It didn't take long from the birth of the World Wide Web for the public to start using this new medium to transmit, collect, and analyze information in ways never before imagined.

The first message boards and clunky Web 1.0 websites soon gave way to the blogosphere.

The arrival of social media was the next step in this evolution, allowing for the formation of communities of interest to share information in real time

about events happening anywhere on the globe.

But as quickly as communities began to form around these new platforms,

governments and militaries were even quicker in recognizing the potential to use this new medium to more effectively spread their own propaganda.

Their goal? To shape public discourse around global events in a way favorable to their standing military and geopolitical objectives.

Their method? The weaponization of social media.

This is the corporate report.

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Snapchat, Instagram, Reddit.

Social media, as we know it today, barely existed 15 years ago.

Although it provides new ways to interact with people and information

from all across the planet, virtually

instantaneously and virtually for free.

We are only now beginning to understand the depths of the problems associated with these new

platforms.

More and more of the original developers of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter

admit they no longer use social media themselves and actively keep it away from their children.

And now, they're finally admitting the reason why.

Social media was designed specifically to take advantage of your psychological weaknesses and keep you addicted to your screen.

You know, if the thought process that went into building these applications,

Facebook being the first of them,

...