Meta's newest ad wants you to know it believes in people. It is a warm, well-made piece of film, and I understand why it works. The trouble is that the loneliness it gently gestures toward is not a natural disaster that these companies happened upon. It is, in significant part, the product of a business model that measures success in the hours it keeps us looking at a screen instead of at each other.
This is the pattern I keep watching. First we are handed a technology that reorganizes how we spend our attention. Then we are sold the cure for what that reorganization did to us: the connection app, the companion, the premium tier that promises to make us feel less alone. The same industry gets paid twice, and we are invited to feel grateful.
I am not arguing that we unplug, which is neither realistic nor what most people want. I am arguing for clear eyes. When a company tells you it believes in you, it is worth asking what it is selling, what it measures, and who benefits when you spend one more hour with the product instead of one more hour with a person who knows your name.
Three takeaways
- The loneliness these products promise to solve is partly a byproduct of how the same products are designed.
- Advertising that speaks the language of human connection is still advertising, and it deserves to be read that way.
- The useful question is not whether to use technology, but what it is quietly taking in exchange for what it gives.
From the Psychology Today article
Big Tech Believes in You
Personal Perspective: Meta's new ad says it believes in people. So do the companies selling you the cure for the loneliness they created.
Read the rest on Psychology Today →