Perhaps, though, there is some merit to focusing on the technology. The place we’re in now with social media is a predictable outcome of the advertising model espoused by the social media platforms. See, for example, Jaron Lanier’s “You Are Not a Gadget” which was published nearly 15 years ago. Or the admission of Sean Parker that Facebook intentionally exploited psychology from the beginning in an effort to make its platform more addictive. Social media does not amplify tribalistic and status-seeking human behaviors because of some mysterious emergent property. It does so by design.

So while I agree that human flaws will be present to some degree in any human system, let’s not pretend that the present situation we find ourselves in with social media was unavoidable. We can imagine an alternative present if only different decisions been made in the past.

If we accept the Original Sin theory, you conclude that our hope lies in changing who we are. My question is: would this not undo our humanity? Maybe a better alternative is to accept our flaws without contempt (as your conclusion suggests) or cynicism (as the social media companies have) so that we may understand ourselves more fully and build systems that subdue, rather than amplify, our darker tendencies.