tiktok

why Instagram and TikTok are designed to make you hate billionaires’ vacations

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With the imminent arrival of summer, the screens of our mobile phones prepare for the ritual of each year: an incessant avalanche of photographs of celebrities and billionaires exhibiting their opulence. In the coming weeks we will consume thousands of images of celebrities sunbathing on the decks of their megayachts, we will discuss the details of exclusive getaways – surely the honeymoon of Dua Lipa and Callum Turner, newlyweds – and we will witness a level of luxury that is simply unattainable. What changes this season is what those images no longer generate: indifference. This visual hyper-exposition of wealth is no longer harmless gossip magazine entertainment. As an opinion column by The Confidentialincessantly seeing what the rich brag about on the Internet has become “the greatest engine of resentment that humanity has known.” And behind this dazzling showcase, the data reveal an unprecedented social fracture. While ordinary citizens juggle paying the rent or the shopping basket, the wealth of billionaires reached an all-time high of $18.3 trillion in 2025, as revealed by the latest global report Oxfam Intermón. Anatomy of resentment: what happens when you look at that photo To understand why a photograph of a billionaire drinking champagne on a yacht today generates so much hostility—and not just passing envy—you have to turn to psychology. A study published in the scientific journal Cyberpsychology empirically demonstrates that continuous visual exposure to symbols of wealth on social networks pushes users to make constant and involuntary comparisons. The mechanism is precise: Every image of a private jet or superyacht deck triggers what researchers call “relative deprivation.” It’s not that we feel like we’re missing something in the abstract; It is that, by seeing what others exhibit, we feel much more intensely and concretely what we lack. The screen turns statistical inequality into a personal wound. But this is not new. The rich have always existed, and so has envy. The relevant question is another: what has changed in the last decade for resentment to have increased in such a specific and global way? The answer lies not in inequality itself—which has been growing for decades—but in the dose of exposure, which is unprecedented in human history. For centuries, human beings compared themselves to those close to them: the neighbor, the co-worker, the cousin who did better. It was a limited and tolerable horizon of comparison. Social networks destroyed that limit definitively. Today the telephone confronts you with 0.001% of the world’s wealth dozens of times a day, involuntarily, while you have breakfast, on the bus or before going to sleep. Psychologists call this “continuous upward social comparison”: You no longer compare yourself with your real environment, but with the global elite, on a loop and without rest. Relative deprivation is not new. What is historically unprecedented is the frequency with which they rub it in your face. This accumulated frustration, image by image and day by day, is reconfiguring our own identity. In a world where the cost of living suffocates the middle classes, essayist Mark Edmundson argues in the pages of The New York Timesyes that hate has acquired a new social function: it has become a quick way to define who we are. “I hate, therefore I am.” Loathing the elite gives many people purpose in the midst of modern precariousness. What is disturbing is not the phrase, but that it is sociologically accurate. The algorithm, perfect accomplice Social media is not a neutral mirror of reality: it is a machine designed to amplify exactly this type of content. As explained Psychology Today, Posts that use moral or emotional language act as a powerful magnet for hate speech and viralization. The more outrageous an image, the more it is shared; The more it is shared, the more the algorithm recommends it. The result is increasingly aggressive ideological bubbles, fed in a loop. This mechanism is not accidental. The algorithms of platforms like TikTok and Instagram are designed to maximize screen time prioritizing content that generates strong emotional reactions, regardless of whether those reactions are positive or negative. A yacht in Ibiza published by an heir generates more interaction than any neutral content: first impact, then anger, then debate, then virality. The system does not create resentment, but it turns it into fuel and returns it amplified. Interestingly, this dynamic is causing the truly rich to start hiding. The consulting firm Bain & Company, cited by financial magazine Fortunewarns of the rise of the “shame of luxury” (luxury shame): faced with the increase in social tension and collective anger, many elites are choosing to hide their logos and status symbols for fear of public rejection. The yacht is still there; What changes is that it is no longer published. Capitalizing on fury The most immediate danger of this resentment is not the hate itself, but where it is directed. The anger generated by seeing a private jet on Instagram could be channeled into demands for tax justice. Too often, however, it ends up being hijacked by political actors who reorient it towards other objectives. A report from Washington Post documents how far-right influencers deliberately exploit the economic hopelessness of young people: they take the rage of a suffocated generation and divert it not towards billionaires, but towards scapegoats. Class resentment turns into identity conflict. While the working classes fight among themselves, the ultra-rich consolidate their power. According to the report of Oxfama billionaire is today 4,000 times more likely to hold political office than an ordinary citizen. Yachts are not just a symbol of wealth. They are also a declaration of impunity. Perhaps the most accurate diagnosis comes from someone who knows the upper echelons well and is not afraid to say so. In an interview with Guardianacclaimed novelist Yann Martel—author of Life of Pi and self-confessed millionaire—confessed his position with unusual crudeness: “I hate the rich people of this world, of which I am a part (…). Our world is being destroyed by greed and wealth.” The paradox is … Read more

