Over the past 5 years, social media has
00:00
gone through one of the most dramatic
00:02
transformations since it began. The
00:03
platforms that once promised connection,
00:06
community, and a voice for everyone have
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devolved into something much more
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harmful. Viral stunts, immature pranks,
00:12
choreographed dances. Also, heightened
00:15
levels of anxiety, depression, and the
00:17
disruption of the very fabric of
00:19
society. I want to explore why social
00:20
media has gotten so much worse recently
00:22
and the quiet but growing rebellion
00:25
against it that has the very architects
00:27
of the system on edge. This video is
00:29
sponsored by Headspace. More about them
00:32
later. So, I think we can learn a lot
00:33
about the problems with social media
00:36
today by looking at how Instagram
00:38
promotes its own app. If you go to the
00:40
login page, it says sign up to see
00:42
photos and videos from your friends.
00:44
What a load of Anyone that uses
00:47
Instagram knows this just isn't true and
00:49
is far from the content machine it's
00:52
become. But it does give us a clue into
00:54
the challenges this company and every
00:56
social media platform is facing today
00:59
and why the distance is growing between
01:01
what people want and what they're
01:03
getting. Jack Ki, the co-founder and CEO
01:04
of Patreon, has spent years thinking
01:07
about the economics of the internet and
01:10
has seen from the front lines just how
01:12
drastically social media has changed
01:14
since it was first introduced.
01:16
>> Jack, thank you so much for being here.
01:17
Question number one, what the happened
01:19
>> Oh man, what I love that question? Uh,
01:23
here's what happened. Web two sort of
01:29
emerged in like 2005. Web two companies
01:32
were like Instagram, Facebook, YouTube.
01:35
The amazing thing about web 2 was you
01:37
could like subscribe to a creator. You
01:39
could follow them and then you would see
01:42
the rest of their work as it came to you
01:44
in the future. This was a new thing.
01:46
Before web 2, the internet was mostly
01:48
read only. Like you log in via AOL or
01:51
something and you you like can just like
01:53
read the news. But the the amazing thing
01:55
about web two was for the first time
01:57
like people could upload, they could
01:59
share, they could like broadcast their
02:00
ideas and the like the most profound
02:02
piece of internet architecture came out
02:05
at that time uh you know that came out
02:06
at the time was was this thing called
02:09
>> As Jack explained it, the follow gave
02:11
you the power. You decided who you
02:13
liked, who you wanted to hear from, and
02:15
who you wanted to fill your feed. It
02:17
felt like your corner of the internet, a
02:19
personalized space built around real
02:20
connections and genuine interests. I
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only subscribe to people and watch
02:24
videos that make me happy, inspire me,
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make me feel positive, uplift me.
02:29
>> But that version of social media didn't
02:31
last. The idealistic vision was great
02:33
for users, but not for investors. Once
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these platforms went public, they faced
02:37
a new challenge. How do you turn
02:39
connection into profit? We all know what
02:41
happened next. Social platforms started
02:44
to run ads and ads made them a lot of
02:46
money. So, they scaled the model. Grow
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larger. Show more ads. Get more users.
02:51
Show more ads. Hold users attention for
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longer. Show more ads. Get more data on
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who your customer is, their hopes,
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fears, and dreams. Sell more expensive
02:59
ads. The customer of Facebook is the
03:01
advertiser. And what the advertiser
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wants from consumers is attention. And
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what Facebook has built is a machine
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attention into revenue. That is the
03:13
Facebook machine. Everything about the
03:16
financial system is set up to hold
03:18
Facebook accountable for revenue growth.
03:22
What that does is it aims the entire
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financial system, hundreds of years of
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financial infrastructure. It aims that
03:28
entire system of accountability and
03:30
discipline at sucking attention away
03:32
from humanity. That's the problem. That
03:36
>> You say these things like they are my
03:40
fault and yet they are not. Well, you
03:41
did create a platform with a monetary
03:44
incentive for people to spread
03:46
>> Bo Burnham recently summed it up well.
