Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

EU opens child safety probes of Facebook and Instagram, citing addictive design

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 103 posts

Re: EU opens child safety probes of Facebook and Instagram, citing addictive design

#3

Post by dathinab »

I wonder if we at as a society at some point will decide that any "flow which which constantly provides short feedback loop high and lows with no substantial user interaction between" should be treated like gambling. I I mean AFIK they do affect the brain in similar ways as gambling and seem to have the potential to do quite a bit of damage for the development of young children, and at least in case of Ticktock in combination with other mental/social issues can drain you wallet as much as gambling). That might inst kill Tiktok, YT Shorts and affect any software providing engagement optimized endless feeds or similar to at least some degree (i.e. Instagram).

Sure that would be a radical step.

But from the limited knowledge I have, it would be a clear strong net positive for society, with drawbacks limited to the companies which provided such services and a small number (compared to the population) of creators which due to there focus area/skills aren't cable to have success with other content creation.

Re: EU opens child safety probes of Facebook and Instagram, citing addictive design

#4

Post by red_admiral »

dathinab wrote: post #3

I wonder if we at as a society at some point will decide that any "flow which which constantly provides short feedback loop high and lows with no substantial user interaction between" should be treated like gambling. I I mean AFIK they do affect the brain in similar ways as gambling and seem to have the potential to do quite a bit of damage for the development of young children, and at least in case of Ticktock in co…

Jonathan Haidt has a book out (The Anxious Generation) arguing for a causal link between children having smartphones with social media, and the massive increases in depression, suicidality, anxiety and other negative effects in teenagers and young adults over the last decade or so (I believe 2012 is roughly when Haidt claims it all started).

It may well be that Tiktok and the like turn out to have worse second-order effects than DDT, smoking, CFCs, leaded gasoline and other things we've banned or heavily restricted.

Re: EU opens child safety probes of Facebook and Instagram, citing addictive design

#5

Post by EMIRELADERO »

red_admiral wrote: post #4
dathinab wrote: post #3

I wonder if we at as a society at some point will decide that any "flow which which constantly provides short feedback loop high and lows with no substantial user interaction between" should be treated like gambling. I I mean AFIK they do affect the brain in similar ways as gambling and seem to have the potential to do quite a bit of damage for the development of young children, and at least in case of Ticktock in co…

Jonathan Haidt has a book out (The Anxious Generation) arguing for a causal link between children having smartphones with social media, and the massive increases in depression, suicidality, anxiety and other negative effects in teenagers and young adults over the last decade or so (I believe 2012 is roughly when Haidt claims it all started). It may well be that Tiktok and the like turn out to have worse second-order…

Note that Haidt's work is... disputed, to say the least.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-coddling-of-the-american-p...

Re: EU opens child safety probes of Facebook and Instagram, citing addictive design

#6

Post by [deleted] »

dathinab wrote: post #3

I wonder if we at as a society at some point will decide that any "flow which which constantly provides short feedback loop high and lows with no substantial user interaction between" should be treated like gambling. I I mean AFIK they do affect the brain in similar ways as gambling and seem to have the potential to do quite a bit of damage for the development of young children, and at least in case of Ticktock in co…

[deleted]

Re: EU opens child safety probes of Facebook and Instagram, citing addictive design

#7

Post by perihelions »

dathinab wrote: post #3

I wonder if we at as a society at some point will decide that any "flow which which constantly provides short feedback loop high and lows with no substantial user interaction between" should be treated like gambling. I I mean AFIK they do affect the brain in similar ways as gambling and seem to have the potential to do quite a bit of damage for the development of young children, and at least in case of Ticktock in co…

- "clear strong net positive for society,"

This has been debated to death for centuries already: of course it's a clear net positive, in the same sense that prohibiting alcohol, cannabis, regulating video games, legislating sex, putting ankle monitors on fat people to monitor their activity levels—all these things are "obvious" social improvements: in practice, not at all. These isn't a novel debate. It's a revisited, misguided paternalism to imagine you can fix people's (admittedly defective!) lives, make them healthier and better people, through coercive political agencies supervising and guiding them. (A less charitable comment would substitute "authoritarian" for "paternalistic").

There's two experiments running in parallel right now. If you want to live a free human in a free society, live in the West; if you want to try the alternative of a benevolent father-government, go to the Middle Kingdom—go somewhere where you can assume that lifestyle, where government shuts off your addictive video games, puts social credit scores on your alcohol purchases, sends social police to re-harmonize your life when it's un-harmonized. Where (of course) TikTok has been banned for a long time already, and all dis-harmonious, time-wasting social media is already helpfully filtered out of your life by a nationwide internet filter.

Please don't turn the West into the East: speaking for myself, I would like the option of living in a free society, somewhere. Unfiltered internet access is a core part of that.

Post reply on HN