Teenage mental health crisis is web scale!
Google and Meta struck secret ads deal to target teenagers
51–60 of 404 posts
Re: Google and Meta struck secret ads deal to target teenagers
#52Since I got kids I realized how they are the weakest link in the chain and are targeted by everyone. From tobacco (at the end nobody starts smoking at 30), to "free" cartoons (peppa pig backpack is not free, though), school book sellers. Heck, even the school this year pressured to put my kid in their social media. There is a whole world of people making their living out of your kids. Sorry for the rant. This is just…
> even the school this year pressured to put my kid in their social media.
Wow
Re: Google and Meta struck secret ads deal to target teenagers
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yep, drawing red lines around age of consent has worked so well in the past, I think this is the way. I'm so glad we have simple and effective solutions like this. Otherwise can you imagine the kinds of problems we'd have with kids vaping, buying lootboxes and scrolling social media designed to hijack their not-yet-fully-developed-brains?
... And by "age of consent" I meant "minimum legal age recognized to make decisions pertaining to topic X". Is there a proper term for that, so I don't sound so stupid in future?
You perhaps want the term "age of majority".
Re: Google and Meta struck secret ads deal to target teenagers
#54This reads like a tragic story. Once you've collected enough data on every internet user out there to group them into different advertising cohorts, the remaining ungrouped users, by process of elimination (due to privacy or targeted advertising laws), are children; and now they can be targeted just as easily.
A tragic story would be one where folks in positions of power in these organizations saw these crises coming from a million miles away, tried to avoid disaster, and failed. I don't think this is a tragic story. I think this is a rather boring and formulaic plot we're seeing over and over: the story of late-stage capitalism and the application of value-extraction to human social structures resulting in comically terri…
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Re: Google and Meta struck secret ads deal to target teenagers
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not allowing advertising to children I think isn't the correct route for society. Instead we should prevent children having money. Until you're 16, you may not handle money. You may not buy things for money. You may not sell things. You may not enter into contracts to exchange money. Your parents however can do all of those things on your behalf. At that point, advertising to children no longer is relevant - the chil…
It is already the case, more or less. Parents manage their children assets, including money, and children abilities to enter into contract is very limited. They can manipulate money, but only if they parents let them, and they usually do, because it would be crazy not to. It changes nothing to the situation with ads. Ads for children actually target the parents, manipulating children so that they can in turn manipula…
I remember when I was a kid (a long time ago now...), Dr. Martens shoes were the fashion, that my school forbade them. We had uniforms, but the rule with shoes was just that they had to be black. I think the ban was on the technicality that the stiching was yellow, so they're not black shoes. And a student tried to loophole the loophole by coloring the yellow stitching black.
I wonder if some brands give out free stuff to "child influencers" so other kids would moan to their parents about buying the items...
Re: Google and Meta struck secret ads deal to target teenagers
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
Second this! Quite interesting. @Xen9 please follow up!
My mind would be the source. This is actually one of my least confident comments; I was almost not going to post it. I consider putting a text together later. Regardless—I've observed, to one example, a young girl I know wanting to buy horse toys to make YouTube horse videos with play & interest in horses being a side motive. The adults are proud of her basically being an instrument of marketing. On one hand, making…
Re: confidence
> My mind would be the source.
In the coming flood of AI slop and faked "scientific" studies I'd say there is no better source. Real science always starts with anecdata of n=1, so trust what you see. And I'll just add; regardless of the truth of your observation, regardless of any supporting work, these kind of observations are worthwhile as discussion in themselves so do investigate more and write about it, please.
FWIW my interest was piqued by your claim that "learned helplessness" eclipses humane interpersonal behaviours.
That sounds hard to evaluate, especially in children, but I think you may be on to something and that ubiquitous AV technology is the cause of a reward "short circuit". Once kids get AI servants that simulate their achievements for them I think child mental health will implode. (which of course is Jonathan Haidt's thesis)
Re: Google and Meta struck secret ads deal to target teenagers
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
Second this! Quite interesting. @Xen9 please follow up!
My mind would be the source. This is actually one of my least confident comments; I was almost not going to post it. I consider putting a text together later. Regardless—I've observed, to one example, a young girl I know wanting to buy horse toys to make YouTube horse videos with play & interest in horses being a side motive. The adults are proud of her basically being an instrument of marketing. On one hand, making…
In the same vine, people "doing it for the 'Gram": you go to a fancy vacation or restaurant not to enjoy the experience, but to enjoy the validation from the thumbs up, hearts, comments of your friends social media...
I wonder if that's a valid craving after all, a craving for social contact, sadly a craving being answered not by real life interaction, but by a mobile client hitting some API endpoint called something like /post/{$ID}/reaction/heart , ending on your phone pinging with the notification "$friend liked your post"...
Re: Google and Meta struck secret ads deal to target teenagers
#58Nothing will change as long as C-suite roles keep breaking the law and walking away scott free. Also goes for the investors promoting this behavior at startup level.
Re: Google and Meta struck secret ads deal to target teenagers
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
My mind would be the source. This is actually one of my least confident comments; I was almost not going to post it. I consider putting a text together later. Regardless—I've observed, to one example, a young girl I know wanting to buy horse toys to make YouTube horse videos with play & interest in horses being a side motive. The adults are proud of her basically being an instrument of marketing. On one hand, making…
Re: confidence > My mind would be the source. In the coming flood of AI slop and faked "scientific" studies I'd say there is no better source. Real science always starts with anecdata of n=1, so trust what you see. And I'll just add; regardless of the truth of your observation, regardless of any supporting work, these kind of observations are worthwhile as discussion in themselves so do investigate more and write abo…
I noticed many years ago, if someone is 25 then, they'd have grown up with social media, and its trappings of social validation through likes and comments. Facebook was opened to everyone from 13 years old in 2006. Instagram went big in 2012. If you were a teen in late 00's/early 10's, you were probably on these networks, and didn't experience any time growing up without them...
Re: Google and Meta struck secret ads deal to target teenagers
#60Still waiting for cookies to be removed