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Snapchat is harming children at an industrial scale?

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Re: Snapchat is harming children at an industrial scale?

#121

Post by ceejayoz »

itishappy wrote: post #96
ceejayoz wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Confiscate the hell out of it. People in prisons manage to conceal contraband (including cell phones) in their cells, and they have substantially fewer hiding spots. Turning your house into a prison with random room tossings has consequences, too.

I don't really understand what you're arguing for here. Obviously prisons understand they can't catch everything, but they try anyway because it's still better than letting prisoners bring in whatever they want.

They try, and they fail comprehensively, and that's despite being very willing to do things that would be extremely clear child abuse if I tried them on my kids.

The prison warden doesn't care if the prisoners love him 20 years from now.

Re: Snapchat is harming children at an industrial scale?

#122

Post by neilv »

lupusreal wrote: post #77
neilv wrote: post #46

(Since the TikTok post was swapped out with this one, I'll repost my late comment here, since it applies to a lot of companies.) > As one internal report put it: [...damning effects...] I recall hearing of related embarrassing internal reports from Facebook. And, earlier, the internal reports from big tobacco and big oil, showing they knew the harms, but chose to publicly lie instead, for greater profit. My question…

> Why are employees, who presumably have plush jobs they want to keep, still writing reports that management doesn't want to hear? They hire people on the autism spectrum who are inclined to say things out loud without much regard/respect for whether they are "supposed to" say it. *cough* James Damore.

I didn't guess that autism was involved in that case, and I'm a little uncomfortable with something that might sound like suggesting that autistic people might be less corporate-compatible.

There are plenty of autistic people who wouldn't say what Damore did, and there are non-autistic people who would.

I also know autistic people who are very highly-valued in key roles, including technical expert roles interfacing directly with customer senior execs in high-profile enterprise deals.

People are individuals, and we tend to end up treating individuals unfairly because of labels and biases, so we should try to correct for that when we can.

Re: Snapchat is harming children at an industrial scale?

#123

Post by ClumsyPilot »

stickfigure wrote: post #114
ClumsyPilot wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Let humans communicate freely, some of them will do bad things. That’s just normal phone calls - no one is complaining about those. But social networks have algorithms that promote one kind of content over another. I keep getting recommended YouTube videos of gross and mostly fake pimple removal, on Facebook AI generated fake videos of random crap like Barnacle removal, and google ads for an automated IoT chicken c…

You have a very different experience than I do! My Youtube algorithm suggestions are wonderful , full of science and engineering and history and food and travel and comedy and all kinds of weird esoteric things that would never have been viable in the broadcast TV I grew up with. I am literally delighted. Maybe you're starving the algorithm and it's trying random things? Look up how to reset the YT algo, I'm sure it'…

Perhaps, but my point is it's not 'humans communicating freely', the strange thing I see is not my choice.

Re: Snapchat is harming children at an industrial scale?

#124

Post by peterbecich »

There is a statistic that the average teenager gets 240 smartphone notifications a day: https://www.michiganmedicine.org/health-lab/study-average-te...

Young people have more time ahead of them than anyone. Consequently, in my opinion, young people should be receiving information with a long time period of usefulness. Smartphone notifications have a very short half-life.

Re: Snapchat is harming children at an industrial scale?

#125

Post by lupusreal »

neilv wrote: post #122
lupusreal wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why are employees, who presumably have plush jobs they want to keep, still writing reports that management doesn't want to hear? They hire people on the autism spectrum who are inclined to say things out loud without much regard/respect for whether they are "supposed to" say it. *cough* James Damore.

I didn't guess that autism was involved in that case, and I'm a little uncomfortable with something that might sound like suggesting that autistic people might be less corporate-compatible. There are plenty of autistic people who wouldn't say what Damore did, and there are non-autistic people who would. I also know autistic people who are very highly-valued in key roles, including technical expert roles interfacing d…

On the contrary, autistic people who don't hesitate to speak uncomfortable truthes are vital to the health of organizations, and society as a whole. You would all be lost without us.

(Note my indifference to your discomfort with my comment.)

Re: Snapchat is harming children at an industrial scale?

