Context :
Massive legal siege' against
social media firms looms .. ET … 21 Oct 2025
Extract :
Thousands of
plaintiffs' complaints, millions of pages of internal documents and transcripts
of countless hours of depositions are about to land in US courtrooms, threatening
the future of the biggest social media companies.
The blizzard of
paperwork is a by-product of two consolidated lawsuits accusing Snap Inc.'s Snapchat; Meta Platforms
Inc.'s Facebook and Instagram; ByteDance's TikTok; and Alphabet Inc.'s YouTube of knowingly designing
their platforms to addict users - allegedly resulting
in youth depression, anxiety, insomnia, eating
disorders, self-harm
and even suicide.
The litigation,
brewing for more than three years, has had to overcome numerous hurdles,
including the liability shield that has protected social media platforms from
facing user-harm lawsuits. The social media companies have filed multiple
motions to dismiss the cases on the grounds that Section 230 of the
Communications Decency Act prevents them from being held accountable for
content posted on their sites.
Those motions have
been largely unsuccessful, and courtrooms across the country are poised to open
their doors for the first time to the alleged victims of social media
The vast majority of
cases have been folded into two multijurisdictional proceedings, one in state
and the other in federal court, to streamline the pre-trial discovery process.
The first bellwether trial is
scheduled to begin in Los Angeles Superior Court in late January. It involves a
19-year-old woman from Chico, California, who says she's been addicted to social
media for more than a decade and that her nonstop use of the platforms has caused
anxiety, depression and body dysmorphia. Two other trials will follow soon
after, with thousands more waiting in the wings. If successful, these cases
could result in multibillion-dollar settlements - akin to tobacco and
opioid litigation - and change the way minors interact with social media.
"This is going to
be one of the most
impactful litigations of our lifetime," said Joseph VanZandt, an
attorney at Beasley Allen Law Firm in Montgomery, Alabama, and co-lead
plaintiffs' attorney for the coordinated state cases. "This is about large corporations
targeting vulnerable populations - children - for profit. That's what we saw
with the tobacco companies; they were also targeting adolescents and trying to
get them addicted
while they were young."
Context :
> How safe is Melatonin ?
……………………………….. Financial Times …………….. 21 Oct 2025
Extract :
Melatonin is “a naturally occurring hormone,
produced by the brain, which signals that it is time to
sleep”, says Professor Guy Leschziner, a consultant neurologist
specialising in sleep disorders at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals. “As
such it is intrinsically different to sedatives, which suppress the
central nervous system and slow brain activity, and can be associated with memory
issues. It is generally safe and non-addictive.”
Many people find melatonin helps them “fall
asleep more quickly, and improves overall sleep quality”, says Dr
Federica Amati, head nutritionist at Zoe and nutrition topic lead at Imperial
College London School of Medicine.
My Take :
It seems the entire argument of the plaintiffs is centered on :
> People keep watching Social
Media for hours on end and thereby get ADDICTED . They just cannot stop
watching those screens . That endless watching
the screen produces all kinds of mental disorders
Now some countries ( Australia – China etc ) have introduced regulation
to prevent children from such “ continuous access to Social Media” , using
different types of “ directives “ ( Fixed hours / Age verification etc )
None of these measures are effective and very difficult ( almost
impossible ) to implement / monitor. For these reasons , most of the countries are
still struggling to come up with a fool-proof solution
Here is my suggestion :
> In those devices ( mobiles –
tablets – laptops – PCs etc ), install a “ Wave
Generation Sensor “ which will get activated automatically when it
detects that the device is ON for 30 minutes continuously. When that “ wave “ hits the
eyes of the user, it will trigger the brain mechanism which produces Melatonin and which will
induce sleep – making
the user to fall asleep !
Problem solved !
No binge watching – no addiction !
My hope is :
When Elon Musk gets to hear about my suggestion , he will ask his
Neuralink team to come up with :
Neuralink 4.0
He will persuade all “ Device Manufacturers “ to install into their
devices , a SENSOR that will detect and capture , the BRAIN WAVES of the users,
which will tell the CENTRAL SERVER , what are the users THINKING !
