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Meta reaches $17B settlement over social media harms to children

reuters.com

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Re: Meta reaches $17B settlement over social media harms to children

#351

Post by triceratops »

ben_w wrote: post #344
triceratops wrote: post #339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It amounts to taking 10% of his wealth too, through dilution. And by diluting all shareholders it depresses the price in the future.

That's like a court ordering 10% of your home be put on the market in a way that never forces you to pay rent, when you're likely to live in it for the rest of your life. The wealth you're talking about is almost entirely bound in owning and controlling facebook, bounces up and down a lot regardless of penalties, and it isn't a liquid asset becase he can't sell without giving up that control… Except worse than that,…

> it isn't a liquid asset becase he can't sell without giving up that control…

And that doesn't matter. If Meta is forced to issue 10% more shares to the plaintiff the value of all shareholders' shares fall 10%. And if the plaintiff dumps all the shares on a single day, they fall even harder.

Zuckerberg's 57% control of a $1.6t company means a lot more than my 50% control of Triceratops Inc. Not because 57% > 50% but because $1.6t > undefined.

> he could probably order the business to print more shares and give them to him do at any time because of his voting control

Unlikely. Meta is still headquartered in Delaware and such an action would be subject to shareholder lawsuits. And again the stock price falls, so does Zuckerberg's net worth and also the RSU grants of all his employees. To retain them Meta has to spend more money - cash or further share dilution.

You either don't understand finance or are being deliberately obtuse.

Re: Meta reaches $17B settlement over social media harms to children

#352

Post by tintor »

pas wrote: post #276
phyzix5761 wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who doesn't use social media please explain. Is it not possible for people to just delete the apps and stop using them? Is the addiction so strong at this point that people don't have the willpower to stop?

HN is also social media :) but let's say friends sending links to group chats (or through direct messages) and you open it, and uh you see you got messages from other people on Instagram, or on Facebook you see that someone had a baby/wedding/whatever, and ... also I see that people install these limiter apps on their phones, and then just override them many times a day. and of course if every few days you spend 30 m…

HN is social media only in strictly technical sense of the term.

HN isn't optimized daily for engagement like FB and IG are. There isn't a single image, or video on website. Ads (for YC companies) sometimes show up and are rare. Color scheme-wise it is very plain (and should stay like that). HN is not hidden behind login wall. It is not tracking you. You can access HN fully anonymously, and create throwaway accounts for posting.

Re: Meta reaches $17B settlement over social media harms to children

#353

Post by tsss »

slibhb wrote: post #342

It's been eye-opening to watch people fall for the "social media is hurting the children" scam. The best and largest observational studies don't show a strong correlation. Studies with an intervention are mixed/the effect isn't large. Extreme and compulsive social media use is bad, but it's almost maybe always a symptom rather than a cause. I saw the trailer for the new Facebook movie last weekend. It's comical reall…

I know that it's hurting me. Hard to imagine that children are any less affected by it.

Re: Meta reaches $17B settlement over social media harms to children

#355

Post by tsss »

cyanydeez wrote: post #261
shepardrtc wrote: post #106

Meta has warped society to think that life is meaningless without affirmation. No amount of money can fix that or punish them. I think that sharing things can be wonderful, but monetizing that or adding Like counts to gamify it is very damaging to people. This idea that everyone should know better and take a ideological stand against some dumb app is ridiculous. Life can be hard at times, and these apps manipulated t…

Meta is capitalism. You're talking about capitalism.

No it isn't.

Re: Meta reaches $17B settlement over social media harms to children

#356

Post by lacoolj »

jcmoscon wrote: post #55

I think worse than social media nowadays is youtube shorts. That thing is so addictive to kids. I wish there was a way to delete shorts from youtube and have only long form videos available in the app.

Oh, for sure. I have to actively prevent myself from opening one cuz once I pop I really just can't stop.

Re: Meta reaches $17B settlement over social media harms to children

#358

Post by thinkingtoilet »

SpicyLemonZest wrote: post #280
thinkingtoilet wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are of course bigger threats, but have you ever talked to one of these gen Z zombies that have fried their brain on their phone? My nephew is one. He has the thousand yard stare, can barely have a conversation, and has no ability to do anything off his phone. Of course, it's not everyone, but the effects of phone use are beyond obvious and clearly destructive.

I remember being a zombie nephew, although back in those days it was the Game Boy that purportedly fried my brain. (It was entirely normal, of course, for the uncle who told me that to then leave the conversation and retreat to his armchair for his daily 3 hours of baseball watching; that's sports, you can't fry your brain with sports!)

Obviously it's not healthy to plop down in front of a TV for hours ever day. The science behind what social media is doing to young brains is very real, and to compare it to gameboy is arguing in bad faith.

Re: Meta reaches $17B settlement over social media harms to children

#359

Post by pas »

tintor wrote: post #352
pas wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HN is also social media :) but let's say friends sending links to group chats (or through direct messages) and you open it, and uh you see you got messages from other people on Instagram, or on Facebook you see that someone had a baby/wedding/whatever, and ... also I see that people install these limiter apps on their phones, and then just override them many times a day. and of course if every few days you spend 30 m…

HN is social media only in strictly technical sense of the term. HN isn't optimized daily for engagement like FB and IG are. There isn't a single image, or video on website. Ads (for YC companies) sometimes show up and are rare. Color scheme-wise it is very plain (and should stay like that). HN is not hidden behind login wall. It is not tracking you. You can access HN fully anonymously, and create throwaway accounts…

there's no need to "optimize" it already has the basic loop. stochastic reward (interesting news, interesting comments/replies), gamification (points go up!), and no real social interaction. (no connection, some performative elements, ie. comments are written not just to one known person or a small group of people you know.)

the things you mention all exploit this loop for monetization. I agree it's great that HN is not, but that doesn't mean it won't tickle our brains.

Re: Meta reaches $17B settlement over social media harms to children

#360

Post by tintor »

julianpye wrote: post #4

The WSJ reports: "As part of the settlement agreement, Meta will also make sweeping changes to its services, Facebook and Instagram, including implementing a default two-hour time limit on its apps for users under 18." The question is of course if these limits are enforced and if they are shared across other services.

So nice of them to let kids lose their minds 2 hours per FB and 2 hours per IG each day.
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