Lewis W. Hine:
Making Apparatus for Laboratory, Glass Works, New Jersey (c. 1937)

"This world remains in flux."

The European Commission recently found that TikTok’s addictive design appears to be in breach of the Digital Services Act, a landmark 2022 legislation designed to create a safer digital space by enforcing accountability, transparency, and user safety on online platforms, social media, and marketplaces. It mandates content moderation, bans certain targeted ads, and imposes severe penalties for non-compliance, with special obligations for “Very Large Online Platforms” (VLOPs). VLOPs can be assessed up to 6% of their total gross annual revenue for violating the Act. This announcement must have sent chills up whatever passes for spines in the Googles, Facebooks, and TikToks of this world.

These findings are not based upon a single study, but upon interpretations of several inquiries and formal studies performed with varying degrees of rigor. Specific, peer-reviewed studies have not always been cited, though reputable organizations have drawn what appear to be warranted conclusions. The injuries social media inflicts have not yet been universally acknowledged, though children have already been the special focus for many, since children’s behaviors and activities might be more conveniently studied. Distraction disorders, for instance, might be more easily observed in classrooms where most children spend considerable time, in ways that adults do not usually congregate. Also, maturing brains seem to be more susceptible to influence than ones already set in their ways.

Studies have shown dramatic changes in children’s behavior when exposed to such social media design features as rewards that incentivize time spent, personalized “Rabbit Holes” that entrap in harmful content feeds, pressuring, enticing, trapping, and lulling strategies to induce prolonged engagement, and the “negligible impact” of existing non-manditory or easy-to-dismiss time management tools that fail to mitigate compulsive use. Further, a study from San Diego State University and others concludes that short-form video, like on TikTok, causes a drop in cognitive focus, supporting the claim that it induces “autopilot” responses.

Studies on adults seem to have made fewer headlines and led to fewer governmental actions thus far, but adults still show significant effects from social media use. Increased anxiety, depression, and loneliness, and some research even indicates causal links to decreased well-being. Using seven to eleven platforms seems to triple depression risks compared to using zero to two, and active, heavy use, especially posting, seems linked to worsening mental health, poor sleep, and even physical inflammation. These symptoms sure seem to sum up the current human condition as observed since the damned pandemic.

Unsurprisingly to me, specific demographic variations seem to accompany social media use. Younger, better-educated, and white demographics might experience more benefits from social media use, while older, less-educated, or minority demographics may experience more harm, note researchers at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Social media might prove most beneficial to those who create social media and potentially most harmful to those who more passively consume it. The MAGA cult, for instance, might be largely an artifact of these social media features colliding with demographic preconditions. Many juries seem to still be out when it comes to drawing actionable conclusions regulating adult use, with the definite exception when children are concerned. The evidence there seems compelling, if not necessarily peer-reviewed-overwhelming yet. Many people continue to research, and litigation might ultimately decide which specific designs survive. It could be that the risks of releasing social media apps could eventually exceed any possible return from their use, introducing a cold turkey society. (Shudder!) This world remains in flux.

©2026 by David A. Schmaltz - all rights reserved

Tags: #PureSchmaltz, #Unscrolling