Society would be better off if social media disappeared, Sen. Josh Hawley argued in an op-ed published Wednesday.
“Maybe social media’s innovations do our country more harm than good. Maybe social media is best understood as a parasite on productive investment, on meaningful relationships, on a healthy society,” the Missouri Republican wrote in the piece published by USA Today. “Maybe we’d be better off if Facebook disappeared.”
Hawley said social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter only care about the money they make from advertisers at the detriment to their users.
[Also read: Social media companies under pressure to censor violent content]
“They’ve designed platforms that extract massive amounts of personal data without telling consumers, then sell that data without consumers’ permission,” he wrote. “And in order to guarantee an audience big enough to make their ads profitable, big tech has developed a business model designed to do one thing above all: addict.”
The platforms have the same effects on users as real drugs and have had adverse results on mental health, he said.
“Like other drugs, this one hurts its users. Attention spans dull. Tempers quicken. Relationships fray,” he wrote, adding that the platforms have made us more “impoverished, lonely, and despairing.”
Hawley called on Congress to investigate a potential link between social media and a surge in attempted suicides among teens.
“They can do better. We can do better. And we must,” he wrote.
[Opinion: Social media overuse festers the already gaping world of narcissistic behavior]
