Even Mark Zuckerberg, the Founder of Facebook, Doesn't Like Where Social Media Is Going

Social media’s come a long way. Gone were the innocent and cringey days of Friendster and Multiple. Now, we spend an average of four hours a day on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok falling down the rabbit hole of doom scrolling. No one has the patience to read long posts anymore. Now, it’s all about seven-second clips of silly dances and other mind-numbing content. 

We’ve all felt the urge to go on a social media break because of how toxic and consuming the landscape has become—and even Mark Zuckerberg isn’t happy with what social media has transformed into. 

The founder of Facebook, Zuckerberg talked on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast to share his thoughts on the direction social media is going. 

“If you’re just sitting there and consuming stuff, I mean, it’s not necessarily bad, but it generally isn’t associated with all the positive benefits you get from being actively engaged or building relationships,” said Zuckerberg. 

The irony of this has not escaped us. Social media might be intended to connect people, but its advertising-reliant business model depends on content consumption. It’s a model that Facebook championed, but it looks like Zuckerberg isn’t pleased with the longterm results. 

According to a number of studies, social media can be either good or bad for you depending on how you use it. Moderation is key in developing a healthy relationship with social media. Relationships are at the heart of Meta’s new direction, which is all about the metaverse and cultivating experiences and relationships there. 

“I don’t necessarily want the people to spend more time with computers,” he said. “I just want the time that people spend with screens to be better.”

It looks like Zuckerberg’s learned his lessons from Facebook’s days as the unofficial champion of hate and anger online. His metaverse will be working against the harmful effects of social media as its codes have been tweaked to promote positivity in the metaverse. 

“If someone kind of gives an angry reaction, we actually don’t even count that in terms of whether to show that to someone else,” Zuckerberg said. “We just don’t want to amplify anger.”

Will Meta usher in a new age on social media? Or will we fall deeper into the rabbit hole of doom scrolling and consumerism? Only time will tell.