Comment on The inarguable case for banning social media for teens
schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de 1 week agoAgain, 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.
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.
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.
jBoi@szmer.info 1 week ago
You’re right, I guess I just assumed the author had the same view as me.