All Podcasts / Making Sense with Sam Harris / #466 — What Is Technology Doing to Us?
Making Sense with Sam Harris
Making Sense with Sam Harris

#466 — What Is Technology Doing to Us?

March 24, 2026 • 19m

Summary

⏱️ 8 min read

Overview

Nicholas Christakis and Sam Harris discuss the profound impacts of social media and AI on human behavior and society. They explore the toxicity of platforms like Twitter, the deteriorating quality of online discourse, and the mental health crisis linked to social media use. The conversation examines potential remedies including changing norms around anonymity, the future of AI in human interactions, and the philosophical implications of humanoid robots. Christakis shares insights from his research on how AI can enhance human cooperation and warns about the behavioral changes that may result from our interactions with machines.

The Technology Crisis of the Last Decade

Christakis argues that the communication technologies developed over the past decade have been significantly harmful despite their benefits. He believes it will take half a generation to emerge from the current crisis, which has contributed to political polarization, mental health issues, and the rise of a surveillance state. While acknowledging the severity of these problems, he maintains an optimistic view that society will eventually overcome these challenges, similar to how previous generations addressed environmental pollution.

  • Communication technology developments in the last 10 years have been quite harmful, contributing to polarization, anomie, and mental health crises
  • These technologies have led to a surveillance state that poses quasi-totalitarian threats
  • It will take half a generation to be on the other side of the current dilemma
  • Society may overcome these threats similar to how environmental pollution was addressed in past decades
" I share the opinion, I suspect, with you and certainly with people like John Haidt and others that the kind of technology that we've invented or the turns that our technology has taken, our communication technology has taken in the last 10 years, have so far been quite harmful to us, whatever other benefits they've had. "

Personal Disillusionment with Twitter and Social Media Migration

Christakis describes his journey from being an active Twitter user who valued it as a source of expert knowledge to abandoning the platform due to increasing toxicity. He originally curated diverse experts to follow and contributed his own expertise, but found the platform became unusable due to algorithmic changes that filled feeds with conspiracy theories and garbage content. He has since migrated to Blue Sky where he maintains connections with about 600 scientist accounts and gets quality scientific content.

  • Originally used Twitter as a valuable source of expert information and diverse perspectives
  • Feed became toxic with far-right conspiracy theories and left-wing craziness despite attempting to curate carefully
  • Moved to Blue Sky about two years ago where following 600 scientist accounts provides good scientific content
  • Started a YouTube channel called 'For the Love of Science' to advance public understanding
" I found that I was, the reason I went to Twitter was that I used it as a source of information, like it was like access to experts in a way that was, you know, really, really helpful to me. "

📚 6 more sections below

Sign up to unlock the complete summary with all insights, key points, and quotes

Listen on Apple Podcasts More Episodes from Making Sense with Sam Harris