Should Facebook carry a health warning?

In a new chapter of its “Hard Questions” series entitled “Is spending time on social media bad for us?”, Facebook admits that under certain circumstances, using social networks can have negative effects on us.

I have to say that this is one of the most stupid things I have read for a long time: one of those comments that are simply universal truths and that require a full reading and interpretation before, as happens, is widely shared on the basis of the headline.

Can using social networks be bad for your health? Of course! EVERYTHING, absolutely EVERYTHING, can be bad for your health. As the Americans like to say, “too much of a good thing can kill you”. Let’s start with alcohol, which feels great on certain occasions but can kill in excess; at the other extreme, there’s exercise, and in between coffee, sugar, cheese or toffee. You name it, excessive consumption can kill you. It’s such an obvious thing as to hardly be worth saying. Gosh! even Facebook recognizes it’s own limitations! The tobacco companies, on the other hand, had a much harder time doing so …

The social networks keep us in touch with friends and acquaintances, are a great way to meet new people… are they superficial? Of course… who ever thought social networks were for deep conversation? Do we expect that when we meet a friend or acquaintance on the street, a cafe or a bar? “Wow, she just wished me happy birthday on Facebook, how impersonal! As opposed to the mystical experience when that person sees you and gives you a kiss… Come on! Social relations, are to a large extent superficial. And so social networks reflect that: if we only used them to reflect genuine, deep feelings and eternal love, they would be a bore and nobody would go near them! In other words, life is not social networks, but neither is it a succession of transcendental and profound moments. Life is something else.

Can social networks turn us into a psychopath, a stalker, a voyeur, or plunge us into depression? Sure, like everything, when misused, so if we’re going to start worrying about their impact on us, we’ll have to include cheese on the list, and that’s one pleasure I’m not going to give up…

Does that mean we shouldn’t be aware of how much we use the social networks? Of course not. People who use them to harass, insult, threaten or spread hate need to be stopped. We need to help people who are depressed, or who consider suicide in part because how they use social networks: that’s just decency and common sense. We know that teenagers, desperate for approval and the dopamine hit they get from an Instagram Like, end up sharing stuff they shouldn’t. Does that mean Instagram is bad? No, it means that parents need to educate their children about self-respect.

If there are compulsive behavior patterns in the use of Facebook, we need to highlight them and help people avoid them. What sense is there in Facebook constantly reminding me each time I post an article that I should spend money to help it reach more people, despite my constantly hiding that “friendly advice? Would you be so kind, Facebook, to stop it? I know you have turn a profit, but it is not going to be at the expense of this teacher… you should already know me well enough by now and not treat all your users with the same tired and repetitive pattern, wouldn’t you say? Or are your artificial intelligence algorithms going to be used just to generate cash for you? If Facebook is going to modify its algorithms progressively so that my publications reach fewer and fewer people and I feel that the only way to reach them is by spending money on advertising, I may well end up taking my content to another site.

The idea that social networks are like tobacco is plain dumb. If you aren’t able to manage your social networks without plunging into depression or getting angry, instead of complaining about harmful effects you alone are responsible for, stop using them: we know that too much of a good thing is a bad thing. Life kills. Let’s stop this nonsensical tendency to over protect, which in the long term leads only to us forgetting how to safeguard ourselves.

(En espa?ol, aquí)