Howdy folks!
Remember Gizmo? That was the name of the cute, little, fuzzy creature called a "mogwai" from the movie Gremlins.
You might remember it as friendly little pet that sang adorable little songs and loved snuggling. Back in the 1980s, every kid wanted a mogwai of their own.
But, in reality, if mogwais existed they'd be among the most dangerous creatures on Earth.
Feeding them at the wrong time causes them to irreversibly transmorph into a monster, and they multiply via contact with water at a rate of one offspring per drop.
A single mogwai chewing on a piece of beef jerky in the shower at 11:59 PM could sire enough progeny to infect the entire city of Los Angeles in a matter of hours -- especially if it were raining outside.
The only thing that would stop them from filling the entire world is the fact that sunlight kills them.
Basically, they're vampires that can multiply super-duper fast.
The only decent thing to do if you ever see a mogwai in real life is to kill it immediately.
You see, just because something makes our dopamine receptors light up (ohmygod it's so fuzzy! I want to squeeze it and love it and hug it and name it Gizmo and it will be my bestest friend forever and ever!) that doesn't meant it's a good thing.
We're learning more and more about the harm that social media does to adults and children.
And we're likely to come upon a crossroads soon where we're forced, as a society, to weigh the benefits of relatively new paradigms such as endless scroll and algorithm-weighted social feeds against their harms.
It's going to be important to recognize that, in the long run, the only difference between a mogwai and a gremlin is time and exposure.
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