life science allowing us to “live much longer, more productive lives”:
“Because I’m a billionaire, I’m going to have access to better health care so ... I’m going to be like 160 and I’m going to be part of this, like, class of immortal overlords. [Laughter]
“Because, you know the [Warren Buffett] expression about compound interest. ... [G]ive us billionaires an extra hundred years and you’ll know what ... wealth disparity looks like.” END QUOTE
What is the solution? Proposals are being made that would make it a law which would require users to be, say, 16-years old in order to be legally allowed to use the app.
But that would require everyone to be vetted to prove their age. And the social media companies would then be able to track every single person using the app— oh, wait… you say they’ve been doing that from the beginning?
It’s curious how no one in the national media, including Fox News and Newsmax, have (to the best of my knowledge) never reported that Zuckerberg did not invent Facebook. It was a DARPA project which took years and half a billion dollars to invent.
It was then handed to Zuck to lead and pretend that he had invented it in his college dorm. (DARPA = Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) Here is Zuckerberg being grilled in Senate hearings in January 2024:
I don’t know the complete answer, but we should obey the laws of God which require that parents are wholly responsible for their children until they reach the age of accountability. In multiple places in the Pentateuch that age is “from twenty years old and upward.”
Parents should establish rules for their children’s usage of any and all mobile device and/or computers—strictly enforced! …But alas, what about the parents’ own addictions, having grown up with Facebook, Instagram, et al.?! God help us!
But, speaking of addictions, let’s close on a lighter note.
~END~