03:50
Tech companies aren't satisfied with
03:52
just a piece of your time. They want it
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all. They are now trying to colonize
03:56
every minute of your life. That is what
03:58
these people are trying to do. Every
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single free moment you have is a moment
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you could be looking at your phone and
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they could be gathering information to
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target ads at you. that that's what's
04:08
>> When the biggest tech companies in the
04:11
world are competing for your attention,
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they'll design features that exploit
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every human vulnerability they can find.
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Even the smallest change can have a
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really big impact, like infinite scroll.
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No, not a never-ending pastry, something
04:22
much more nefarious. Before this feature
04:24
existed, websites had pages, natural
04:26
breaks that let you decide whether to
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keep going or to stop. In 2006,
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interface designer Asa Rascin came up
04:33
with an idea to replace those breaks
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with a neverending feed. What seemed
04:37
like a small improvement quickly became
04:39
one of the most influential changes in
04:41
how we use the internet today. Without a
04:43
stopping point and an endless stream of
04:46
content, this simple feature can quietly
04:47
steal hundreds of hours from your life
04:50
every year. Asa himself says he regrets
04:52
creating it. I was blind to how it was
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going to get picked up and used, not for
04:57
people, but against people. And this was
04:58
actually a huge lesson for me that me
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sitting here optimizing an interface for
05:02
one individual is sort of like that's
05:05
that's that's that was morally good. But
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being blind to how it was going to be
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globally was sort of globally amoral at
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best or maybe even a little immoral. In
05:16
a world where apps rise and fall
05:18
overnight, the social media giants have
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learned to move fast or risk becoming
05:22
the next MySpace. When a feature works
05:23
on one platform, it doesn't stay there
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for long. It's copied, repackaged, and
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rolled out everywhere. We've seen this
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happen with pretty much every fast
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growing app from Snapchat to Be Real and
05:34
>> Tik Tok explodes in popularity.
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>> It's surging in popularity here in the
05:42
>> 15-year-old Charlie Dio's new favorite
05:44
pastime is making up dance moves for the
05:46
social media app Tik Tok. This group of
05:49
20 talented content creators is part of
05:51
a growing trend of young social media
05:53
stars snapping up big real estate so
05:55
they can physically be together to make
05:58
>> We're definitely like the two most
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>> the most cringiest.
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>> Like they're literally call blueberry
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cuz their hair is blue.
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>> And then I'm orange. They're like, "Oh
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my god, the orange and the blueberry."
06:10
>> What has happened over the last 5 years
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is really profound. Tik Tok came onto
06:14
the scene and Tik Tok's major innovation
06:17
I think people think oh Tik Tok is is
06:18
vertical first short form video but
06:20
that's not Tik Tok's major innovation I
06:22
think that's a red herring what what Tik
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Tok did that was truly different and
06:27
innovative was Tik Tok said oh you know
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these concepts of feeds that people are
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using where you have your followers and
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you scroll through a feed and you see
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people you follow Tik Tok said forget
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about following we're going to rebuild
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your feed from scratch based on who we
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think you're going to the like not who
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you've chosen to follow, but what the
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platform thinks you will spend time on,
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and we're going to optimize it for time
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spent. While Tik Tok didn't invent the
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algorithmic feed, they did crack the
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code on virality. For years, your feed
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was shaped by who you chose to follow.
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Tik Tok removed that control entirely,
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replacing it with a feed that didn't
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care about your social graph. Instead,
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every scroll was another data point,
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teaching the algorithm exactly what you
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would keep watching. The most successful
07:13
video I had right now was like at 68
07:15
million views right now.
07:18
>> I'm sorry, 68 million views.
07:20
>> Yeah, it's just me like turning into
07:21
>> Now, if it had just been Tik Tok that
07:24
did that, we all would have just left
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Tik Tok and and that would have been the
07:28
end of the story. But the thing is it
07:29
worked. Um, and by it worked, I mean Tik
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Tok built a very addictive
07:35
consumer experience that people couldn't
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tear themselves out of. And so traffic
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sort of siphoned off of Instagram and
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Facebook and all the other social apps
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and onto Tik Tok. And all the other
07:47
social apps saw this
07:50
and felt pressure to get traffic back.
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And the way that they did that was by
07:58
also ditching the follow in their
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systems and by building for you feeds.
