Rubio, Vinz Henry C.

M032 – CSSP101

CSSP101 Activity 2

1. As discussed in the movie, what are some of the negative effects of social media?
The negative effects of social media featured in the movie are addiction to
technology, how technology companies are reverse engineering people’s psychology, and
time monetization of users.

2. Name the experts in the movie. Include direct quotations.

a) Tristan Harris
Former Design Ethicist – Google
Co-Founder – Center for Humane Technology
“When you look around you, it feels like the world is going crazy. You have to ask
yourself like ‘Is this normal?’ or have we all fallen under some kind of spell.”
“I wish more people could understand how this works because it shouldn’t be something
that only the tech industry knows, it should be something that everybody knows.”
“If you’re not paying for the product, then you are the product.”
b) Tim Kendall
Former Executive – Facebook
Former President – Pinterest
CEO – Moment
“Everyone in 2006 including all of us on Facebook just had total admiration for Google,
and what Google had built which was an incredibly useful service.

c) Jaron Lanier
Founding Father of Virtual Reality
Computer Scientist
“It’s the gradual, slight, imperceptible change in your own behavior and perception that is
the product.”

d) Shoshana Zuboff, PhD

Professor Emeritus – Harvard Business School
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism – Author
“You have to have great predictions. You need a lot of data.”

e) Chamath Palihapitiya
Former VP of Growth – Facebook
Rubio, Vinz Henry C.
M032 – CSSP101
“After all the testing, all the iterating, all of this stuff, you know what the single biggest
thing we realized? Get any individual to 7 friends in 10 days, that was it.”

3. How does social media use personal information to generate revenue?

According to the movie, technology companies earn revenue by selling targeted

advertising based on the user information that they have. This is caused by the behavioral
manipulation and attention monetization to get the users highly engaged to their platform,
thus maximizing the money they earn the more time the users spend on their platform.

4. What are some ways to prevent addiction to social media?

One of the best ways to prevent addiction to social media is to be educated about
the algorithms and mechanisms behind social media platforms, making users aware of the
manipulation being done by the platform. Setting limits consciously on using social
media platforms can also help reduce one’s addiction to social media, giving oneself a
limit can be beneficial to avoid further usage, thus avoiding addiction. Also, as said that
social media gets the users’ attention by sending notifications, it is advisable to turn off
unnecessary notifications from social media platforms so that only important matters will
come through. Doing offline activities regularly also helps people to reduce their time on
social media as they have other things to make themselves busy at.
Given those, there are still lots of ways to prevent addiction to social media,
individuals just need to figure out what method will suit them best, along with the proper
exertion of effort in order to do so.