Re:Thinking with Adam GrantPinterest's CEO Bill Ready on making social media safe for Gen Z | ReThinking with Adam Grant
At a glance
WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT
Pinterest CEO Bill Ready’s blueprint for safer, positive Gen Z social
- Ready argues mainstream social media’s algorithmic shift from chronological feeds to optimization for view time incentivized “engagement via enragement,” amplifying triggers and worsening youth anxiety and depression.
- Pinterest tunes its AI toward conscious, intentional signals (saves, explicit re-engagement) to elevate content like DIY and self-help that leaves users feeling better afterward.
- The company has implemented teen-safety product changes—most notably making accounts private-only for users under 16—and claims this has helped Pinterest grow with Gen Z despite short-term market skepticism.
- Ready advocates for an industry-wide safety movement combining competition and “thoughtful regulation,” likening needed standards (e.g., emotional wellbeing metrics) to seat belts and crash-test ratings in autos.
- The conversation broadens to phone-free schools, highlighting evidence of reduced bullying and improved outcomes, and describes Pinterest prompts nudging under-18 users off the app during school hours.
IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING
5 ideasOptimize for what users choose deliberately, not what hijacks attention.
Pinterest reframes ranking signals around explicit intent (saving, choosing to revisit) rather than raw watch time, aiming to surface content users want more of after reflection.
“Time well spent” can be a viable growth strategy, not just a moral stance.
Ready claims users return because the platform helps them act in the real world (recipes, outfits, projects), even if that reduces total screen time per session.
Teen safety defaults can differentiate a platform—even if Wall Street initially punishes them.
Pinterest’s private-only under-16 policy (non-toggleable) reportedly caused a short-term stock drop but later became a reason Gen Z adoption accelerated.
Comparative, performative social features are a core mental-health risk to redesign away.
Ready frames safer spaces as those that reduce public comparison and stranger contact, giving teens room to explore identity without constant social scoring.
Inclusive recommendation design can improve wellbeing and engagement simultaneously.
“Diversity by default” (e.g., body type ranges and skin tone options) helps users visualize content on people like them, which Ready says improved engagement while reducing narrow beauty norms.
WORDS WORTH SAVING
5 quotesI think at the core of that is that, you know, social media uses AI to maximize your view time, and it figures out pretty quickly that you look longer at the things that are your triggers, whatever your triggers are.
— Bill Ready
And so we're going after time well spent instead of time spent.
— Bill Ready
We're the only social media platform that is private-only for users under 16. And when I say private-only, it's not a feature you can re-enable, and I just felt like it was clear to me that it wasn't safe for users under 16 to be contacted by strangers online.
— Bill Ready
I'd love to see a world where social media companies were competing on their safety records the same way that auto manufacturers now compete on theirs.
— Bill Ready
An early mentor asked me, "Hey Bill, with whom do you build your army? Do you want the conscripted? Do you want mercenaries? Or do you want freedom fighters?"
— Bill Ready
High quality AI-generated summary created from speaker-labeled transcript.
