the marlboro man moment
Many of us will have welcomed the US court ruling t’other week regarding Meta, YouTube et al. The twenty year old plaintiff had sued the parent companies of four social platforms for damaging her mental health by intentionally addicting her to their products. Her lawyers argued they had built ‘traps not apps’ and the jury, by ten to two, agreed and gave her $6m for her trouble.
Undoubtedly a blow to the tech giants, the question now is whether, in light of the cigarette litigation of the 1990s, this proves to be a seminal moment? The answer appears to hinge on the definition of ‘publishing’. Kaley GM’s lawyers got round this thorny issue by arguing that Big Tech was negligent in how they intentionally designed their apps: like Big Tobacco, they sold a knowingly harmful product, and covered-up evidence of the damage it caused. Furthermore, highly selective replay algorithms invariably decide what you see next, and this IMHO clearly defines them as publishers. Not that my opinion was sought.
There is certainly a mounting correlation between social media use and deteriorating mental but it is complex and contested, and these platforms are not remotely like cigarettes. They can have tremendous social value when used correctly with moderation and a modicum of common-sense. However, whilst I am confident we’ll see tech firms voluntarily rowing back on doom-scrolling, autoplay, beauty filters and the like, the elephant in the room is ‘has social media actually had its day’, in reality has it lost its thrill and ability to hit the dopamine-spot?
For almost two decades, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter helped most people with work, provided an instant group of witty, caustic friends and made them feel at the centre of things – relevant and wanted. People suddenly had the tools with which to get the latest on any news item, story, celebrity gossip, sacking, resignation, meme, illness or breakfast snack. We all know someone who has successfully dated someone they met on social media and even Greg Wallace managed to lure two of his wives out from the ether. But its attraction, along with Greg’s, appear to be wearing thin.
According to the FT, the amount of time spent on social media peaked in 2022 and has been steadily declining ever since. In 2024, adults in the developed world spent an average of two hours twenty minutes on various platforms, a decrease of 10% in just two years. Notably, the reduction is most marked among those once seen as the keenest users – teens and twentysomethings. Separately, more recent polling has found that nearly a third of all users post less than they did a year ago and the proportion who use it to meet new people has fallen by more than a quarter since 2014.
It will come as no great surprise that no fewer than three actors who portrayed the iconic smoking ‘Marlboro Man’ in cigarette ads died from lung cancer and lead to the campaign being nicknamed ‘Cowboy Killers’. Notwithstanding our own personal responsibility to instinctively limit what we know isn’t good for us (or our loved ones), it transpires that maybe communicating with the whole world, and hearing back in real-time, in no uncertain terms exactly what that world thinks of you, is not something we are built to do. Present company excepted obvs!
