So what’s the solution? Ban surveillance capitalism and these social media platforms will switch overnight to subscription-based business models. This explains why once rational family and friends believe conspiracy theories, deny science, distrust institutions, cheer on trucker convoys, refuse vaccinations and pledge allegiance to autocrats here at home and around the world. presidential election, falsehoods on Facebook outperformed all of the top stories at 19 mainstream news sites combined. Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers found that fake news travels six times faster on Twitter than real news. “There is evidence that these sites are now severely harming our ability to come together as a society to identify our problems and to find solutions.” “These sites make you feel that you are in an environment full of anger and hostility, so you become more vigilant – a situation where more of your attention shifts to searching for dangers and less and less is available for slower forms of focus like reading a book or playing with your kids.”Īnd most concerning of all, Hari says these sites have set the world on fire. We start believing that we’re surrounded by equally angry people. “Scientists have been proving in experiments for years that anger itself screws with your ability to pay attention,” says Hari. They learn your personal triggers – what, specifically, will distract you.”Įnragement equals engagement so the algorithms that run these sites amp up the crazy and intentionally make us angry. “These sites get to know what makes you tick, in very specific ways – they learn what you like to look at, what excites you, what angers you, what enrages you. “The evidence shows this is as bad for the quality of your thinking as getting drunk or stoned,” says Hari. We stop whatever we’re doing at work, school and home to check in dozens, even hundreds, of times a day. These platforms push us to continually switch tasks.

“They make us hunger for hearts and likes,” says Hari. It's all that many of us seem to focus on. These platforms have conditioned our minds to crave constant rewards above all else. Hari says social media platforms harm us in six ways. He interviewed more than 250 experts on focus and attention while writing his book Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention and How to Think Deeply Again. These platforms are pouring acid on our attention, warns journalist Johann Hari.

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