The computer scientist Frances Haugen, better known as the Facebook whistleblower, gives us previously unimaginable insights into the inner workings of the group, which also includes Instagram and WhatsApp.
Facebook knows: You only earn money if users stay trapped in your own network for a long time. Accordingly, an army of addiction psychologists, marketing experts and other seducers is constantly working on the right mix of tension, reward, entertainment and excitement that keeps us on social media and brings us back there quickly.
According to internal Facebook documents, every eighth user recognizes addiction patterns in their social media behavior. For Germany this means: We have around four million who are addicted to Facebook alone. In comparison, 1.6 million alcoholics appear almost harmless.
And the nets do nothing to make them less dangerous. On the contrary: the corporations generously offer that they could regulate themselves. Something like this: Instagram is planning a function that notifies users that they spend a lot of time online. There is no talk of filtering dangerous content or deleting hate. You don’t want to allow users more than a little break from negative feelings.
One last thought: Bayern kicker Joshua Kimmich (26) is also on Instagram and posts there regularly for almost five million followers. I wish he were as concerned about long-term damage from social media as he is about vaccinating.
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