Live data from Hacker News

Meta sued by states over harmful youth marketing

bloomberg.com

441–450 of 483 posts

Re: Meta sued by states over harmful youth marketing

#441

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know which 'young people' generation you are talking about but I don't think most of them are actively comparing themselves to previous generations. It is very difficult to accurately compare my quality of life vs say my mothers. Most people are just trying to live life and get by as best as they can. If anything, older generations belittle the younger ones with the 'you've got it easy' comments. Communism ne…

Communism was/still is (depends on how you feel about China) a system that billions of people lived through. I think there’s been a great amnesia about this in younger people who’ve never met someone who interacted with Really Existing Socialism

It's no accident that American colleges don't have courses dedicated to teaching students what life was like in the Soviet Union. They had money, and they had people living in nice places with cars and people who lived in ghettos and were a decade+ away from automobile ownership if ever. A reality check isn't what you need if you're raising a generation of utopian idealists.

Re: Meta sued by states over harmful youth marketing

#442

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>My guess is social media, but maybe it’s environmental pollution or something similar There are plenty of other countries that have just as much social media usage as the US but don't have the same widespread emotional dysfunction, so wouldn't that suggest that social media isn't to blame?

Cultural stigma against mental health issues is extremely ubiquitous outside the US This causes mental health issues to go unaddressed, but, ironically, it also helps in a way, because peer pressure certainly helps reinforce individual discipline to develop techniques to keep it together. Peer pressure is a very powerful motivator. For example fat shaming is certainly bullying but it's also certainly effective at dis…

A lot of Asian countries are shame based on the Shame - Guilt - Fear spectrum of cultures, and have some of the lowest obesity rates. I wouldn't be surprised if these countries have less obese people and more suicides of people who feel they cannot fit in

Re: Meta sued by states over harmful youth marketing

#443

Are we sophisticated enough yet in this field to define addictive software, safe amounts of it, etc., as we do with drugs?

It will be surpassed by the next thing and we will forget all about the previous thing Do we define addictive programming, safe amounts of WWE, or reality TV At certain times Dungeons and Dragons, Mortal Kombat, WWE and Reality TV have been said to be causing a decline of morals. A hundred years ago we blamed comic books and radio. Did we ever figure out the safe amount of comic books or radio or did they just get forgotten as we moved onto the next shiny object?

Re: Meta sued by states over harmful youth marketing

#444

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There needs to be a line drawn from those who service a large number of people, and those who don't. Either way, only those who are big enough can be actively monitored and accounted for. Before the obvious argument "where do you draw the line?", I may add that only a select and obvious number of social platforms reach the level of Meta's.

The original post claimed every post should be monitored for "harm to children". And that if giant social media companies can't do that, they shouldn't exist. Now you want to exempt everyone apart from giant social media companies from that same rule? This is getting a bit Kafkaesque.

Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't notice that extremely important part. That is... more than kafkaesque. I thought the conversation was around marketing, not user posts.

Re: Meta sued by states over harmful youth marketing

#445

First of all, they need to define what "harmful" is as quantifiable variable(s). Then the states in this case must prove that the contents from Meta are harmful in this context. Lastly, they need to prove there exists a statistical causal link from such "harmful" contents to the mental well-being of the children. Many parents kind of "sense" social media is harmful, but I don't see how they can "prove" that social me…

Right, you let your kid become an alcoholic or a nicotinist to find out whether it's harmful.

Re: Meta sued by states over harmful youth marketing

#446
post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it does because it eats away all valuable time and turns people into slaves and consumers instead of creators of value

It's ok to admit that you're wrong and that it's not like crack or some terrible drug.

it’s ok to have a different opinion and not lecture other people how yours is better

Re: Meta sued by states over harmful youth marketing

#447
If I let my kid have so much candy that they stop being able to control themselves and then they give themselves childhood obesity or diabetes is that the candy makers' faults?

If I encourage my kid to engage in the dangerous sport of snowboarding (this is an analogy) and they take it way too far despite obvious signs of egregious injury to their person is that the ski resort's fault?

No, at some point it is the parents' fault. If your kid killed themselves because the screen told them they aren't airbrushed enough their parents should be held legally liable.

Re: Meta sued by states over harmful youth marketing

#449

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is not even about employee promotion. You can't ban a communication tool. That is just absurd.

I worked at Meta for 7 years, focusing on Youth Engagement for a number of those years. We had incredible sociology research on what is good and healthy for kids online. We were not allowed to build any of it because the Director and VP class only rewarded "number go up" and punished any other activity. I quit the Youth group in frustration because they just wouldn't let me build or even code.

only took 7 years of collecting pay checks for you to become conscious

nothing will change until people stop enabling meta with their labor

Re: Meta sued by states over harmful youth marketing

#450
post #62

Growing up, I knew maybe two or three kids that had emotional problems. Now (as an adult with grown kids) I hardly know any families that don’t have such a person. I’m sure part of it is we’re more open, which is great, but I can’t attribute all of it to that. The rising generation is really struggling. My guess is social media, but maybe it’s environmental pollution or something similar. I live in the US for what it…

> My guess is social media

Let's not scapegoat the real problems at play: climate disaster, the rise of authoritative leaders in democracies that use fear as their biggest selling point, crippling debt to merely exist in a healthy manner (in the US), disinformation turning friends and family into anti-vaxx Q-following idiots, capitalism squeezing blood out of every penny... The list goes on.

Post reply on HN