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Okay, this is not Sean Parker — this is Justin Timberlake playing Sean Parker in The Social Network (which now I’m thinking about watching later because that movie is awesome). But I figured the only way you’d know who the hell I was talking about is if I used Timberlake’s portrayal of the character. Did it work?
Anyway, $2.5 billion dollars later, it appears as though Parker has seen the light, as he has recently come out with some damning statements about the social media giant and their methodology.
Parker, who now considers himself a “conscientious objector” of social media, was speaking with Axios earlier this week when he delved into why exactly everyone on Earth seems to love and need social media so much.
Parker said that he and people like Zuckerberg realized they could keep their users engaged by “exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology’ and creating ‘a social-validation feedback loop.”
“And that means that we need to sort of give you a little dopamine hit every once in a while, because someone liked or commented on a photo or a post or whatever. And that’s going to get you to contribute more content, and that’s going to get you … more likes and comments,” Parker said.
Hard not to take Parker at his word here, because if we’ve learned anything over the last couple of years, its that we absolutely should not be trusting Mark Zuckerberg.
