“God only knows what it’s doing to our children’s brains.”
A view on social media shared not by some uninformed luddite, but by one of the people responsible for building Facebook into the social media titan it is today.
Sean Parker, Facebook’s founding president, unloaded his worries and criticisms of the network, saying he had no idea what he was doing at the time of its creation.
Speaking on stage to Mike Allen from Axios, Mr Parker said: "The thought process that went into building these applications, Facebook being the first of them, was all about: 'How do we consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible?’"
“That means that we need to sort of give you a little dopamine hit every once in a while, because someone liked or commented on a photo or a post or whatever.
"And that's going to get you to contribute more content, and that's going to get you... more likes and comments.”
'Unintended consequences'
Mr Parker first rose to tech prominence as the creator of pioneering file-sharing service Napster.
In the Facebook story, it was Mr Parker who steered the firm into Silicon Valley and put Mark Zuckerberg’s idea in front of big name investors.
Those early days were reimagined in the film the Social Network. Mr Parker was played by Justin Timberlake.
"When Facebook was getting going,” Mr Parker said on Wednesday, "I had these people who would come up to me and they would say, 'I'm not on social media.’
"And I would say, 'OK. You know, you will be.’”
He then added: "I don't know if I really understood the consequences of what I was saying, because [of] the unintended consequences of a network when it grows to a billion or two billion people and, it literally changes your relationship with society, with each other.
"It probably interferes with productivity in weird ways. God only knows what it's doing to our children's brains."
As for his own habits, Mr Parker said he no longer used social media as it was “too much of a time sink”.
However, he said he still had an account on Facebook. "If Mark hears this he’s probably going to suspend my account,” he joked.
Facebook did not respond to the BBC's request for reaction to the comments.
“I use these platforms, I just don’t let these platforms use me,” Mr Parker concluded.
Latest Stories
-
Rheumatologist sheds light on hidden challenges persons living with lupus face
2 hours -
Ghana, Nigeria and the quest for UK looted treasure
2 hours -
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, says Nigeria is ‘my country’ on visit with Prince Harry
2 hours -
Man who received first pig kidney transplant dies
3 hours -
Akufo-Addo pays tribute at funeral of late former DCE and chief of Binaba
3 hours -
Afronita hopeful of making it to Britain’s Got Talent semi-finals
3 hours -
Oprah Winfrey speaks of ‘biggest regret’ as she opens up about weight loss struggles
3 hours -
Arsenal beat Man Utd to return top and keep title race alive
3 hours -
Djokovic greets fans with a helmet after being hit by bottle
3 hours -
Leverkusen beat Bochum to go 50 games unbeaten
3 hours -
How Kendrick Lamar and Drake changed rap beefs forever
3 hours -
Harry and Meghan visit Lagos school on final day of Nigeria tour
4 hours -
World’s top coffee, soy and sugar supplier Brazil wants to rule cocoa, too
4 hours -
Yaw Nsarkoh: I remember Paulin Hountondji…
4 hours -
Inspiring Love Story: How Otumfuo Osei Tutu II and adorable Lady Julia first met; 6 lessons learnt
4 hours