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>> Tik Tok might say that its for you feed
08:06
democratized the internet. Suddenly,
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anyone could reach millions regardless
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of their follower count. And
08:12
simultaneously, viewers could discover
08:14
creators they'd never heard of. On the
08:15
surface, it looks like a win-win. But in
08:17
reality, this change had far worse
08:19
consequences. In Johan Har's bestselling
08:21
book, Stolen Focus, he documents exactly
08:23
what went wrong when these platforms
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rolled out these kinds of feeds.
08:28
>> The algorithm is neutral about the
08:30
question of whether it wants you to be
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calm or angry. That's not its concern.
08:33
It only cares about one thing. Will you
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keep scrolling? Unfortunately, there's a
08:37
quirk of human behavior. On average, we
08:39
will stare at something negative and
08:42
outrageous for a lot longer than we will
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stare at something positive and calm.
08:46
>> No, Mom. She's seriously
08:49
>> No, I know, but go like this for the
08:51
>> Social media has turned into a model
08:54
that serves the platforms more than the
08:56
creators or the audience. And as a
08:58
result, people are starting to turn
09:00
against it and they don't have any plans
09:01
to come back. So for me, when it comes
09:03
to incorporating technology into my
09:06
life, it's not about getting off the
09:07
grid and living in a cave. It's about
09:09
finding balance. I want technology to
09:11
add value to my life, to help me find
09:14
purpose, meaning, get clarity, and help
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quiet those late night thoughts about
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the rise of fascism, the collapse of the
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global economy, and the possibility that
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this country might be run by lizard
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people. That's where my sponsor,
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Probably shouldn't call you guys idiots.
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It's not good form.
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It's really easy to romanticize the
10:51
past. Social media was never this
10:53
perfect beacon of civilization. Early
10:55
on, it gave us internet stalking,
10:58
endless cringe, and yeah, a couple
11:00
beheading videos. But it's gotten
11:02
objectively worse. Even as we see an
11:04
explosion of creativity with independent
11:07
creators producing thoughtful,
11:09
hilarious, and inspiring work, these
11:11
voices are often getting drowned out by
11:13
professional grifters, fast-moving
11:16
trends, high production clickbait, and
11:18
AI generated content, most of which are
11:21
surfacing above the people that we chose
11:23
to follow in the first place. What was
11:25
once pitched as a town square now feels
11:27
more like reality TV on crack. Meta
11:29
itself admitted during the FTC trial
11:32
recently that just 7% of time spent on
11:34
Instagram in 2025 is spent viewing
11:37
content from friends. I think social
11:39
media has become less social like it's
11:42
more about just consuming this kind of
11:44
highly commodified content and it's more
11:47
about lifestyle aspiration things that
11:49
you are moving toward in your own life
11:51
not just like what's going on around you
11:53
and how are you relating to your friends
11:55
and family. I mean to me that kind of
11:57
removes the purpose of social media.
11:59
This trend of pushing viral content over
12:01
personal connections has led to more
12:03
profit in the short term. But there's a
12:05
huge problem. Even though the usage
12:07
numbers are still high, public sentiment
12:10
is turning against Tik Tok and
12:12
Instagram. People are starting to hate
12:14
>> I've been in a few dark places in my
12:16
life and a lot of it was influenced by
12:18
social comparison of social media.
12:20
>> I was getting to the point with social
12:22
media where I felt completely detached
12:24
from reality. I was more irritated with
12:27
my daughter. I was comparing my marriage
12:29
to other people's marriage. I felt more
12:30
insecure about my face, my hair, my
12:32
>> According to a recent poll, twothirds of
12:35
16 to 24 year olds think social media
12:36
does more harm than good. Plus, half
12:39
think that they spent too much time on
12:40
it when they were younger. As journalist
12:42
Gabby Hinsliff wrote, "This isn't how
12:44
someone talks about something they love,
12:46
but how you look back on a relationship
12:47
that was in retrospect making you
12:49
miserable." There's a fundamental
12:51
mismatch between the way our brains are
12:53
wired and this behavior of exposing
12:56
yourself to stimuli with intermittent
12:59
rewards throughout all of your waking
13:00
hours. So, it's one thing to spend a
13:02
couple hours at the slot machine in Las
13:03
Vegas, but if you bring a slot machine
13:05
with you and you pull that handle all
13:06
day long from when you wake up to when
13:08
you go to bed, we're not wired from it.
