Former Facebook exec says social media is destroying the world

Chamath Palihapitiya, former vice president for user growth at Facebook, says he is now a social media “conscientious objector” who feels tremendous guilt for his work helping to create the world’s largest social network.

“I think we have created tools that are ripping apart the social fabric of how society works,” he recently told an audience at Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Palihapitiya recommends that people take a “hard break” from social media to undo some of the damage the technology does by preying on user desire for instant gratification.

The social media pioneer said  “hearts, likes, thumbs-up” are great for creating “short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops” which please users. They aren’t, however, very good for creating conversations which produce any sort of meaningful change in the world.

“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 said.

Palihapitiya also noted the dangers of the mob mentality that often takes over on social media networks, noting that seven innocent people were lynched in India when they were accused of kidnappings via a popular messaging app.

“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 said.

Palihapitiya’s full talk is worth a listen:

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