Imagine a Bar Owner who instructs bartenders to serve drinks without checking IDs and to prioritise selling drinks and ignoring the consequences…
This would result in people being served alcohol indiscriminately, with even minors, addicts, and people who are clearly getting out of control being allowed to carry on.
The more people drink, the more money the bar makes. But in the process, fights break out, people get alcohol poisoning, and lives are ruined—all while the bar owner just shrugs and says:
“Don’t blame me, I’m just giving people what they want.”
Similarly, social media algorithms act like this bar owner:
- They prioritize engagement over well-being, pushing harmful content because it keeps people hooked.
- They ignore warnings from experts, researchers, and even their own staff about the dangers.
- They target vulnerable users, feeding them content that can lead to addiction, self-harm, or distorted views of reality.
- They deny responsibility, claiming it’s just what people want—even though their system is actively steering users toward more extreme content.
Is this what we want for our children, let alone ourselves or our friends and family?
Photo by thom masat
