Of course the internet is addictive, just like slot machines and cocaine. And it should be regulated as such. Social media, just like a slot machine, or a mob

Of course the internet is addictive, just like slot machines and cocaine. And it should be regulated as such. Social media, just like a slot machine, or a mobile game which is engineered to rob whales of thousands of their hard earned dollars, is optimized to create the type of reward signal which will result in a behavioral loop which will keep users coming back. Using data collected from the usage patters over billions of sessions, they've been able to test and craft a user experience which affects human psychology in such a way that a huge majority of people will be extremely compelled by it, and many users will not be able to resist falling into this behavior pattern even if they try. Especially children who don't have a fully-developed prefrontal cortex yet. We have a long history of regulating things like this. For instance, it used to be possible to buy cocaine over the pharmacy counter in the US. But at a certain point we realized that this substance was stronger than human will in many cases, that there was a lot of harm being created by it, so we regulated it. The only open question about social media is the harm component. For instance coffee is extremely habit forming, but we don't regulate it because the social harm is negligible. But I would argue the negative externalities caused by social media has already been demonstrated. Social media incentivizes engagement, which is most reliably cultivated by content creating emotionally charged responses, outrage, and conflict. As a result, the rise in social media has led to a decrease in social cohesion, and the rampant spread of misinformation and conspiracy theories. I suspect in 50 years we will look back at unregulated social media the same way we look back at selling cocaine at the pharmacy.