>I don't like FB personally but don't understand the steady stream of criticism about -- that it's too addictive
You're right, you don't understand.
This is a problem that you don't personally deal with but the data shows that there is a problem.
Many tech consumer products are specifically tailored to get a user more and more addicted to the service, similar to the way the food industry specifically tailors food products to make humans consume more and more of the food (salt/fat/sugar). Never-ending and constantly optimizing research and development goes into this addiction cycle since for many tech products revenue == traffic/engagement.
Adding a little bit of "sweetness" to your product makes it more enjoyable, and that's a good thing. But capitalism is a never ending process of optimizing for profit so before long your product is so "sweet" it is causing serious issues for many people.
I like this analogy for why Facebook should be regulated. We have no problem regulating food for health benefits, so to extend that to other items seems like a decent proposal.
I believe it is harder to empirically calculate and observe negative psychological effects than to do the same for physiological effects, but psychological concerns are becoming more mainstream.
Television is also likewise specifically tailored to get a user more and more addicted to its service. Yet it falls upon the media consumer to not get themselves addicted or wear blinders to anything else but their one program/network that encourages their particular leanings.
You're right, you don't understand.
This is a problem that you don't personally deal with but the data shows that there is a problem.
Many tech consumer products are specifically tailored to get a user more and more addicted to the service, similar to the way the food industry specifically tailors food products to make humans consume more and more of the food (salt/fat/sugar). Never-ending and constantly optimizing research and development goes into this addiction cycle since for many tech products revenue == traffic/engagement.
Adding a little bit of "sweetness" to your product makes it more enjoyable, and that's a good thing. But capitalism is a never ending process of optimizing for profit so before long your product is so "sweet" it is causing serious issues for many people.