Sean Parker is worried Facebook is scrambling kids' brains

Sean Parker did not predict the consequences that Facebook — the company he co-founded — would have on society. Speaking at an Axios event in Philadelphia on Wednesday, Parker admitted that Facebook created a "social-validation feedback loop" that he said exploited "a vulnerability in human psychology."

Parker recalled that in Facebook's nascent period, he believed that even the most ardent social media holdouts would eventually succumb to the urge to participate. The goal of these social media platforms was to "consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible," Parker said, adding that the founders of Instagram and Facebook were well aware that their applications preyed on the human desire for validation and attention.

"It literally changes your relationship with society, with each other. … It probably interferes with productivity in weird ways," Parker said. "God only knows what it's doing to our children's brains." The former president of Facebook still owns 4 percent of the company's shares, but says that he is now "something of a conscientious objector" towards social media.

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Facebook has recently come under scrutiny for allowing content created by trolls backed by the Russian government to reach 126 million users during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. You can watch a video of Parker's remarks at Axios.