The biggest culprit of children’s addiction to screens is not the TikTok algorithm: it is the parents themselves

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Having children seems to activate a part of the brain that forces us to say the repeated phrase “Leave the machine now,” referring to the cell phone or portable game console. Here, logically, concern about the screen time of the little ones monopolizes the conversations of the most current parents, but the reality is that science is beginning to see that the fault for these behaviors really lies with the parents themselves. A reality. The debate over whether children are born “addicted” to technology fades when we look at the empirical evidence. It’s not just that the devices are designed to capture attention; is that a child’s first and most powerful learning algorithm is to observe their parents who spend the day in front of the screen. Bandura’s theory. To understand why the little ones don’t put down the tablet, you first have to travel back a few decades, to psychologist Albert Bandura’s social learning theory. This theoretical framework, widely validated, establishes that children do not learn primarily by what they are told, but by observation and imitation, especially of those they perceive as close and competent, such as their parents. Literally, we are talking about sponges that do not lose detail of anything. Four phases. In order to learn through this route, it is first necessary for the child to pay attention to the behavior of his or her ‘reference’ adult, such as his or her father or mother. From there, he will begin to retain the pattern made by his caregiver in his memory, almost as a normative behavior, and develop the physical ability to imitate the gesture. But it goes further, since by observing reinforcements, such as their parents laughing when they see the cell phone, an association with a positive stimulus is created. This is really important because you see that doing that action is something that is not dangerous at all, but rather fun and enjoyable. Modern pediatrics. Beyond this theory, a recent meta-analysis Published this year in the prestigious journal JAMA Pediatrics, it has analyzed the impact of the use of technology by parents in the presence of their children. This brings together a total of 21 previous investigations and covers 14,900 participants from 10 countries, empirically demonstrating that there is a direct association between the time that parents spend in front of a screen and the time that their children end up spending with them. But in addition, it has also been seen how it can generate a negative impact on children’s cognition or an increase in externalizing behaviors such as tantrums or anxiety. The cell phone on the table. The disconnection created by the smartphone not only creates a role model, but breaks the two-way interaction that children need for healthy brain development. Something relevant is that 70% of parents admit to being distracted by their mobile phone when they are with their children, and here is a study in Pediatrics in 2014 where this phenomenon was observed; This phenomenon has already been observed in the fast food restaurant environment. According to your data40% of parents were so engrossed in their devices during meals that they ignored their children completely. But even worse was when children tried to get their attention, often escalating their behavior, and simply causing parents to respond more physically or verbally when they felt interrupted. The recommendations. The American Pediatric Association is quite clear pointing out that children under 18 months should completely avoid screens, and in the 2 to 5 year age group it can be introduced for a maximum of 1 hour a day and as long as high-quality and accompanied content is watched. Images | hessam nabavi In Xataka | We say we are “depressed” beyond our means: where does the illness end and where does the illness begin?