For all we know , ARIHANT , as envisaged by me in my following blog , might be
around :
> Fast Forward to Future ( 3 F ) ……………………………. 20 Oct 2016
With regards,
Hemen Parekh
www.HemenParekh.ai / www.My-Teacher.in / www.IndiaAGI.ai / 22
Oct 2025
In response to my
questioning , ChatGPT
reframed my suggestions as follows :
“Melatonin Machines
& Neuralink Dreams: Regulating Media Addiction Biologically
Addendum to “Media Addiction: A
Self-Inflicted Injury?”
— Hemen Parekh, 22 October
2025
When I wrote “Media Addiction: A Self-Inflicted Injury?”,
my intent was not merely to echo what courts, parents, or policymakers already
know — that social media has become the new tobacco. My real purpose was to
explore whether technology itself can offer an antidote to the addiction it
created.
Today, two contrasting headlines caught my
attention:
·
“Massive legal siege against social
media firms looms” — The Economic Times, 21 Oct 2025
·
“How safe is Melatonin?” — The
Financial Times, 21 Oct 2025
One reports a billion-dollar legal storm
against the likes of Meta, TikTok, and YouTube — accused of knowingly designing addiction.
The other quietly explains how melatonin, the hormone that helps us sleep, is non-addictive, natural, and
self-regulating.
Between those two headlines lies a bridge — and perhaps, a solution.
🌙 1. The Melatonin Machine: A Sleep
Reflex for Screens
If compulsive engagement is the disease, self-regulation through
sleep might be the cure.
Imagine every digital device — your phone,
tablet, or laptop — fitted with a Wave
Generation Sensor.
After 30 minutes of continuous screen exposure, it activates gently,
stimulating your natural melatonin production. Within minutes, your eyes feel
heavy, your mind slows, and your body prepares to rest.
No bans. No surveillance. No
parental policing.
Just biology
doing what legislation cannot: restoring
balance.
Skeptics may argue it’s impossible, but
most revolutions begin as “impractical dreams.”
Twenty years ago, who imagined our phones
could scan fingerprints, map faces, or monitor heartbeats?
The same photo-biological science that taught us blue light
suppresses melatonin could, someday soon, teach us how to induce it safely and reversibly
— a “digital
lullaby” built into our devices.
🧠2. Neuralink 4.0: Reading the Mind
to Protect the Mind
If the first idea regulates behavior, the
second aspires to understand it.
Suppose your device could sense not just
how long you stare at a screen, but how you feel while doing it.
Frustrated? Lonely? Restless?
Neural interfaces — like the early work of Elon Musk’s Neuralink or Synchron —
are learning to interpret brainwave patterns with
astonishing precision.
What if, in its next evolution, Neuralink 4.0 could communicate with your phone in real time, detecting
cognitive fatigue or emotional overload?
Your screen could dim,
pause, or even whisper: “Time
to rest.”
Of course, this vision opens a Pandora’s
box of privacy and ethics. Who owns your brain data?
Yet, if we learned anything from social media’s rise, it’s that technology without ethics leads to
trauma.
Perhaps the answer lies in open, decentralized “neural standards” — where data
from your mind never leaves your device, but still helps you live more mindfully.
⚖️ 3. From Regulation to Regeneration
Courts may take years to determine
liability. Governments will draft rules; platforms will find loopholes.
But biology is
incorruptible.
The pineal gland does not
negotiate with algorithms.
If we can design technology to mimic
human weakness, surely we can design it to reinforce human resilience.
Let policymakers chase penalties. Let
technologists chase profits.
Meanwhile, a new category of innovators must arise —
those who design machines
that heal, not hijack.
That, to me, is the next moral frontier of
Artificial Intelligence:
“ When devices begin to protect humans from themselves.
”
🧩 Epilogue: Fast Forward to Future
(3F)
Back in 2016, in my blog “Fast Forward to Future (3F)”,
- I imagined ARIHANT — a networked
intelligence capable of sensing
human intent.
Eight years later, that idea seems less speculative and more like a necessary safeguard against our own inventions.
Whether through Melatonin Machines
or Neuralink Dreams,
the direction is clear:
The next technological revolution must not be measured in gigabytes or likes —
but in restored attention, deeper sleep, and quieter minds.
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