"God only knows what it's doing to our children's brains," confesses Sean Parker who was Facebook's founding president. Facebook designers intentionally made their platform physiologically addictive to give the user a dopamine hit when people "liked" their posting, or responded with a positive comment. They called it the social-validation feedback loop, and not only does it play directly into human brokenness, but it also is behind all social media platforms and many video games. As bad as that is, it's even worse when people don't feel validated by their social media. Sociologists are only beginning to wrestle with the collateral damage to those who aren't popular in social media and credit the problem to increased teen depression and suicide. Wayne and Brad dive into this dilemma and the conversations we need to be having to help ourselves and our children resist this sinister force.

Podcast Notes:

Axios Interview with Sean Parker, the first President of Facebook

Time Magazine article on Children and social media

Time Magazine: "Is Your Kid Hooked on Smartphones? 5 Tips for Parents"

The latest news from our project in Kenya

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