Tech and the divided world: how the internet and social media split the “global village,” according to one pioneer. From the article:

Ex-Facebook executive Chamath Palihapitiya told CNBC on Tuesday that social media is creating a society that confuses “popularity” with “truth.”

“The tools that we have created today are starting to erode the social fabric of how society works,” he said in a “Squawk Box” interview, in response to questions about similar comments he made that went viral. At a recent Stanford Graduate School of Business event, Palihapitiya said social media is tearing society apart.

On CNBC, he explained what he meant. “Today we live in a world now where it is easy to confuse truth and popularity. And you can use money to amplify whatever you believe and get people to believe what is popular is now truthful. And what is not popular may not be truthful.”…

Palihapitiya said social media exploits “our own natural tendencies in human beings to get and want feedback.” He said the question people must ask is: “How do we live in a world where that is now possible?”

“That feedback, chemically speaking, is the release of dopamine in your brain,” Palihapitiya said. The “feedback loops” get people to react, he added. “I think if you get too desensitized and you need it over and over and over again, then you become actually detached from the world in which you live.”

See also the article at The Verge.

For an earlier post on technology and alienation, see here.