The First Amendment and the Social Media Dilemma

Social media poses problems far more serious than misinformation campaigns, but solutions consistent with the First Amendment are not clear.

We have heard much lately from folks like Jonathan Haidt and Jean Twenge regarding the harms of smartphones and social media. These include a rise in anxiety, suicidality, and depression among young people, especially girls. They also include addiction for most adults and an increased polarization of society generally. But many of the solutions offered for these problems are questionable under existing First Amendment doctrines. We need continued scholarly effort into finding solutions, and that requires fully understanding the problem. What follows is an excerpt from Chapter 2 of my book Habits of a Peacemaker, "Seek Real Learning," and it provides just a brief introduction into part of what all of us are up against in the smartphone and social media era:

When we encounter something that brings us stimulation, our brains release dopamine. The effect of dopamine is usually pleasure, euphoria, the thrill of anticipation, and the desire to want to pursue the stimulant. When we eat a sugary treat, or have sex, or drink alcohol, or take drugs, or do anything else that stimulates us, our brains create dopamine. As Stanford addiction researcher Doctor Anna Lembke explains, "The more dopamine a [particular stimulant] releases in the brain's reward pathway … , and the faster it releases dopamine, the more addictive the drug." And once our brains release dopamine, they immediately begin to rebalance themselves by reducing the amount of dopamine they are creating. This is why we often feel additional cravings for something after enjoying it. As soon as the effect of the dopamine wears off, we find ourselves in a dopamine deficit, which causes us to want to seek out another hit of dopamine.

This is an important component to addiction. We experience something, our brains release dopamine, we feel euphoric (high), we crash, then we seek it again. This process becomes even worse if what we are addicted to is easily available. Research has proven this again and again. From drugs, to digital addictions, to alcohol, to pornography—the easier we can access a high dopamine-producing substance, behavior, or content, the more likely we are to become addicted to it.

All of this relates to smartphones and social media and their interference with our ability to engage in real learning and to be peacemakers. Every time we see a notice—of a like, a text, a comment, some interesting piece of news, a million other things—our brains release a shot of dopamine. It feels good. So we look for the next one, and the next one, and the next one. Give anyone a smartphone, and within a short period of time, you will see them regularly grabbing and checking it. They are seeking, often subconsciously, that next hit of dopamine. So much so that many of us cannot go more than a few minutes without at least glancing at our phones to see if something is waiting for us. We see drivers do it at every red light. We see people do it during movies at the theater.…

The most important source of those hits, for the purposes of this book, are news and information that get us riled up about the hot topics of the day. Notices about something that has happened in the political landscape that interests us will trigger a dopamine release. If we have commented on a news story or someone's political post on social media, reactions to our comment will release dopamine.

Like rats in an experiment, we will continue to seek it out.

But unlike many addictive substances or practices, which must be done in private, smartphone use and reading and commenting on the news has yet to cause any social backlash. It is perfectly acceptable in our environment to pick up our phones and seek that latest dopamine hit, from a text, a like, an article, a video, a stock report. We can't do that with illicit drugs, but we do it all day long with our phones.

And it is in that milieu that every single one of us is operating. At a moment's notice, we can pick up a small device to keep our addictions going. As you will see, that destroys our ability to connect with others and engage in productive conversations with them. …

Every time you grab your smart phone, you should picture in your mind's eye teams of mathematicians, computer programmers, and psychologists whose entire job is to keep you hooked on that device. I do not mean that rhetorically. I am not using hyperbole. One of the major goals of many tech companies—the phone manufacturers … the app developers, the social media companies—is to keep you on your device for as long as possible. Their business model depends on keeping your attention.…

A sad irony is that if peacemakers become who they are based on their habits, technology companies are hoping to mold you into what they want you to become by forcing habits upon you.…

Long before smartphones, the gambling industry pioneered getting people addicted to gaming. Especially with computer-controlled games like slot machines, [says Professor Natasha Dow Schüll], their goal was to hook users, hold them with a series of expertly timed rewards (just enough wins or other dopamine-triggering events), until their interactions with the machine resulted in a "downward spiral … a continuous, rapid, responsive interaction with the machine, precluding pauses or spaces in which she might reflect or stop." In other words, the goal was for gamblers' play to become habitual, mindless.

Given how successful the gambling world was at snaring people, it is hardly surprising that other industries would want to follow the model. And they have. To give you a sense of what you're up against, consider what one mathematician … told researchers in Schüll's book Addicted by Design: "'Math is the sharp end of my spear,'" he said. He uses math to both hook people and catch them. "'Once you've hooked 'em in, you want to keep pulling money out of them until you have it all; the barb is in and you're yanking the hook.'" …

Picture rooms of mathematics geniuses and psychologists—not working to solve some disease or place human beings on the moon but focused solely on keeping you hooked.…

How does all of this relate to the ability to establish a habit of real learning that will allow you to be a peacemaker? One of the ways these various companies keep you addicted and keep triggering dopamine is through outrage.… In other words, fearful opinions, frightening news, stories of threats to you and your family—these create the same dopamine hits in our brains as much less nefarious things like "likes" to our photos. So, we return to them. We consume them more and more. In time, we come to see the world not as a complex system with equally complex problems in need of sophisticated solutions but as one in which threats and fools abound.…

Every time we pick up our phones … we need to remind ourselves what those teams of psychologists and mathematicians are doing. They are not trying to pass on real information. They are not interested in our learning anything or becoming better citizens or being peacemakers. Whether we like it or not, they are trying to manipulate us, from the moment we let our eyes fall upon any screen in our lives. They are a formidable opponent in our efforts to engage in real learning.