“Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol or morphine or idealism.” Psychologist Carl Jung offered those words of perspective, and with that characteristic in mind, we add a question: Can a person be addicted, not only as Jung suggests to idealism but to something like growth? More broadly, can a company be said to be addicted if it focuses entirely and overwhelmingly on growth? Psychologists have noted that addicts do not see the damage they are causing to those around them and to themselves. They focus only on feeding their addiction. Could that context apply to some social-media services?
Given that Big Tech firms have shown signs of an addiction to growth and that their addiction has created companies so large they are having trouble addressing problems emerging from that scale, any change in business models that triggers a withdrawal from their growth obsession could be painful. So they will spend lots of money to keep Congress from passing “excessive” regulatory measures, to keep consumers from getting too disgruntled and, most important of all, to keep growth going.