Is Facebook Your Problem?
This week, former Facebook employee Frances Haugen testifed before Congress that Facebook harms children, stokes division, and is actively damaging our democracy. Worse, Haugen said, they know it, and have chosen to pursue profits over the mental and in some cases physical health of its users. It remains to be seen what Congress may do about this — have you been friended on social media by a Senator lately? — but now the problem has a human face, and Haugen’s testimony, combined with the recent publication of The Facebook Files from the Wall Street Journal, have put the problem squarely in view of the American public.
A cynic might believe that ultimately, her testimony will change nothing. I would submit that her interview on 60 Minutes was actually an important step in the changing of hearts and minds. After all, the circle of people who already believe that Facebook is a pressing problem, and the circle of people who watch 60 Minutes, may not overlap all that much, and this may have awakened a whole new cohort of Americans to an issue they had heretofore been untroubled by. Still, there remains a gap — a yawning chasm, even — between believing there is a problem, and doing something about it.
Here is that gap, in the form of two questions:
- Do you think Facebook is a problem?
