"K.G.M. v. Meta et. al." kicked off in Los Angeles County Superior Court on February 9 when 1,600 plaintiffs, primarily minors and their families, sued major social media companies Meta (Facebook and Instagram), and Google (YouTube). Meanwhile, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan were reportedly pulling the trigger on an Indian Creek compound that is still under construction. The closing price on "Billionaire's Bunker" is $170 million. The most expensive sale in Miami-Dade County history.

Still, the plaintiff's in the bellwether case suggest that Zuckerberg's social media platform and Google were deliberately designed to be addictive and have caused serious mental health harms to their young users. Expected to last 8 weeks, the case is expected to set precedent for the future of social media.

Specifically, K.G.M. alleges that the way in which defendants "harvest user data and use their information to generate and push algorithmically tailored feeds of photos and videos was intentionally structured to cause addiction through a dopamine reward-and-withholding mechanism.” In effect, a design defect.

While social media companies invoke Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 — providing immunity to online computer services with respect to third-party content generated by their users — they’re being wrangled by significant legal and legislative pressures. Recently, the Supreme Court was asked if or whether YouTube's recommendation algorithm “provided material support for terrorism?” The High Court replied by regurgitating 230: “No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.”

However, K.G.M.s personal injury / product liability mass tort proceeding could undermine 230 and free speech altogether by invoking three major legal theories. 1) Product Liability: Social media platforms which cause harm are defective. 2) Negligence: Companies failed in their duty of care to young users, and 3) A Failure to Warn: Tech companies knew in advance about the platform’s potentially harmful effects and concealed that knowledge.

The case is drawing comparisons to the Big Tobacco lawsuits of the late 20th century. Specifically, to the 1998 Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement’s $200+ billion settlement that hinged on a judge finding that tobacco companies had fraudulently concealed the dangers of smoking for decades.

“The Social Dilemma,” a 2020 American docudrama, covers the psychological underpinnings and manipulation techniques by which, it claims, social media and technology companies intentionally addict their users. People's online activity is surveilled by said companies, who, in turn, use the data to build artificial intelligence models that predict, entrap, and addict the behaviors of their users.

Tristan Harris, a former Google design ethicist and co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology, explains in the documentary that there are three main goals of tech companies: Engagement: To increase usage and encourage users to continue scrolling. Growth: To ensure users return, engage, and recruit. Finally, Advertisement: To monetize user engagement via data collection and Targeted Advertising. Harris says, “if you’re not paying for the product—you are the product.”

Meta CEO Mark Zuckeberg admits Facebook and Instagram use sophisticated AI-driven algorithms to analyze and prioritize content based on deep engagement metrics, including active consumption. However, Harris explains, “The algorithm was built around and relies upon addicting their users. Social media’s bread and butter is their users’ passive consumption.”

When the circus comes to town it monetizes collective wonder, and the shared experience of escaping conventional reality. Similarly, YouTube translates the social dynamics of community, risk, and nostalgia into commercialized, high-energy and often emotional entertainment products. Drinks and food. Selfies and filters. Travel, fitness, pets and fashion so often in the name of commerce and social connection trigger FOMO (fear of missing out) and exclusion, which the brain interprets as physical pain. Teenage girls are the target. Meta sits comfortably amongst the wealthiest companies in the world.

What’s less clear is why FB, Insta, WhatsApp and Messenger’s over 3.5 billion daily active users, nearly one-third of the world's population, engage when social media’s price tag is generally accepted and ostensibly understood as a cautionary tale?

Leon Festinger's 1954 Social Comparison Theory — which holds that humans naturally evaluate themselves against others — empowers Meta to supercharge an environment where people curate and promote what’s real or surreal via connections. Whatever your poison, both exhibitionism and voyeurism rely on addictive scrolling, and the downstream effects are well-documented for both across hundreds of studies. Prolonged exposure to idealized images monetizes the escape from conventional reality.

