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Change the System Like It Is 1964? Great Idea

June 9, 2025

I was watching the Chelsea Benfica match and cruising posts in my newsfeed. What did I spot? A great goal? Nope, an essay titled “Engineered Addictions: How Silicon Valley Is Putting a Price Tag on Your Attention and Relationships.” My reaction? I said to myself, “I am 80. I don’t do Facebook. A bot posts links to my essays to LinkedIn. My little write ups are automatically posted to the estimable WordPress. I am generally happy; I am not bullied; and I am not glued to my mobile phone or phones. I think I have three of four in my office.

The write up expresses concern with the “system” spitting out products and services that many users cannot kick; they are addicted. The essay explains how Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, MBAs, and lawyers operate. Here’s a boiled down very of the recipe for digital heroin:

  • Start with pure intentions
  • Chase growth and money
  • Optimize engagement (the digital equivalent of “Hey, kid, wanna try something heavy?”)
  • Manipulate the algorithm to keep the kiddos hooked or the GenX, GenY, GenZ, GenAI, and addicted
  • Forget the pure intentions and make as much money as possible and pay for a wedding in Venice.

The author highlights some ideas for changing this five-step program to winning. Here is a summary of the suggestions:

  • Different ways to fund a Silicon Valley-type start up
  • Regulate algorithms
  • Don’t allow Google-type charge people coming and going systems
  • Don’t fixate on clicks.

Each of these invites a snappy rejoinder from this dinobaby. If you don’t fund the Silicon Valley way, the output won’t be a Silicon Valley product or service that makes money. If you can get regulators to understand algorithms, go for it. If not, you may as well talk to your dog. Charging coming and going is the way to win. One doesn’t leave money on the table in Silicon Valley or anywhere for that matter. If clicks exist, MBAs will count them and do whatever is necessary to get more clicks, sell advertising, and have a wedding in Venice.

I want to quote one passage from the essay. It illustrates the author’s passion and the impracticality of changing what is the dominant business style of the 21st century in Silicon Valley aka Plastic Fantastic:

But we took a catastrophic wrong turn when we optimized for engagement over connection, for time-on-platform over user wellbeing, for extraction over authentic relationship. Now we’re fighting a battle against the architecture of distraction, against companies that profit from fractured attention and frayed mental health. The fight isn’t against the people using the tools, or even the people building them. It’s against the systems that make addiction profitable and authentic connection impossible. We built these platforms. We can build better ones. But only if we’re willing to abandon the economic models that made the current ones inevitable. Until we change those incentives, every attempt to fix social media will become part of the problem it’s trying to solve.

Several comments appear in the dot points below:

  • The “we” happens to be more than five billion users of online systems and services. The fractured attention and the frayed mental health are what users want. Remember: Addiction.
  • Fighting “the system” is a throwback. The protests in the 1960s did not work. The protests (if they manifest themselves in 2025) won’t work. Big piles of money buy power. The effort to move that money and power is beyond the resources of those who want to change the system. Want proof? Russia influenced Telegram to block five Ukrainian channels. Pavel Durov is for free speech until he isn’t. That’s a system demonstrating that it may not have much power, but Mr. Putin has power.
  • Abandon economic models. That sounds like music to the ears of die hard believers in non-democratic systems. How’s that working out?

I can make one prediction with certainty: Chaos seems to be the main goal of action today. How is that working out? The answer is, in my opinion, why five billion people are glued to their mobile phones and laptops. Reality is unreal. The generated world is better. Chill out. Relax. Google can explain why more data centers for hallucinating AI really helps thwart global warning. As I said, reality is unreal.

Stephen E Arnold, July 8, 2025

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under Uncategorized 

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