“I think social media is an addiction.” This October 1, Xavier Niel issued an unequivocal judgment on social networks, just a few days after joining the board of directors of Tiktok. At France Inter, the boss of Free estimated, however, that the behavior of parents may be to blame, especially when they themselves adopt bad habits.
Asked about his arrival at Tiktok, despite these criticisms, Xavier Niel expresses the desire to bring a European perspective to the company.
“Young people learn from this”
“It is a company that had five directors, three Americans and two Chinese. (…) It did not seem stupid to me that, for once, Europe (…) could assert its point of view, its ideas,” defends Xavier Niello.
Still at France Inter, the head of Free nevertheless defended a certain role of these platforms, believing that “young people learn from this.” “Afterwards, it depends on what you look at, it depends on what the algorithms put in front of you,” however, he moderated, referring to recommendation algorithms, whose effects on the mental health of the youngest are regularly criticized.
If Xavier Niel mentions the concept of “addiction to social networks”, the concept of “addiction to screens” is far from achieving a consensus among scientists, although the term “addictive practices” is also used. Most benchmark studies also mention problematic smartphone use as a symptom of discomfort rather than a cause in itself.
Source: BFM TV
