1. Audiovisual technology, in this case smartphones, is a source of visual arts, music, and literature combined in one package. It engages most of our senses simultaneously. For millennia people only consumed these arts, one or two at a time. For these reasons, the technology is especially captivating.  2. Content is being created by multiple professionals, artists, writers, filmmakers, musicians, entertainers, analysts, and even scientists and people specialized in human behavior. This means the end product is extremely entertaining and addictive. 3. Internet technology, allowing for millions of people to communicate instantaneously and anonymously and share data, creates a slew of outcomes. Namely, people comparing themselves to millions, unparalleled bullying not just because of volume but because of the anonymity and hypergamy.

There was much value added from social media in the lockdowns, but this was a unique situation. There are many examples of social media benefits that aren't related to anecdotal pandemic crises. The prompt isn't "social media produced a loneliness epidemic"; it's "making us lonelier". The difference is crucial. I'm only arguing for social media contributing to loneliness, not that there aren't other causes. "Many reported being more connected." I can agree, but it's likely that these people were women and attractive and/or rich men. Nearly 30% of men aged 18 to 30 report having no sex in the past year, roughly tripling from historical baselines. Reported virginity among young adult males doubled from 4% (2013–2015) to 10% (2022–2023). Over 60% of young men under 30 are currently single, which is nearly double the rate of young women in the same age group. These stats are correlated with the rise of social media and the other arguments I've made in the opening statements. Smartphones and the internet enabled social media to significantly contribute in creating new these new problems of comparing themselves to millions, unparalleled bullying and most importantly hypergamy. Dating app data shows men were selected for ~53% of women, while they've only selected for ~12% of men. And men have a ~2% match, while women matched ~41%. This data demonstrates hypergamy. Combining these data and my arguments, it directly corroborates that social media disenfranchised a great number of people, especially those below ~40 years old. Men because of unprecedented entertainment, bullying, and female hypergamy. Women, because of unprecedented entertainment and comparing themselves to millions. In conclusion, social media made people from the below ~40-year-old age group more lonely. Furthermore, it can't be understated the power of the combinations of the smartphone, internet and with social media companies creating content that's heavily invested in and designed. This combination is extremely entertaining and addictive. Which is another reason as to why people spend more time on their phones. It's not just "a tool amplifies what you put in", it's social media companies spending millions and using multiple specialists to create content that's designed to be as addictive as possible for viewer retention and ad revenue.

Chronic illnesses, shut-ins, new parents, the elderly, etc. They are all valid examples of the benefits of social media and making people less lonely, which I'm thankful for. However, the number of people negatively affected by social media is significantly higher than these groups of people that you've raised. Also, some of these people aren't necessarily using social media to connect. Many shut-ins and handicapped people connected via video games and platforms like Discord. "It's an adjustable feature" I agree that something has to be done, but I'm not sure how adjustable these platforms can be to change the established overwhelming use of them. It's already the case that Instagram is the number 1 dating platform in the US, probably the world. More people date via IG than from any other source. It's not clear to me how to "regulate" IG or "reverse" female hypergamy being a biological tendency. It seems to me a case of "you can't put the toothpaste back in the tube".