Why You're Still Using Social Media (Even If You Want to Stop) with Dr. Cass Sunstein
3/23/202633 min
Why is social media so hard to quit? We waste hours scrolling, feel worse when we log off, and still find ourselves going back for more.
Dr. Laurie sits down with Dr. Cass Sunstein, co-author of (00:00:57) Nudge, to explore a new concept from the 2026 World Happiness Report: the “product trap.” Together, they unpack why we keep returning to platforms that make us unhappy — and what it might take to finally break free.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology
Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happine...
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsLaurie Santos· Host0:00
[intro music] Pushkin. The late American author and media critic Neil Postman once famously wrote, "Technological change is not additive. It is ecological. A new technology does not merely add something. It changes everything." Postman made this observation all the way back in 1992, over a decade before smartphones and over a decade before the launch of social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Postman's quote feels particularly relevant today, especially given what researchers around the world are learning about the negative effects of these technologies. Researchers like today's guest.
Cass Sunstein· Guest0:47
I'm Cass Sunstein. I teach at Harvard. I work on law and behavioral science. I've been working for about seven years on social media and happiness and the divergence between what people choose and what actually makes their lives better.
Laurie Santos· Host1:03
You might know Cass from his influential book Nudge, which he co-authored with the Nobel Prize-winning economist Richard Thaler. Nudge explores how small changes in our environments can influence the choices we make. Or you may know Cass from his work in the Obama administration, where he helped bring behavioral science into public policy.
Cass Sunstein· Guest1:22
I headed the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, analyzing the effects of regulations to make sure that