TikTok now has an answer for those who don’t want to see ads: check out

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Consuming social networks for free and without any type of advertisement is something that has been disappearing for years. Bombarding with advertising to later launch a payment model is something that applications like Instagram learned very well, and now TikTok is beginning to follow in its footsteps. TikTok Ad-Free. TikTok began testing a payment model back in 2023 in the United Statesan idea that did not spread beyond American territory. The company now makes official TikTok Ad-Free in UKopening the ban to expand it to the rest of the regions. How it works. The company has announced that, “in the coming months”, users over 18 years of age will be able to gradually subscribe to the new advertising-free option, TikTok Ad-Free. Those who continue using the free version will see no changes, and will see personalized ads. The price is £3.99 per month, in exchange for not seeing a single ad on TikTok and our data not being used for advertising purposes. It’s something that sounds familiar to us. Instagram Vibes. In 2024, Meta gave his ultimatum: either it was checked out or our information would be used for advertising purposes to show us the relevant advertisements. On Instagram they went a step further, since paying users not only got rid of ads: they got a verification badge and got more “love” from Instagram in terms of the visibility of their own account if they were a content creator. Why is it important. TikTok is in the crosshairs of the European Commissionas you consider your ad library to be non-compliant the Digital Services Law. The social network will have to be especially careful when implementing measures related to ads and data collection, even more so if billing is involved. In the same way, the fact that TikTok has given free rein to its subscription monetization model (although its application is not immediate), closes a circle of services that we use on a daily basis and that, whether we like it or not, force us to checkout if we do not want to see ads. And if not, Tell them to the paid version of WhatsApp. The big question. If you’re wondering when TikTok Ad-Free will arrive in Europe, the answer is that we don’t know yet. What seems inevitable is that this ends up happening, after the test in the United States and its progressive implementation in the United Kingdom. In Xataka | TikTok’s infinite scroll has just entered the EU’s crosshairs: Brussels marks it as “addictive design” and demands change

Generation Z is uploading videos of their work routines to TikTok and Instagram, and it is already a phenomenon

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If we have learned anything from social networks, it is that everything can be contained, including boring office work. After all there are people hooked on toilet cleaning videosso it’s not that strange. Worktok. It’s how these creators, most of them very young, tag the content they publish about their work. Browsing the hashtag we found mostly humorous gags about work life, but digging a little deeper we found all kinds of videos. There are those who tell their routine, those who use it as a space to vent to complain about their bosses and even those who broadcast his dismissal live. There is a subcategory within this trend and it is the ‘Quittok’, that is, young people who tell why they want to resign from their jobs. Some they even record themselves doing it. Viral. It is not an anecdotal phenomenon, the hashtag #worktok It has already accumulated almost 300,000 publications and the total views amount to 1.8 billion. What has led so many people to share details about their work life? The label began to become popular in 2020 during the pandemic. At a time when teleworking was imposed throughout the world, many people began to share their daily lives on TikTok and that also included work. Why is it important. In statements to the BBCAccording to Sara McCorquodale, head of an influencer firm in the United Kingdom, the fact that it has been maintained over time responds to a need to create a community and seek validation online. It’s like looking for that “coffee machine moment” that for many young people does not exist either because they work remotely or because they do not have that connection with their office colleagues. A space of identity. According to McCorquodale, sharing with the world the day-to-day life of work – with its achievements and its dramas – is also a way of reaffirming one’s identity and taking control of the narrative. It is a way of saying that my work life belongs to me and I am going to narrate it as I want, not as the company dictates. It is also a symptom of a broader trend, that of a generation that prioritizes their mental health and well-being over promotions or working hard. They are the opposite of workaholics. Yes, but. Sharing certain company details or recording videos during working hours can cause problems. It’s what It happened to a paint store worker who started recording videos of how he mixed different colors of paint. The company saw the videos and fired him for recording during work hours and using store materials. Primark also fired an employee in the United Kingdom for having recorded TikToks. It doesn’t seem like ‘worktok’ is going to disappear, so both companies and employees will have to adapt and navigate without crossing boundaries. In Xataka | A generation totally disconnected from their work: 80% of “genzers” want to change jobs Image | Vitaly Gariev in Unsplash

How to link Apple Music or Spotify to TikTok to save the music you discover in the social network’s videos there

