579. Are You Caught in a Social Media Trap?

579.您是否陷入了社交媒体陷阱?

Freakonomics Radio

社会与文化

2024-03-07

42 分钟
PDF

单集简介 ...

Economists have discovered an odd phenomenon: many people who use social media (even you, maybe?) wish it didn’t exist. But that doesn’t mean they can escape.

单集文稿 ...

  • I've loved working on this paper.

  • The idea is very simple, yet it's not something that, you know, I've been around for a long time doing economics.

  • It's not something that really seems to be in the consciousness.

  • Ben Handel is an economist at the University of California, Berkeley.

  • The paper he loved working on was a collaboration with Rafael Jimenez, Christopher Roth, and Leonardo Burstein.

  • And what was this simple but overlooked idea?

  • Here is Burstein.

  • It is possible that when you don't consume a product, you face a big cost.

  • And what kind of product can be costly even if you don't consume it?

  • Well, consider the title of their paper, when product markets become collective traps.

  • And now consider one of the survey questions they asked their research subjects.

  • We decided to ask a very simple question, which is, would you prefer to live in a world with or without TikTok or Instagram?

  • Today on Freakonomics radio, is social media a trap that most of us wish we never got caught in?

  • That's right after the hey, let's whistle it together.

  • This is Freakonomics Radio, the podcast that explores the hidden side of everything.

  • With your host Stephen Dubner.

  • Leonardo Burstein teaches at the University of Chicago.

  • I have been focusing my research on understanding how individuals choices and main economic decisions are shaped by their social environment.

  • As for the idea that we're talking about today, the first time I thought.

  • About this idea was back in the day, maybe seven.