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Both takyon and Phoenix666 bring us news of some harsh words that ex-Facebook president Sean Parker has for the company:
Ex-Facebook President Sean Parker Criticizes Facebook
Facebook's first President has sharply criticized the behemoth he helped shape:
Sean Parker, Facebook's first president, had some harsh words about the social network during an interview this week. The tech investor, also a co-founder of Napster and, perhaps most recognizably, the guy played by Justin Timberlake in "The Social Network," said Facebook was designed to exploit the way people fundamentally think and behave.
There have been "unintended consequences," Parker said, now that Facebook has grown to include 2 billion people -- two out of every seven people on the planet. "It literally changes your relationship with society, with each other," he said in published Wednesday night by Axios. "It probably interferes with productivity in weird ways. God only knows what it's doing to our children's brains."
[...] Parker on Wednesday drilled into the addictive nature of Facebook that keeps so many of us coming back. He said it's all by design, because receiving a "like" or a comment on your post gives you a little hit of dopamine. "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."
But that didn't matter to people like Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, he said. Or Kevin Systrom, founder of Instagram, which Facebook owns. Or even himself. In addition to co-founding Napster in 1999, he started Airtime, a video social network that never gained traction. Now he's the founder and chair of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy.
"The inventors, creators ... understood this consciously," he said. "And we did it anyway."
Also at The Verge and Business Insider.
Facebook Founding President Sounds Alarm
Even Facebook doesn't like Facebook?
"God only knows what it's doing to our children's brains."
A view on social media shared not by some uninformed luddite, but by one of the people responsible for building Facebook into the social media titan it is today.
Sean Parker, Facebook's founding president, unloaded his worries and criticisms of the network, saying he had no idea what he was doing at the time of its creation.
Speaking on stage to Mike Allen from Axios, Mr Parker said: "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?'"
"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.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by AthanasiusKircher on Sunday November 12 2017, @06:28PM (2 children)
This sort of reminds me of a pre-Facebook-era anecdote: I remember going to the Vatican museums and walking behind a few American families who were navigating the entire museums while holding up a camcorder and recording. They rarely stopped to notice anything -- one family member might be trying to point out something interesting, but the camera-holder would be bumping into other people and trying to "capture the experience"... rather than actually having an experience.
At least then the view was still focused on stuff around them. Now, you go to, say, a fine dining restaurant, and you see people taking pictures of their meals with their phones. Okay -- sometimes presentation is cool and even artistic, so take a picture of your dinner if you want. But then, they'll spend several minutes posting that photo on Facebook (or other social media), then checking in every minute to see who "liked" their photo or commented on it. Meanwhile, their $100+ meal is almost the secondary concern... it's not, "Wow! I'm eating a really awesome dinner!" Instead, it's more like, "I gotta show everyone how awesome I am by posting pictures and comments about my food!" Meals used to be social gatherings too, chances to connect through conversation... not anymore for many.
It's also becoming increasingly difficult to be the person who isn't "always connected." I refuse to participate in Facebook or any other social media; thus I end up left out of a lot of stuff going on with people I know. But perhaps it's for the best, as most of the relationships I care the most about are with people who I can still contact outside of social media. Let the addicts spend their lives getting the "hit" from their "likes"...
For me, I don't give a crap. Honestly. What the hell do I need validation from a bunch of people I barely know? I don't even give a crap if you mod me down here. I'm just sayin' stuff... you like it? Fine. If you don't, leave a criticism or counterargument if you want. Otherwise, I don't care.
I guess Facebook is really beginning to show how narcissistic most people are, or maybe insecure and needing external validation for their mundane everyday activities and thoughts. The people I admire most are independent thinkers, and the vast majority of them are not active on platforms like Facebook.
I would go so far as to say that inability to disconnect from Facebook and your phone would be a deal-breaker in a relationship for me. Studies have shown the value of "being bored" or just sitting and thinking -- if you can't sit and be alone with your thoughts for an hour without your phone, you're probably not going to be as interesting a person to me.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 12 2017, @06:31PM (1 child)
Eh I don't think it is always narcissism. Humans are social, we like to share our experiences. People who find something amazing don't often share it in order to say "how awesome am I??" Some do, but those can be ignored easily enough.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Sunday November 12 2017, @07:36PM
Sharing our experiences IS at heart, narcissism. That you can't see this just shows how taken in by the whole phenomenon you are. It is invariable a form of look at me, see what I do.
You like to share your experiences, because it builds you up.
You could care less about Aunt Marge and her best of show at the March of Roses competition. Stupid Marge and her boring Roses.
You tolerate Marge, because you're so insecure in the world you need someone to validate your existence, so you call it sharing and pretend it is a big happy give and take. But mostly you're in it for the take.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.