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Let’s tell you how to link Apple Music or Spotify to TikTokand thus be able to save the music you find in the videos in your music library. When you do this, the service you choose will become the one TikTok uses by default. The operation is simple. Once you have linked them, when you are watching TikTok and a video with a song appears, an indicator will appear that tells you what the topic is. Then, by clicking on the name you can open it directly in your music streaming application. Link Apple Music or Spotify to TikTok The first thing you have to do is enter TikTok and click on the options button to open the side tab. When you do it, click on the option Settings and privacy to enter the social network settings. Once you are in the TikTok settings, go to the section Content and screen. in here, click on the section Music that will appear to you. Within the Music section, click on the option Link within the option of Add to music app. You will go to a screen where you will be able choose the default music app to add songs from TikTok. Here, you can click on one of them, the one you use. When you choose one of the options, you will go to the application or website of this music service, and you will be able to accept that you connect to TikTok and both services are linked. TikTok will be able to see data from your account and perform actions for you, such as adding songs. Add TikTok music to Spotify Once you have linked a streaming service, simply browse as normal. When there is a song in a TikTok video, you will see that there is an indicator of the topic it containsand you can click on it. You can also click on the round icon at the bottom right. When you click on the song nameyou will go to a screen where you can have your information, the publications that use it, and options to use it yourself or save it to favorites. Here, you will also have a button to add it to Spotify or Apple Musicdepending on which one you have chosen. This will add the song to your playlist of songs you like on Apple Music or Spotify, the one created when you “Like” any of the songs. In Xataka Basics | Alternatives to TikTok: the main social video networks to go to if you are thinking of changing

the dangerous TikTok trend of chewing food with plastic that camouflages an eating disorder

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Eating something that we love very much, but without adding a single calorie to the diet, seems like something that resembles a true miracle, but the reality is that in China social networks are being flooded with a method that promises this. And we are not dealing with something revolutionary to trick the brain, but rather eating food wrapped in plastic. Something that has been baptized like ‘plastic eating’ as El País has reported. How it started. This trend has been with us for a short time, and the origin is in Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok. Here the videos showed young people placing a piece of plastic wrap over your mouth or wrapping food in plastic and then chewing and spitting it out. The goal here is to taste high-calorie foods without swallowing them so as not to gain weight. Extended. The algorithm worked its usual magic, and the trend has quickly spread to other countries, even reaching TikTok, where this new challenge has been replicated. And when you start with this trigger in a new population, logically you have to take into account the risks of replicating it and turning it into something viral. Especially focused on adolescents, who may be more vulnerable in these situations. Its consequence. Beyond how bizarre it is to put plastic in your mouth to enjoy the flavor, but not have the effect of the calories, the more immediate physical damage must be considered. One of the most striking, related to repeatedly chewing a packaging that has not been designed for human consumption, carries a very high risk of suffocation and also dental damage. But we must not forget that we are chewing plastic here, so there is a risk of ingesting toxins. Different medical and scientific sources warn that these practices can expose us to the consumption of microplastics, which we have already been able to talk a lot about, as they are present in some important organs such as the placenta or testicles. Something that little by little is being related to hormonal disruption. Psychological risks. Without a doubt, it is another of the most important risks that we must take into account here, since what the networks sell as a trick to reduce the cravings we have throughout the day, is actually a classic symptom of eating disorders or eating disorders. In the clinical setting, it is known as ‘chewing and spitting’, which is a very common compensatory behavior in the diagnosis of anorexia and bulimia. It is not a new idea, since the iconic designer Karl Lagerfeld popularized and defended publicly this technique years ago after losing between 30 and 40 kilos. However, science denies that it has real benefits, since different studies suggest that when we chew food, the body prepares for digestion and increases the levels of ghrelin, which is the hunger hormone. But in reality, by not receiving food, hunger and anxiety are triggered, causing a severe loss of control, metabolic alterations and malnutrition. Social networks. The proliferation of these types of trends puts the role of social networks in the mental health of young people back on the table. Scientific data provided by recent studies indicate, for example, that exposure to content that promotes anorexia on TikTok significantly decreases body satisfaction in a matter of minutes, increasing the internalization of “thin ideals.” It has also been proven that 73% of young users with moderate or high risk of suffering from an ED show symptoms directly related to their interaction on TikTok. Images | Clown World In Xataka | We believed that extreme thinness was a fashion that had happily been overcome. What is happening on networks contradicts us

