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Comment on The inarguable case for banning social media for teens

jBoi@szmer.info ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

Are you genuinely comparing social media to social interactions? Twitter for example is like a parody of what social interactions are, and I think this article is talking about things like Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, and other algorithmic platforms that give the user an anonymous feed of slop. I can’t imagine this is advocating for a ban on platforms like fb messenger, WhatsApp, ect. that aren’t nearly as invasive and generally do serve a good social function.

The case isn’t clear for platforms like reddit and Lemmy imo, on one side they do have a slop feed effect, but they also feel a lot less aggressive to me for some reason.

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schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
Again, how do you define “social media”?

I grew up on IRC as well as web forums and found those social interactions very fun overall, not dissimilar from IRL social interactions.

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- jBoi@szmer.info ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  I would draw the line at having an algorithmic content feed as the primary way of interaction. TikTok, Instagram, Facebook (mostly), YouTube, Twitter, Reddit would be out or would have to drastically change their content discovery system. By algorithmic I mean - one that adapts to the user’s personal viewing habits.
  
  I’d classify stuff like IRC and web forums as communicators, in the same basket as WhatsApp, email, sms, and perhaps Discord. I agree that they have, in general, valuable social interactions. They also don’t have the same effect as algorithmic platforms where you can be scrolling for 2 hours and not remember a single thing you read, or where you’re served content tailored to keep you engaged.
  
  I’m sure there are some valuable platforms that would get hurt by this distinction, but imo it’s a good first guideline.
  
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  - schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    It’s a possible distinction to make, the main problem is that the article in the OP didn’t make that distinction.
    
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    jBoi@szmer.info ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
    You’re right, I guess I just assumed the author had the same view as me.
    
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joshcodes@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
Sounds like it’s the platforms that are the issue, not the kids. Would you believe that maybe the corporations havent been acting with ours or our children’s best interests at heart and should, shock horror, be forced into doing that? It’s almost like designing social media to be an ad casino shouldn’t have been allowed.

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