Comment by sunaookami
16 days ago
Yeah, I've been warning everyone about the consequences but nobody wanted to hear it. So do people still want a general social media ban for teens?
16 days ago
Yeah, I've been warning everyone about the consequences but nobody wanted to hear it. So do people still want a general social media ban for teens?
Absolutely. Social media and its consequences has been a disaster for the human race. Ban it for everyone.
I've flown across the US to meet what will likely be lifelong friends[0], and just went out to dinner and an escape room with some others, all of which I connected with through Bluesky. The worst of social media is terrible, but I would hate to lose the best of it by banning it outright. The really negative parts come are
- Underage people who do not have the emotional maturity to deal with digital public spaces
- Emotional manipulation through "algorithmic" timelines (chronological or bust)
- Waves of unwanted interactions
Social media seems like it can be a positive tool to me. I would love to be able to continue to use it as I am. I do think there is a conflict of interest issue between the mental health of the people that use social media, and for-profit corporations that provide social media services. Regulating social media in a sane way has become difficult due to how much financial sway social media companies have on legislation, but it's an important fight to fight.
[0] I have a thread on my bsky account with a bunch of group photos, if you're interested it shouldn't be hard to find. I'm not linking it because I'm not interested in people engaging in it from here.
This right here is why we keep having this problem. The benefits (or in more cases) the addictions are too enticing. So we take the good with the bad, except the problem is that the bad far, far outweighs the good.
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Social media doesn't mean communicating with people you know. Social media means optimized algorithmic feeds. You could have met the same friends over email.
Blue sky is a social network, not social media.
A subtle but important distinction
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Hilariously, the website hosting the post you are currently commenting on is Social Media by almost any definition. Autocracy and autocratic thinking are never the solution. You don’t know what’s best for everyone.
Not really. By a broad definition, yes. But here there is no algorithmic filtering of what you see based on data about you that is tracked and data about you purchased from data brokers. Nor is there a team of psychologists constantly working on ways to hit your dopamine triggers and keep you engaged.
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This place should burn too.
And every video game is a RPG because you play a role.
Sure, social media is bad for kids. Why can't their parents regulate them though? Isn't keeping kids away from dangerous things a basic requirement of being a parent?
I propose passing laws that make parents who let their kids on social media pay fines and risk having social media sites blocked by their ISP rather than just making all adults have to get an "internet license".
It’s bad for everyone, except for the advertisers, and arguably it’s bad for them as a 2nd order effect.
I think we just need to ban social media in general. It's done more harm to our societies than good.
The loss of all anonymity and privacy on the internet is much worse than this generation's version of the "won't someone think of the children" scare. It's wild how many people are eating this up.
I’m not suggesting “upload an id”. I’m suggesting ban all these brain slugs outright.
Make META a criminal organization. Put Zuckerberg behind bars.
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Louis Rossmann had a vid about this and it's much more than jut anonimity, it's about protecting yourself from being exploited by algorithms. Can go as far as influencing your political voting, or who knows what else.
Does tiktok have good intentions keeping your hooked all day on end?
The one (teenage verification for specific services such as social media) does not require the other (require uploading ids to every site on the internet). For one, the scope is limited and secondly, there must be different schemes possible.
Who cares? What exactly is lost. Personally I’m not going to give them my ID, I’m just going to stop using those parts of the internet.
> "won't someone think of the children" scare
Pretending that's what the anti-social media stance is, is hilariously dishonest.
Anyone pretending there is any anonymity and privacy to protect on the internet, right now, has their head in the sand, especially if they use social media.
What happens when the governments around the world decide to ban something that you care about? Will you be so eager to agree with them or will you cry that your rights and your freedom are being taken away?
Don't like social media, fine, nobody is forcing you to use it.
define 'social media' .. were BBSs social media? usenet? email? aol instant messenger? physical community bulletin boards? classified ads? newspapers?
I agree that social media is a plague. Unfortunately, the legal definition of "social media" is likely to be so broad that it will include things like Hacker News or even old-school forums. The real plague is the infinite scroll, engagement-farming social media like Twitter, post-newsfeed Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok. I'm skeptical that laws addressing social media will target the right problem given how rich/powerful a company like Meta is vs. some guy running an Anime forum.
> some guy running an Anime forum.
I expected all of them to have become Discord channels at this point.
Good bye, Hacker News. I knew ye uhh... Well, I knew ye.
HN would be improved if the comment section was removed and it was just high quality submissions. All the AI generated engagement bait articles would stop.
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What is social media?
ID verification for sites that where people speak the truth.
Cesspit of AI-driven "validated" accounts for pushing propaganda.
It's the worst of both worlds.
Nope, I want the social media companies to be shut down, I want smart phones to go away permanently, and I don't want kids to be handed laptops or ipads in school.
Everybody hates teenagers, so yes.
It's not really about protecting them; people that claim this is the case are generally doing so to launder that hatred.
They're not hated, they're just treated as non-entities that aren't assumed to have or need any agency.
People under 18 are the largest disenfranchised block of citizens.
I mean, yes. Because we don't give kids all their rights yet. That's fair in many regards (not all. Having schools able to silence dissent legally feels all sorts of wrong). It also add protections, like not letting a 12 yo work in a coal mine or be sent to war.
More importantly, it's a powerful political spin used to justify often heinous actions. People want to protect kids.
This is the kind of thing I would have posted while in High School.
Brilliant observation! I would like to make the statement more precise: not hate/hatred but jealousy.
Absolutely, who gives a shit about some platforms on the internet.