Particularly, heavy social media use correlates with increased rates of anxiety and depression amongst young women. According to Jean Twenge's longitudinal research, “an uptick in teen mental health struggles tracks closely with smartphone and social media adoption after 2012.” Moreover, social media reinforces performative sociality. Users create a public persona for their audience, rather than engaging the public authentically. The Canadian American sociologist Erving Goffman coined social life “a theatrical performance.”

However, up for debate is why passive consumption (scrolling) has taken precedent over active participation (posting, messaging). It’s one of the more consequential questions sociologists and cultural theorists are grappling with at present. It is estimated that approximately 85% of users engage in passive scrolling — consuming content without liking, commenting, or sharing — on social media platforms. Meta calls their 3.5 billion passive scrollers the “Silent Majority.”

Passive scrolling breeds what scholars are increasingly calling a "spectator democracy." Users now watch political events unfold in reels, creating an illusion of civic participation through digital impressions. Trace voter apathy, declining community organizing, and weakened local institutions to this dynamic. To say nothing of the 119th United States Congress.

That's because a culture (or congress) relies on representation. Cut to GOP angst over voter turnout as their losses pile up. Republicans are getting crushed in scores of state and local races, raising deep concerns about a deflated base refusing to show up to vote even in the most pro-Trump areas. Just 39% of U.S. adults approved of Trump’s handling of the economy in March, according to AP-NORC polling—but why? The Affordability Crisis; Immigration and Border Security; and AI Safety and Regulation are shaping the 2026 Midterms.

Despite the political theater unfolding at the 1 hour and 47 minutes State of the Union address (the longest in history), the Pentagon naming Anthropic’s Claude a “supply chain risk’ for refusing to cross its own ethical lines and cooperate with the government’s agenda on domestic mass surveillance and AI-controlled weapons was left unsaid. While OpenAI shares Anthropic's red lines, it differs by embedding safety controls (safety stack) into technical safeguards rather than legal compliance.

As Trump’s approval rating with independents hits a new low, here the GOPs passive consumption primarily on FB and YouTube result in political apathy. Predictive algorithms inundate the GOP users incessantly thus alienating their broader cultural message and baseline. Filing off into parallel echo chambers annihilates the foundational element of human culture and civilization — empathy.

Robert Putnam distinguished between "bonding" (deep ties) and "bridging" (weak ties) in social capital. Passive consumption erodes both by replacing actual relationship-building with simulation which produces what sociologists are calling an "ambient awareness" of others without any genuine connection. Challenge. For every newsletter or article with which you agree, match it with one you don’t or disagree. We sit in a Chapel of Democracy, understanding one another is key. It's SOP at Charlatan Magazine.

Nearly 70% of the world has access to the internet, and surveys and metadata analysis confirms that roughly 2.5 billion people report experiencing apathy and loneliness around the world. Despite the U.S. exiting the WHO in January, the World Health Organization has declared both a global public health epidemic.

As passive consumption becomes a default leisure activity, the next generation could develop differently in ways we're only beginning to understand. Check out “Modern Day High: The Neurocognitive Impact of Social Media Usage.” Published in PubMed Central, their findings are concerning:

Social media engages in brain reward pathways akin to those seen in addictive behavior, with extended Beta and Gamma activity having the potential to interfere with emotional regulation and attention. These neurophysiological consequences, especially delayed Alpha recovery and increased Delta activity, could bring to the fore new concerns regarding digital fatigue, mental health, and cultural erasure.

President Trump once told the 32nd White House Press Secretary, “It doesn’t matter what you say, Stephanie. Say it enough and people will believe you.” While the sage political science suggests it’s time for a social media redesign, it’s 20-year-old K.G.M. (Kaley) whose stepped up to make her case. "For a teenager, social validation is survival," Attorney Mark Lanier began, in the opening remarks and bellwether trial for the future of social media." How bold we get when sure of being loved, though applause always dies after the performance.