#126

Post by matsuui »

SamuelAdams wrote: post #108
aylmao wrote: post #64

> “Think it would be interesting to investigate how healthy Snapstreak sessions are for users… If I open Snapchat, take a photo of the ceiling to keep my streak going and don’t engage with the rest of the app, is that the type of behavior we want to encourage? Alternatively, if we find that streaks are addictive or a gateway to already deep engagement with other parts of Snapchat, then it would be something positive…

GitHub does the same thing with commits, displaying them on your profile. Is that remarkably different than what Snapchat is doing?

I'd say so. Some obsess over their commit history but it is mostly out of the way and only a representation of how active you are. The snapchat streaks are a key feature and designed to keep you coming back every day, you can even pay a dollar to restore it if you miss a day.

Re: Snapchat is harming children at an industrial scale?

#127

Post by anon84873628 »

zonkerdonker wrote: post #91
kgwxd wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You want every (any?) app knowing your exact location at all times? That's not how we "geofence" the sale of physical goods.

I imagine this could be set up on the operating system side. All the apps would receive is a go/no go signal, not fine coordinates

Or maybe the schools just don't let kids bring phones in at all.

Re: Snapchat is harming children at an industrial scale?

#128

Post by anon84873628 »

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #123
stickfigure wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have a very different experience than I do! My Youtube algorithm suggestions are wonderful , full of science and engineering and history and food and travel and comedy and all kinds of weird esoteric things that would never have been viable in the broadcast TV I grew up with. I am literally delighted. Maybe you're starving the algorithm and it's trying random things? Look up how to reset the YT algo, I'm sure it'…

Perhaps, but my point is it's not 'humans communicating freely', the strange thing I see is not my choice.

Exactly. It's marginal benefit vs marginal harm. Teens can "communicate freely" over text, voice, and video calls, including sending each other photos... TO THEIR CONTACTS.

There is no need for location based recommendations, streaks, nudges, etc. They should be building their social networks in the real world. And if they need friends outside of school, that can come through parentally facilitated activities like sports, clubs, etc. Later you start playing Magic the Gathering at the nerd shop or go to "shows" at the VFW hall.

Re: Snapchat is harming children at an industrial scale?

#129

Post by anon84873628 »

stickfigure wrote: post #61
some_random wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you not willing to even entertain the notion that communication platforms could influence the way that it's users communicate with each other? That totally ephemeral and private image based social media could promote a different type of communication compared to something like say, HN, which is public and text based? Sure you take your kid skiing, but presumably you make them wear a helmet and have them start off…

Yes, I make my kid wear a helmet. I make sure his bindings are set properly. I make sure he's dressed warmly. I make sure he's fed and hydrated. I am the parent. The ski resort provides the mountain, the snow, and the lifts. He's a bit too young to be interested in taking pictures of his wang but I'd like to think this is a topic I can handle. Teaching him to navigate a dangerous world is sort of my job. I'm not losi…

Well, good luck when he does become a teenager. Many parents thought the same as you up until that point.

Re: Snapchat is harming children at an industrial scale?

#130

Post by light_hue_1 »

abletonlive wrote: post #88
light_hue_1 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. A large fraction of Snapchat's users are significantly harmed. First hand, I see it all the time in students. There's an extreme unhealthy obsession with social media that leads to serious inferiority complexes and depression. All of this wrapped in algorithms that compel people to participate in various ways, from streaks to points, etc. Quantitatively, everything from anxiety to depression to suicide has more…

> Social media is black mirror, and we're doing it to ourselves. You mean black mirror is a pessimistic exaggeration on the state of society and technology. It’s not the other way around. What you’re observing is not profound, it’s literally how the writers approach their process for the show. In fact, you’re doing this weird thing where you make it seem like black mirror was prophetic and it came before all the obse…

What are you responding to?

Children committing suicide at twice the rate is bad. Childhood depression at twice the rate is bad. Declining scores on every metric of well-being and attainment is bad.

I'm ignoring the good?!

No. When kids that I know self harm at alarming rates because of social media, I'm not ignoring the good.

You're prioritizing some abstract nonsense over the actual people who are suffering.

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