[zombieprocesses]

> Am I the only person that has a healthy relationship with social media?

You are confusing a propaganda campaign against social media with actual news. Also keep in mind that the author of the Op-Ed was pushing a book he was writing.

Billions of people have a healthy relationship with social media. Just like billions of people have a healthy relationship with alcohol, food, working out, tv, sports, cars, etc. But it's funny how every day we are bombarded by the news media on social media ( ironically enough ) about how evil facebook and social media is.

OP's post is from November 2016. Why do you think it was posted on HN? Billions of dollars being spent on "cambridge analytics" style firms to put pressure on facebook, google and social media in general. So expect to see a lot of social media bashing as the elites try to reign in social media.

That's all it is. Once zuckerburg bends the knee like most social media entities have, the media and the will back off. Just like they did with reddit and google/youtube.

[9889095r3jh]

Why would the elites try to reign in social media? If I were an "elite" I'd want everyone to be on social media, except me. I'd want them revealing all the intimate details of their life, so I can better manipulate them with targted advertising.

You don't need a conspiracy theory to explain the recent uptick in articles about social media's negative effects. It's called a news cycle. People write stories about things people are talking about. All year, Social Media has been in the spotlight for privacy blunders and news that nation states spread propoganda with bots. So people like Cal Newport are talking about it.

Remember when lead was discovered in Flint, MI's water supply? And then there was an uptick in stories about lead poisoning? That's how news works, for better or worse.

[zombieprocesses]

> Why would the elites try to reign in social media?

To better control it?

> I'd want them revealing all the intimate details of their life, so I can better manipulate them with targted advertising.

Yes. As long as they control the targeting and advertising.

> You don't need a conspiracy theory to explain the recent uptick in articles about social media's negative effects.

It's not a conspiracy. It's reality. It's what happened with every communication medium. Print, Radio, Film, TV and now the internet. To believe otherwise is the real conspiracy.

> It's called a news cycle.

It doesn't span years.

> Remember when lead was discovered in Flint, MI's water supply? And then there was an uptick in stories about lead poisoning?

Crazy how quickly that downed down huh?

That the elites want to control the means of communication is standard policy for thousands of years. And it spans all nations. The chinese elite, russian elite, saudi elite, the european elites, etc all want to control communication. Our elites aren't different. Societies, like humans, have similar organs.