Facebook and Social Media are programming us to think and act in a certain way and it is not good!

Facebook has been in the news for its algorithms, fake news and targeted advertising. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been quick to acknowledge the problems and has promised to start working on them, but - is it too late? Many seem to think it is.

Several Facebook employees, both past, and present have said they had ‘no idea’ what they were creating when they started working at Facebook. But now, Chamath Palihapitiya, the former VP of the social media site, has voiced his dismay. He says that social media is destroying the fabric of society, and he may well be right.

Our news feeds are filled with pictures of babies and dogs but also filled with mistruth and misinformation. Sometimes it is hard to tell what is real and what is not and we read and spread news stories that are totally wrong. Rumors get started and as we know, even the wrong Presidents can be elected! There are people ‘behind the scenes’ who manipulate what we read, how we think and what we share. Sometimes, we don't know who we are anymore and who to believe.

Zuckerberg has admitted that there are several problems and is trying hard to fix them. But - alarm bells should have been sounded earlier. Facebook hooks us in. Not just Facebook, all social media sites. They’re addictive and we spend far too much time scrolling through meaningless information. It’s not good for our mental health or our social health, and we do need to monitor our time on Facebook better and monitor what we see.

It’s a good idea to start thinking now about how much time you spend on social media and if you can, limit it. Better yet, stop it completely if you can. Your life will be richer without it.