I teach self-defense for a living, so I have learned to pay attention before a threat becomes obvious. A good decision usually starts before the punch is thrown. You notice behavior, timing, distance, distraction, and opportunity. You act early because waiting too long gives the other side control.

That is how I have started looking at social media in America.

This concern grew over time. I watched students, parents, children, and adults move through daily life with a device that constantly pulls them into anger, comparison, fear, and performance. Then I started reading more. The issue began to look less like a technology problem and more like a national self-defense problem.

John B. Calhoun’s famous mouse experiment, often called Universe 25, is useful as a warning. Calhoun built a controlled environment for mice with food, water, and no predators. The colony grew, then the social structure deteriorated, reproduction collapsed, and the population eventually died out. Human beings are far more complex than mice, so the experiment should be treated as a metaphor. The warning still matters. A society can have comfort, stimulation, and resources while losing responsibility, role, restraint, and meaning. 

America has more information than any society before it. That has not made Americans calmer or harder to manipulate. Social media gives people a public square, a personal stage, and a constant reward system for reaction. Pew Research Center reported that YouTube and Facebook are among the most-used platforms by American adults, and TikTok’s user base has grown since 2021. A later Pew report found that YouTube remains the most popular platform,........

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