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US could ban 'addictive' autoplay videos and infinite scrolling online

theguardian.com

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Re: US could ban 'addictive' autoplay videos and infinite scrolling online

#31

Post by corodra »

coldcode wrote: post #14
corodra wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Search "social media mental health study". Theres a flood of universities that have pretty good evidence of social media causing a lot of mental health issues. Namely towards teens and young adults who grew up with it. Yes, it does seem silly, but the rise of anxiety and depression in society is linked to social media. Theres a good reason why people do the social media fasts and cleanses. A lot don't go back.

Then ban social media, not a UI feature. Clearly this law is beyond stupid. What next, banning sunglasses because people might have shifty eyes?

Well, ban cigarettes instead of the mechanism for gaining and retaining customers (ads). But the gov banned the widespread advertising of cigarettes instead of banning the product. The usa now has around a 14% smoking population, compared to like a 50% back in the 50s.

Re: US could ban 'addictive' autoplay videos and infinite scrolling online

#32

Post by 33mhz »

33mhz wrote: post #28

The scope of this bill is within social media networks, and is not blanket autoplay and infinite scroll - it seems to be aiming specifically at automated UI that the user has not indicated they want, and has no option to stop. It has a number of other provisions. It requires the defaults to be "off". It requires legal agreements' Yes/No buttons be standardized on the site and neutral (no split fonts, colors, sizes, e…

"To prohibit social media companies from using practices that exploit human psychology or brain physiology to substantially impede freedom of choice, to require social media companies to take measures to mitigate the risks of internet addiction and psychological exploitation, and for other purposes."

"...unlawful for a social media company to operate a social media platform that uses..."

* Infinite scroll/auto refill beyond what a user has specified

* No natural stopping points

* Autoplay without user intent

* Badges/awards linked to engagement but not linked to services/content/function

* Opt-in options have to be standardized

It then requires companies to allow users to set limits on their own daily use, automatically set defaults, and regularly notify users of their continued use.

But "...shall not apply to any portion of a social media platform that consists only of a predominantly text-based, direct message service such as email or a service that is substantially similar to email."

https://www.hawley.senate.gov/sites/default/files/2019-07/So...

Re: US could ban 'addictive' autoplay videos and infinite scrolling online

#33

Post by TeMPOraL »

ConfusedDog wrote: post #30
corodra wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While, I do agree with you that it does seem a bit on the overregulation, I absolutely hate, with all the fiber of my being, infinite scrolling. Especially if I accidentally click something or don't middle click. Then I hit back just to start at the beginning of the fucking page. Normally just get angry and go "fuck it" to do something else. It's also just so janky too. I've never been on a site that does it and feel…

It depends on the use case and how it is being implemented. I wouldn’t ban a tech because it was not used appropriately once in the past.

Can you name three examples of using infinite scrolling where it's a better idea, usability-wise, to pagination?

Re: US could ban 'addictive' autoplay videos and infinite scrolling online

#34

Post by TeMPOraL »

blodovnik wrote: post #7

Good to hear the politicians are focusing on the big issues of our time.

Arguably, advertising is one of the bigger problems of our time, and it indirectly contributes to the usual suspects (global warming, social unrest).

Re: US could ban 'addictive' autoplay videos and infinite scrolling online

#35

Post by madiathomas »

tiborsaas wrote: post #27
madiathomas wrote: post #8

I don't like sites with autoplay. I only expect autoplay when the page I am about to visit is in a video site like YouTube. I hate it when I am reading a news article and a video autoplays. Autoscrolling also can be irritating. If I click a TechCrunch article on HN, I don't want TC to load more articles at the end of the article I was reading without my consent. It is better to suggest related articles and give me an…

> I only expect autoplay when the page I am about to visit is in a video site like YouTube. Here's the problem with it. There are exceptions, but it's extremely difficult to write the law in a way that can't be gamed if you allow exceptions.

Banning autoplay altogether will be the only solution to the problem. Then an opt-in setting can be baked into browsers to allow certain sites to use audio/video features. That way all sites will be treated the same. News sites can always claim to be video playing sites like YouTube, just to be included in the exceptin list.

Re: US could ban 'addictive' autoplay videos and infinite scrolling online

#36

Post by corodra »

ConfusedDog wrote: post #30
corodra wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While, I do agree with you that it does seem a bit on the overregulation, I absolutely hate, with all the fiber of my being, infinite scrolling. Especially if I accidentally click something or don't middle click. Then I hit back just to start at the beginning of the fucking page. Normally just get angry and go "fuck it" to do something else. It's also just so janky too. I've never been on a site that does it and feel…

It depends on the use case and how it is being implemented. I wouldn’t ban a tech because it was not used appropriately once in the past.

You fail to appreciate how angry I get over fancy UI failures :P I'd say execution should be on the table when someone decides to implement infinite scroll. But that's just me.

But theres another comment of mine, I say it's the same rationale of banning cigarette ads instead of cigarettes. Which has worked very well for dropping smoking rates from like 50% of the population to now around 14% and still dropping.

Re: US could ban 'addictive' autoplay videos and infinite scrolling online

#37

Post by tooop »

orbifold wrote: post #23
tooop wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is a social media problem not infinite scrolling problem.

Tell that to a person in bed, scrolling through Facebook for hours on end. If the content stopped at some point they would do something else hopefully. Compared to TV the pacing is such that people get hooked like on slot machines.

I highly doubt that showing something like "There are X new great posts from blah blah blah, check them out" instead of using infinite scroll will resolve the problem. At the end of the day one could simply load a million posts (probably needs some code/data optimizations but we are talking here about billion dollar companies) and now it is a finite scroll (EDIT: seems that the bill addresses this case).

Re: US could ban 'addictive' autoplay videos and infinite scrolling online

#38

Post by [deleted] »

epistasis wrote: post #26

The Republican Party in the US is famously anti-regulation of large corporations, and "pro-business," yet this is coming from the Republican side. Is there any sort of rationale provided for this seemingly massive ideological shift? Regulation of industry is usually off the table when this party is in control, at least when it comes to pollution or other consumer harms by business.

[deleted]

Re: US could ban 'addictive' autoplay videos and infinite scrolling online

#40

Post by dx87 »

I don't know if the proposed solution is the best way of handling it, but I'm glad something is being done about the way some large companies are manipulating users and causing widescale mental harm. It'd be interesting to see social media sites with warnings similar to cigarrette labels. Require the sites to regularly display a warning along the lines of "Warning: Long term exposure to social media is shown to cause anxiety, low self-esteem, and depression. If you experience these symptoms, call "
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