Study after study has highlighted the negative effects of social media, particularly on our kids.  One study from San Diego State University found that "teens who spent a lot of time in front of screen devices — playing computer games, using more social media, texting and video chatting — were less happy than those who invested time in non-screen activities like sports, reading newspapers and magazines, and face-to-face social interaction.  The happiest teens used digital media for less than an hour per day.  But after a daily hour of screen time, unhappiness rises steadily along with increasing screen time."

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According to the lead author of the study and, San Diego State University professor of psychology, Jean Twenge, "Looking at historical trends from the same age groups since the 1990s, the researchers found that the proliferation of screen devices over time coincided with a general drop-off in reported happiness in U.S. teens. Specifically, young people's life satisfaction, self-esteem and happiness plummeted after 2012. That's the year that the percentage of Americans who owned a smartphone rose above 50 percent."  She continued, "By far the largest change in teens' lives between 2012 and 2016 was the increase in the amount of time they spent on digital media, and the subsequent decline in in-person social activities and sleep. The advent of the smartphone is the most plausible explanation for the sudden decrease in teens' psychological well-being."

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This should come as no surprise — in fact, it's pretty much common sense — but, additionally, we have been warned of the negative effects for years.

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In February 2013, Tristan Harris, a former design ethicist at Google, created a presentation called A Call to Minimize Distraction & Respect Users’ Attention to address the large-scale negative impacts of attention-grabbing business models.  The eye-opening presentation led to his current role as Co-Founder & President of The Center for Humane Technology (CHT).  CHT is an independent nonprofit organization whose aim is to drive a comprehensive shift toward humane technology by changing the way technologists think about their work and how they build products.  The staff is comprised of former tech insiders and CEOs.

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The CHT team believes that "the extractive attention economy is tearing apart our shared social fabric.  The companies that created social media and mobile tech have benefited our lives enormously. But even with the best intentions, they are under intense pressure to compete for attention, creating invisible harms for society, including digital addiction, mental health, breakdown of truth, polarization, political manipulation and superficiality."  

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"The mismatch between our natural human sensitivities and the exponentially growing power of technology opens the door to massive extraction and monetization of our thoughts, emotions, and actions — generating a slew of harmful side effects, such as: shorter attention spans, outrage over dialogue, addicting our children, polarizing democracies, and turning life into a competition for likes and shares.  While we’ve been upgrading our technology we’ve been downgrading humanity."

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So where do we begin?  CHT believes that "this is a historic moment – never before has technology had the power to so profoundly change the beings that create it. We are at a turning point where we can either allow that power to continue unchecked, or contain it by building humane technology that protects our minds and replenishes society.  Humane technology requires that we understand our most vulnerable human instincts so we can design compassionately to protect them from abuse.  We envision a world where humane technology is the default for all technology products and services. A combination of new design processes, new goals and metrics, new organizational structures, and new business models would drastically reduce harmful externalities, actively supporting our individual and collective well-being."