Google wants you to spend more time in its app store. So he’s going to turn it into TikTok

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At the end of 2023, Google warned: at some point the discovery of applications through short videos in the Play Store would be enhanced. A pilot test began in the United States under the name “Play Report”, giving maximum prominence to certain selected applications through short videos in vertical format. What began as a pilot test appears to have worked successfully. The company just announced a package of news that will come to Android and, among them, is this type of videos. The fact that. Google is going to introduce Google Play Shorts. Their name does not deceive: they are short format videos in which we will be shown the content and operation of the applications. As soon as we open the application, we will see them playing, so the first question we ask ourselves is whether it will be possible to eliminate its autoplay to save data. Because. Google is not hiding, it wants us to be able to check how an application works without having to leave the Play Store. Until now, if we wanted to consult about any app we used to close the store, look for information in another source, and return to download it. The objective of the Play Shorts is that we have enough hook with the video, and we go on to download the application directly. As. The videos will be integrated into the apps section itself, they will not have an independent section. Or, in other words, a priori they seem inevitable. We will open the Play Store and at the beginning we will have these Play Shorts. They will be integrated into the app files themselves but, to boost downloads, there will be an installation button in the video itself. When. “Soon.” The key here is that the function has come out of pilot testing and will soon arrive on Android. Over the next few weeks, and through a server update, these new ads will progressively appear. TikTokizing Play Store. While the European Union puts infinite scroll in the spotlightGoogle has just added it to its most used application. Once we enter Play Shorts, we can slide down to see more and more applications, a format identical to that of TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels. Image | Google In Xataka | The science of “doomscrolling”: how technology hacked psychology so we can’t let go of our phones

the price of being on TikTok or Instagram all day

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It’s quite a motherly phrase to hear that being in front of your phone all the time watching TikTok or playing the video game console has a very clear effect on the brain and that it ‘rots’. In English, this is something that is known as ‘brain rot’ and refers to this lightheadedness after several hours in front of screens, and science has now begun to take this concept as something very important and not like an internet meme. Its meaning. This concept related to the brain ‘rotting’ refers to the cognitive deterioration and mental exhaustion that people suffer, especially in adolescents and young adults, due to excessive exposure to low-quality online material. And although this started as a meme, it is today a neurocognitive syndrome confirmed by institutions like the American Psychological Association, where it has been seen that the brain is literally getting smaller. The dopamine trap. The design of short video platforms like TikTok it’s not accidentalbut it is created to retain the user’s attention so that they do not stop sliding the screen down. And it is something that is very well studied, since, as interaction on these social platforms increases, so does the brain’s need to receive a dopamine rush. It literally creates a dependency. Doomscrolling. This system in our brain, driven by dopamine, encourages a never-ending cycle of consumption, which has given rise to terms like ‘Doomscrolling‘ which is the compulsive action of scrolling through social media feeds focused on negative information or distressing. And this, rather than generating rejection, causes us to be in a state of hypervigilance linked to high levels of anxiety, stress and cognitive fatigue. There is also another concept quite important in the world of social networks such as ‘Zombie scrolling’, which consists of passively scrolling through social networks without any purpose or objective. In this way, this mentally absent consumption reduces the brain’s ability to maintain sustained attention. Brain effect. The act of constantly scrolling on the screen is something that has been widely studied today and points to measurable neurological consequences. What has been seen here is that the brain experience cognitive overload when you try to process the constant flow of fragmented information, with topics that are really disparate from one video to the next, making you not have time to process the first before starting to watch the second. Its consequences. Research published in Addictive Behaviors they point out that compulsive cell phone use reduces the volume of gray matter in key areas for empathy, memory and self-regulation. This means that literally the brain is reducing its size with the passage of time due to the fact of being like a zombie browsing TikTok all day. In addition to this, science has seen that addiction to short videos increases activity in reward and emotion regions, causing structural differences in the frontal cortex and increasing impulsivity. Something that adds to the memory impairmentfailures in long-term retention and also at a worse attention performance. How to avoid it. As alarming as this may seem, we must remember that we have brain neuroplasticity on our side to be able to reverse these effects. In this way, there are several strategies to mitigate the fact that the brain begins to be greatly affected by being on social networks for a large number of hours. One of the tips is undoubtedly to reduce the time we spend in front of the screen to reduce cognitive overload. Furthermore, stopping following accounts that provoke negative emotions and looking for environments that are positive or friendlier to avoid anxiety is something we should get used to in our daily lives. Images | Hoi An and Da Nang In Xataka | The science of “doomscrolling”: how technology hacked psychology so we can’t let go of our phones

