Facebook hurts our kids!

Facebook’s founding President Sean Parker is no fan of what the company he helped to create, has become. He’s been an outspoken critic since 2017, openly lamenting his role and calling out Mark Zuckerberg and his former colleagues for causing deliberate harm. 

Per Parker:
 

"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." 

Tough stuff indeed. But the most damning admission from Parker is that Facebook is causing damage to our children’s brains.

Parker explains that Facebook is designed to cause our brains to release a little bit of dopamine, a hormone and neurotransmitter that causes a sense of pleasure, every time we receive a “like” or other positive interaction.  Facebook was purposefully designed, Parker says, to literally get users hooked on the dopamine release and doing whatever is necessary (spending lots of time on Facebook) to get more “likes,” much as a compulsive gambler wants to keep playing until he gets just one more winning hand of cards.

Dopamine plays a role in how we take pleasure in values and activities and plays a significant role in our unique human ability to think and plan. It helps us strive, focus, and find things interesting.

There is mounting evidence that by disrupting natural dopamine responses, Facebook is damaging children’s developing brains, hurting their ability to interact with others, find enjoyment in daily tasks, and focus. It might even cause Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD).

In an unsettling report, the Anti-Discrimination League found that Facebook deliberately markets to children despite claims that that they do not. And it has no plans to stop.

It’s bad enough to push a product you know might be addictive and harmful to consenting adults. We see this as part of living in a society where our individual rights are respected, where having the option of making bad personal choices, like smoking or excessive alcohol consumption, is part of the price of freedom. But Facebook is also targeting our kids, hoping to get them hooked before they are capable of making responsible choices for themselves. 

Is there a more compelling reason to Erasebook and join the movement at Parler?