13:09
It shortcircuits the brain. And we're
13:11
starting to find that it has actual
13:13
cognitive consequences. One of them
13:14
being the sort of pervasive background
13:16
hum of anxiety. I don't understand how
13:18
the current model even works. Like, it
13:20
doesn't make sense to me because I speak
13:23
to very few people that say, "Oh, I love
13:25
Instagram. Oh, it's a joy. I open up
13:28
Instagram every day and just like it's a
13:30
blast scrolling through." How does this
13:31
all work? Like, why are people using
13:33
these platforms if they're making them
13:35
miserable? There is a difference between
13:37
and what we attend to.
13:41
That is the core of the pain we're
13:45
feeling. is that we will pay attention
13:47
to lots of things that aren't important
13:49
to us, that don't bring our lives
13:52
meaning and joy, that don't better us
13:54
over the long term, that don't enable
13:56
and help our brains and psyches and make
13:59
us feel good and strong and better.
14:01
We'll pay attention to all kinds of [ __ ]
14:03
that is not good for us. I know what the
14:06
[ __ ] is going on. I work at Patreon. I
14:09
work at a tech company. I've seen these
14:12
systems from the inside.
14:13
I personally had to set a time limit on
14:15
Instagram on my phone to stop myself
14:18
from going. I had to set a 10-minute
14:21
time limit. And I I do that now. And I
14:23
don't give myself more than 10 minutes.
14:26
Like, I had to draw a hard line because
14:29
these systems are so powerful. I
14:32
remember when I did my first social
14:35
media detox back in 2018. I quit all the
14:36
apps for 30 days. At the time, this was
14:39
still considered pretty new, if not
14:42
socially unacceptable. You really felt
14:44
like you were going to miss out on what
14:46
your friends were up to. It's different
14:47
now. Now, you're only missing out on
14:49
some viral trends and a quick hit of
14:51
dopamine. Digital detoxes and social
14:53
media cleanses aren't fringe anymore.
14:55
They're everywhere. Minimalist phones
14:57
and dumb apps are getting more and more
14:59
popular. Concerts and venues are asking
15:01
people to put their phones in bags or
15:03
cover their cameras with stickers to
15:05
encourage people to be more present. Put
15:07
>> In real life, organizations and groups
15:12
like the offline club are popping up
15:14
everywhere, encouraging people to ditch
15:16
their phones and meet in person. And a
15:18
lot more people, myself included, are
15:20
going one step further and deleting
15:22
these apps outright.
15:24
>> I want to get my life back. And I feel
15:25
like the only way to do this is to break
15:27
up with the internet.
15:29
>> I've decided to basically quit social
15:30
>> No Instagram, no Tik Tok, no Twitter,
15:34
nothing. I don't have social media. I'm
15:37
better than you. I'm frolicking in the
15:40
woods, scavenging ingredients to make my
15:42
>> The growing push back and the rising
15:45
dissatisfaction among users is a serious
15:46
problem for social platforms. None of
15:49
them want people to dislike or regret
15:51
their experience, but they can't help
15:53
themselves. They're caught between
15:55
satisfying users and generating profit.
15:57
And within a system built for endless
15:59
growth, their choice is always going to
16:01
be for the latter. the one thing that
16:03
might stop them is if this push back
16:05
grows enough to hurt their bottom line.
16:07
>> That it's already part of the public
16:09
consciousness and the public
16:10
conversation. So it seems to me that
16:11
we're in this pivotal moment for
16:14
for for humans right now. If I really
16:18
step back, I I actually have a lot of
16:22
hope. And I have hope because humanity's
16:24
only been trying to figure this out for
16:27
two decades. Like the internet is brand
16:29
new and and it's it's pervasive and
16:31
dramatic and it represents a massive
16:34
change for human communication and
16:37
organization. It's going to take humans
16:39
a little while to figure that out.
16:41
Thanks so much to Jack for sitting down
16:44
to chat with me for this video. Check
16:45
out the links in the description to
16:47
learn more about what he's up to. And
16:48
thanks again to Headspace. Don't forget
16:50
to grab 60 days free with my link
16:51
headspace.com/mattella.
16:54
Thanks for watching and see you next
16:56