• Jamie Dimon says that young people should spend less time on TikTok and Facebook.
• “A total stupid waste of time,” the JPMorgan chief said of the two social media platforms.
• Reading widely and consuming history books, Dimon said, would be a better use of their time.

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon says young people should spend less time on social media platforms and more time reading books.

Dimon was speaking at the Georgetown Psaros Center for Financial Markets and Policy’s annual Financial Markets Quality conference when he was asked if he’d any advice for the students in attendance.

“For most of you guys, turn off TikTok, Facebook. A total stupid waste of time,” Dimon told conference attendees.

Reading widely and consuming history books, Dimon said, would be a far better use of their time instead.

“My advice to students: learn, learn, learn, learn, learn, learn, learn. If you’re Democrat, read the Republican opinion. The good ones. If you’re Republican, read the Democrat ones,” Dimon said earlier in his response.

“Read history books. You can’t make it up. Nelson Mandela, Abe Lincoln, Sam Walton. You only learn by reading and talking to other people. There’s no other way,” he added.

Representatives for Dimon at JPMorgan, TikTok, and Meta did not immediately respond to requests for comment sent outside regular business hours.

Unlike most business executives, Dimon keeps a relatively low profile on social media.

Besides LinkedIn, Dimon doesn’t use other platforms like Facebook, Twitter or TikTok — though he did admit to having an Instagram account under a fake username in 2021.

Dimon also criticized social media in his annual letter to shareholders this year, adding that the platforms needed to do more to address problems they’ve created.

“There is no question that social media has some real negative effects, from the manipulation of elections to the increasingly documented negative effects on the mental health of children,” Dimon wrote.

“These are issues impacting our individual and collective spheres, and it’s time for social media companies to take more action to remedy these challenges — and swiftly,” he added.