Social Loss Aversion

When people say social media is poisoning society, I think they're being intellectually lazy. Social media is primarily a neutral tool. It's a technology just like radio, TV, newspaper headlines, or money.

One might find Netflix addictive, but movies aren't destroying society, are they?

Social media generally enhances connection, building upon the miracle of the internet. Maybe Bluesky or other Fediverse options are more humane in design than Facebook...but you don't have to use any of them.

Social media platforms only amplify and channel intrinsic human traits. As adults, we poison ourselves with our unprocessed thoughts and actions—if and when we let our dopamine get the better of us. Mostly there's a consumer problem in taste, which stems from how we're wired.

The concept of loss aversion, thanks again to Kahneman and Tversky, explains how humans feel the painful loss of $500 nearly equally strongly as a joyous gain of $1,000. Framing something from a deficit is twice as powerful as showing someone the upside.

I'm guilty of scrolling on Linkedin and losing myself. We're all prone to making needlessly negative comparisons. Social media just highlights how mentally weak we are when we perceive people to be much better looking, more successful, or seemingly happier than us.

So will we hate ourselves, complain about society being unfair, and stay stuck in our circumstances? Or will we simply get a move on, and join the ranks of those overcoming their all-too-human deficits by doing something about them?

If we choose to grapple with our negative thoughts, we might take the opportunity to apply some positive reframes. We can tell ourselves we're aiming high instead of falling short. We start to prioritize what to do about where we are in life. We become agentic and break free of low-status boxes.

Each day brings a new opportunity to recognize a gap and work to fill it, rather than agonizing subconsciously about it.

"There's nothing to lose" might be too glib...

Perhaps, in fact, there's everything.