there is a moral imperative to leave the main social networks if they continue to operate as they do. while connecting people is a noble thing, exploiting them for money is unethical to say the least.

the dopamine shots carefully engineered to hook us up are ethically and morally wrong. those strategies do not improve user’s well being or satisfaction with the product. users come back because they become addicted to it. not because the product makes them happier in the long run or because there are other benefits besides the easy and quick addiction fix. let’s get this straight: these corporations are engineering their product to make people addicted, so they can sell user’s data and attention for profit.

there are some ways to fight against those practices. one is to unplug from social networks which use unethical tactics to get users hooked up. our best weapon is the network effect those social networks feed from, although that’s our biggest weakness too. if there are not enough people taking a step back and stop being cannon fodder in the battle for attention and profit, there is no incentive for companies to change their strategies. I believe, though, that it is still the best legal weapon we can use.

many people have spoken out about this before. many have left social networks while others were not able to completely unplug. there is, though, a moral imperative to do so. I’m afraid the modus operandus of social networks have become natural for the younger generations. those companies are now speaking openly about their tactics [1],[2]. they are more transparent than ever about the strategies they use to hook us up because it is slowly becoming generally acceptable. although we live longer and more connected nowadays, it feels that we grow older much faster: the gap between my generation values and those of younger generations have widen faster than ever before. it might be too late to change the course of things: the future around the corner may bring state and corporate surveillance and individual’s’ attention treated as a commercial commodity. But I will fight against it.

[1] Sean Parker: Facebook was designed to exploit human “vulnerability” [2] Dopamine Labs