Sean Parker unloads on Facebook "exploiting" human psychology
Sean Parker unloads on Facebook "exploiting"
human psychology
Mike Allen November 9, 2017
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."
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