Not Just A Tool: Why Social-Media Use Is Bad and Bad For Us, and The Duty to Quit

Journal of Global Ethics 20 (1):107-112 (2024)
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Abstract

With an eye on the future of global ethics, I argue that social-media technologies are not morally neutral tools but are, for all intents and purposes, a kind of agent. They nudge us to do things that are bad for us. Moreover, I argue that we have a duty to quit using social-media platforms, not just on account of possible duties to preserve our own well-being but because users are akin to test subjects on whom developers are testing new nudges, and we ought to deprive them of their test subjects.

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