There are TikTok influencers reading ‘Wuthering Heights’ and not understanding its vocabulary. It shouldn’t surprise us

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A viral video where a young Spanish woman complains about the difficulty of reading the romantic classic ‘Wuthering Heights’ has sparked a generational debate about reading comprehension. But beyond the controversy, the data show a real problem: reading skills are falling in all generations, with digital natives being the sector of the population most especially affected. The video. It lasts just two minutesbut it has been generating debate for days. A 25-year-old girl complains, with her copy of ‘Wuthering Heights’ in hand, that she finds the language archaic, she needs to consult the dictionary constantly to understand terms like “tin” or “par excellence”, and she estimates that it will take months to finish it. The video has accumulated millions of views and has unleashed a generational war on social networks: how is it possible, say the most veterans, that a university student does not know relatively commonly used words or is not used to consulting a dictionary? The conversation should not be limited to pointing out blame and differences between educational levels. We are facing a generational change that alludes to how written language is processed, and ‘Wuthering Heights’ has become the accidental battlefield on which to explore that transformation. New times. There is a gap between contemporary narrative aimed at young audiences and literary classics. Young Adult (YA) prose, a genre that attracts millions of readers on social networks (a fact: 55% of the readers who roam TikTok are between 18 and 34 years old, and 78% they are women) prioritizes immediacy, agile dialogues and direct descriptions. It is literature designed for rapid consumption, in tune with digital rhythms. Emily Brontë, for her part, wrote for Victorian readers accustomed to long subordinate clauses, detailed descriptions, and a vocabulary that assumed a certain formal education. Distance is both temporal and structural: different narrative architectures for differently trained brains. The data. The TikTok viral could be interpreted as an isolated anecdote, but a recent study by the BBVA Foundation prepared by Spanish researchers with international data from the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). It reveals a progressive decline in reading and numerical skills since the Millennial generation: those born after 1980 show significantly lower cognitive skills than Baby Boomers and Generation X when they were the same age. According to the study, Generation Z obtains reading comprehension scores up to 20 points below Generation PIAAC standardized testswhich evaluate the ability to understand, interpret and use written information. The gap widens in numerical skills: young people born after 1995 show difficulties in interpreting graphs, calculating percentages or solving basic mathematical problems applied to real situations. The deterioration is systematic, and also affects developed countries with advanced educational systems. Eyes that do not see. The studies of eye tracking from the Nielsen Norman Group document how users read on the Internet following an F pattern: two horizontal sweeps across the top, followed by a quick vertical scan down the left side. Reading becomes selective keyword tracking. This behavior, typical of Internet browsing, is inappropriate for complex texts that require following arguments developed over multiple pages. The architecture of attention changes: we move from deep dive to shallow scan. The fault of social networks. Digital platforms are designed to capture attention through short, dopamine content. The algorithms reward 15-second videos, striking images, and texts that are consumed at a glance. The attention economy does not encourage depth, and reading ‘Wuthering Heights’ requires the opposite: sustained concentration, tolerance for ambiguity, the ability to memorize information while constructing cumulative meaning. They are skills that atrophy without training. If new generations show systematic deficits in these areas, the consequences transcend the debate over whether or not someone can read a Victorian classic. They affect how we process information of all kinds: medical, legal, financial, political… The young woman in the viral video may be a symptom of something more worrying than the inability to read texts with unusual vocabulary. Facilitate access? This controversy opens up a multitude of tremendously fascinating sub-controversies: educate better or facilitate access to complex texts? For example, Penguin Random House launched its collection in the United Kingdom in 2019. Penguin English Library with updated translations of classics, maintaining the original meaning but eliminating obsolete linguistic turns that slow down reading. The also British The School of Life He published versions “translated into modern English” of philosophers such as Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. AND apparentlythese editions sold 40% more than traditional versions among readers under 30 years of age during the year 2020-2021. But there is also the counterargument that simplifying language impoverishes the experience of reading. The classics are not just arguments or themes that can be transported to any packaging. For example, Brontë’s prose, with its labyrinthine subordinate clauses and convoluted vocabulary, builds atmosphere and rhythm. Removing that complexity to “make it easier” to read is like reducing the length of a classical music symphony because today’s listeners prefer three-minute songs. The search should perhaps be to improve reading training, not to adjust the texts to the less prepared reader. In Xataka | The best books to read in 2026: a selection of readings from all genres for a year between pages

