Trump : Imagine a world that considers knowledge to be “elitist”. Imagine a world in which it is not medical knowledge but a free-for-all opinion market on Twitter that determineswhether a newly emergent strain of avian flu is really contagious to humans. Thisdystopian future is still just that—a possible future.



Climat change : Trump on climate change report: 'I don't believe it' (26 November 2018)
anti-vaxxers : measles outbreak in USA and Europe
trump election : in the next slide



Graphs : we can see facebook's engagement in fighting fake news (and also the rise of fake news in 2016 where they were considered a real problem in the american election, since they directly and indirectly influenced the voters)
We can also see the surge of fake news in twitter, this latter is facing difficulties in repressing fake news



Instagram : Among all his siblings, instagram is the most known social media for inducing FOMO, giving unrealistic life standards, and killing self esteem.

In early 2017, the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) conducted a UK-wide survey of 1,479
14-24 year olds asking them about five of the most popular social media platforms: Facebook,
Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter and Youtube. The aim of the survey was to find out how they feel
each of these platforms impacts their health and wellbeing (both positively and negatively) and
make comparisons between these platforms, as well as asking them their views on a number of
policy recommendations.
In the next part I'll mainly focus on Instagram as an example to discuss the impact of social media on mental health





In the study all social received negative marks —especially for sleep quality, bullying, body image and FOMO.
Previous studies have suggested that young people who spend more than two hours a day on social networking sites are more likely to report psychological distress. “Seeing friends constantly on holiday or enjoying nights out can make young people feel like they are missing out while others enjoy life,” the #StatusOfMind report states. “These feelings can promote a ‘compare and despair’ attitude.”
Social media posts can also set unrealistic expectations and create feelings of inadequacy and low self-esteem, the authors wrote. This may explain why Instagram, where personal photos take center stage, received the worst scores for body image and anxiety. As one survey respondent wrote, “Instagram easily makes girls and women feel as if their bodies aren’t good enough as people add filters and edit their pictures in order for them to look





The stanford marshmallow experiment
The fact is, the political elites have you fooled. Blaming technology is a clever distraction, not showing that inequality is politically driven and that political changes could lessen it.
Well, If it’s not technology, what really is fueling the economy?
Dopamine.
Successful individuals and those in political power are aware of this. One of the original developers of the Facebook newsfeed even said that the thing which made it successful wasn’t the software at all. But it was actually the scroll wheel on a mouse. Because with this your hand never has to leave its resting position, you just scroll and keep looking. You’ll see how this connects later in the piece.





To start off; what is dopamine and instant gratification?
Dopamine is a neurochemical created in various parts of the brain and is critical in all sorts of brain functions, including thinking, moving, sleeping, mood, attention, motivation, seeking and reward. Dopamine causes you to want, desire, seek out, and search. It increases your general level of arousal and your goal-directed behaviour [3].
Therefore, because of dopamine giving us the desire to seek and be rewarded is where the issue of instant gratification comes in.
Instant gratification’ is the immediate attainability of satisfaction and happiness. It is a way of experiencing pleasure and fulfillment without delay or patience because it provides a spike in dopamine without effort or discipline.




It gives users a false sense of fulfillment. People enjoy the rush of their phones vibrating with a new notification because it’s unpredictable; you don’t know exactly when they will, or who they will be from.
Robert Sapolsky talks about the idea of the “Magic maybe” When you look at your phone and maybe there’s a text there or maybe there’s not. When it does show up you get a great spike in dopamine.
But the feeling of that pleasure disappears quickly after it comes.
Therefore, it’s easy to get into a dopamine induced loop. Dopamine starts you seeking, then you get rewarded for the seeking which makes you seek more. It becomes harder and harder to stop looking at email, stop texting or stop checking your phone to see if you have a new notification.
You can now see how the scroll wheel was so pinnacle to Facebook’s success. This too is how social media has millions hooked.