Nir EyalSpeaker on Behavioral Science, NYT Bestselling Author, Former Stanford Lecturer

Are We Really Addicted to Social Media? #shorts

Name: Are We Really Addicted to Social Media? #shorts
Uploaded: 2023-05-02T15:32:08+00:00
Duration: 24 s
Channel: Nir Eyal
Description: A brief YouTube short by Nir Eyal arguing that most people are not truly addicted to social media but distracted; he emphasizes personal responsibility…

2 May 2023 · 0 min

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0:24

A brief YouTube short by Nir Eyal arguing that most people are not truly addicted to social media but distracted; he emphasizes personal responsibility (e.g., turn off notifications) over blaming platforms and notes the etymology of 'addiction' (Latin addictio = slave) to contrast the idea of being powerless.

The social media companies are so bad, they get me addicted. It's all Mark Zuckerberg's fault. As opposed to saying, wait a minute, there's about a hundred things that I could do myself, starting with, hey, how about turning off those stupid notifications that constantly distract you? But we don't do that. Why don't we do that? Because we want to think we're addicted. Most people like to think, oh, there's nothing I can do about it. The word addiction comes from the Latin word addictio, which means slave. But for the vast majority of us, it's not an addiction, it's a distraction.