Meta, Google, TikTok will go to the bench for “addictive design”

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Today The selection of the jury that will judge Meta, TikTok and YouTube begins in Los Angeles due to childhood addiction to social networks. It is the first time that these technological giants have to defend their business model in court for damages to minors. Why is it important. This is not just another case of inappropriate content or poor moderation. This lawsuit directly attacks the design of the platforms: scroll infinite, autoplay, notifications push and algorithms that maximize screen time. If the plaintiffs win, a precedent is set that could be devastating for the entire industry. The facts. The plaintiff is a 19-year-old girl identified as KGM. She claims to have developed an addiction to networks since she was a teenager. He maintains that the design of these applications was what fueled his depression, anxiety, body dysmorphia and suicidal thoughts. Meta, TikTok and YouTube have denied these accusations and argue that they have invested in security tools. During the six weeks of the trial, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, and Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, will testify. Snap, also initially accused, reached an out-of-court settlement last week for an amount not publicly disclosed. Between the lines. The plaintiffs’ key argument avoids the traditional protection of technology companies: the famous Section 230which exempts them from responsibility for the content uploaded by users. But here the question is not what is published, but rather how the experience was designed to engage minors. The lawsuit openly compares it to slot machines and the tobacco industry: “Defendants deliberately embedded in their products a series of features designed to maximize the engagement youth and increase advertising revenue. The threat. This is just the tip of the iceberg. There are more than 3,000 additional lawsuits in California and 2,000 federal cases pending against these same companies. Several will go to trial this year. The parallels with the trials against tobacco companies in the 90s They are clear and that ended in an agreement of 206,000 million dollars spread over 25 years. A favorable verdict for the plaintiffs would not only cost them billions but would force them to redesign their products practically from scratch, eliminating the addictive mechanics that sustain their spectacular usage figures and therefore their advertising models. The context. Global regulatory pressure has increased greatly in recent years: Australia banned social media for those under 16 in December. France is studying doing the same with those under 15. Other countries such as the United Kingdom and Egypt are currently evaluating similar measures. According to a recent survey by Wall Street Journal71% of Americans would support banning most social networks for those under 16 years of age. Yes, but. The technological they don’t sit idly by: Meta, TikTok and YouTube have launched a public relations offensive by organizing workshops for parents in schools and promoting parental controls. Meta has hired the same lawyers who defended McKesson in the opioid scandal. And TikTok has signed those who represented Activision Blizzard in Previous Lawsuits About Video Game Addiction. At stake. If KGM wins, Section 230 will cease to be the impenetrable shield it has been until now, since it questions how the applications are made, not the content that is uploaded to them. Hopefully this case will end up in the Supreme Court, whatever the verdict. The next six weeks will determine if the scroll infinite and other common practices of these networks have their days numbered, or if there are engagement for a while. In Xataka | An eternally unfocused generation: “I can’t do anything for more than fifteen minutes without looking at my phone” Featured image | Solen Feyissa

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