Signal Nearly half of young people wish social media had never existed, yet stay

Summary

Eurasia Group cites evidence that close to half of young people would prefer that social media had never been created. Yet network effects make leaving expensive, so very few actually quit. The report uses this as an example of a pattern in which platforms attract users with free products, lock them in and then degrade the experience to extract value. Social media turned from a way to connect with friends into engagement-optimised outrage machines. The report expects AI to follow the same path more quickly and with far greater influence over behaviour and thinking.