How many of the young people are hooked to their mobiles, social networks and the Internet? If we talk about those who have Between 14 and 19 years, 20.5% consider that they have that addictionaccording to a report by the Ministry of Health of 2023. An high percentage of which, if something can be said, is that We were notified. Not only for what common sense says and what each one can conclude from their own experience, or the numerous studies that alert the damage caused by the abusive use of technology, but because it already put it black on white, a few years ago, Sean Parker. Social networks were designed from the base to be addictive and keep the user hooked based on dopamine chute. Everything is oriented to it. And he knows, because he was there, along with Mark Zuckerberg, at the beginning of Facebook.
Sean Parker, born in 1979, is not a name too known to the public, but it was fundamental in two of the technological revolutions of this century: The transition from physical format to streaming and the creation of social networks. Co -founded Napster in 1999the immensely popular program that allowed users to exchange music files that had the entire record industry against and precipitated streaming, with which Millionaire became. This put it in the situation of power Help Mark Zuckerberg at the beginning of Facebook.
Parker met Zuckerberg in 2004, shortly after the launch of the social network. Was The first Facebook president and key in its university project transition to global technology company. Contributed the strategic vision, contacts in Silicon Valley and investors That they made the company begin to expand rapidly, although its time in front was not too long. In 2005, he left Facebook after a detention for drug possession, although charges were not presented.
The fact is that Parker was in the center of the Big Bang of social networks, and over the years he has spoken with all the matter, From a more critical position than in his youth.
“Only God knows what he is doing to our children’s brain”
In 2017, Parker was away from the media forum in which he was during his early years and focused on a variety of technological projects with social impact. Had also founded the Parker Institute for Cancer Immotherapy And he participated in an axios event on innovation in the investigation of this disease, in Philadelphia. There he pointed out that he had become In ‘a kind of conscientious objector’ of social networks and gave details about how they conceived the operation of Facebook and what made it so successful.
The technology businessman said that when he then promoted Facebook ‘I don’t know if I really understood the consequences of what I was sayingdue to the unwanted consequences of a network when it grows to one billion or 2 billion people and … Literally changes your relationship with society, with others … It probably interferes with the productivity of strange ways. Only God knows what he is doing to our children’s brain‘.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7jar4kgkxs
“Mark Zuckerberg and I understood this consciously. And we did it anyway”
But the base problem is that Facebook was intentionally designed to be addictivethrough psychological mechanisms of social validation that They caused small dopamine chute in the brain. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter associated with pleasure, reward and motivation.
‘The thought process that was carried out to build these applications, being Facebook the first of them, … it was: How do we consume as much as possible in your time and conscious attention? And that means we have to give you a small dopamine blow from time to timebecause someone liked or commented a photo or a publication or whatever, ‘he explained. ‘It is a social validation feedback loop … exactly the type of things that would occur to a hacker like me, because You are exploiting vulnerability in human psychology‘.
Parker did not directly associate the mechanism of social networks with that of addictions, but it does clear that They were aware of the addictive potential of the mechanisms used in the design of their platforms: ‘The inventors, the creators, it is me, is Mark (Zuckerberg), is Kevin Systrom on Instagram, are all these people, they understood this consciously. And we did it anyway ‘.