> Also causes people to procrastinate instead of engaging in intellectual activities, especially school or work, so the cost to society might be enormous.
I doubt it. Before social media, people were playing solitaire on their computers. Before that, they were standing around the water cooler gossiping. Slacking off and procrastinating are nothing new.
The distraction aspect is due primarily to having so much information available instantly. That is a result of the internet, but smartphones supercharged it as they add constant availability to the mix.
The issue with social media is that it is specifically designed to distract and grab attention, and the information they use is mostly gossip crowd sourced by their users to sell advertising against.
There needs to be some real education about how to use social media responsibly during schooling, and the companies also need some strong regulation to stop the exploitation.
The harm done is similar to gambling in my view and needs to be regulated in a similar way. Some people have the self restraint to log off and focus on real life, for others it is an addiction.
Did the water cooler company hire people to see if they could keep people at the water cooler longer? Did solitaire copy what’s in your copy/paste pad and secretly send it to Microsoft?
Did solitaire buy and kill FreeCell to prevent its popularity from surpassing it’s own?
I doubt it. Before social media, people were playing solitaire on their computers. Before that, they were standing around the water cooler gossiping. Slacking off and procrastinating are nothing new.