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Fear and denial in Silicon Valley over social media addiction trial

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Re: Fear and denial in Silicon Valley over social media addiction trial

#241

Post by insane_dreamer »

SpicyLemonZest wrote: post #39
mmaunder wrote: post #5

We all know they're addictive, they're designed to be addictive, and they're very, very harmful, to both adults and children. The individuals who are profiting from the harm are clearly identifiable. And that harm directly targets children. That this is allowed to continue is a symptom of a sick society.

I absolutely do not know they're addictive. I've lived through this entire story before in the video game wars. People said exactly the same things with exactly the same urgency about Mortal Kombat - what kind of sick society do we live in, where greedy corporations sell you the experience of shooting people and ripping their heads off? Perhaps we have to let adults buy these "murder simulators", but only a disturbed…

A big difference between social media and the video games of yore was that social media is predicated on increasing your engagement — companies are spending billions to keep you engaging as much as possible and their profits are linearly tied to your engagement. With MK, the game publisher wants you to enjoy it enough to buy their next game, but their profits remain the same whether you play it once a month or once a day.

Re: Fear and denial in Silicon Valley over social media addiction trial

#242

Post by insane_dreamer »

aprilthird2021 wrote: post #9
mmaunder wrote: post #5

We all know they're addictive, they're designed to be addictive, and they're very, very harmful, to both adults and children. The individuals who are profiting from the harm are clearly identifiable. And that harm directly targets children. That this is allowed to continue is a symptom of a sick society.

But so is cable television designed to be addictive. So are most restaurants and ice cream parlors and grocery stores designed to get you to spend more. Most loyalty programs are designed to be addictive to get you to come back, etc. etc. I just worry we left no levers for the public to regulate these entities and this is the worst option of very few options. Who isn't liable under this kind of logic?

You don’t have a cable TV or ice cream parlor in your pocket dishing it out to you any time you desire wherever you may be.

Re: Fear and denial in Silicon Valley over social media addiction trial

#243

Post by deaux »

hiq wrote: post #201
deaux wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Meta has to know that millenials and younger are giving up on their platforms, they have endless internal data showing it, right? Do you have a source for that? I don't think it's true when looking at global Meta numbers across _all_ Meta social platforms (FB+Instagram+Threads) combined.

Also WhatsApp which leans towards social features ("Updates"), in some countries. > Threads I had forgotten this one existed, so much so that I got surprised by my own forgetfulness. What's up with it, is it popular among certain demographics?

In much - probably most - of the world Twitter never got any mainstream popularity, all of them fall into the potential demographic.

Re: Fear and denial in Silicon Valley over social media addiction trial

#244

Post by SpicyLemonZest »

bigDinosaur wrote: post #62
SpicyLemonZest wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I absolutely do not know they're addictive. I've lived through this entire story before in the video game wars. People said exactly the same things with exactly the same urgency about Mortal Kombat - what kind of sick society do we live in, where greedy corporations sell you the experience of shooting people and ripping their heads off? Perhaps we have to let adults buy these "murder simulators", but only a disturbed…

I'm genuinely curious how one can look at someone using an app like TikTok and conclude that's not addictive. It's optimised in every way to engage people in behaviours that look like outright addiction. Anyway, sometimes 'panic' is justified. Sports betting has been a total disaster, for example.

It just doesn’t look like addiction to me. The people I know who use classically addictive substances will interrupt random activities to ask if anyone wants to drink or smoke or vape; I’ve never once had someone pull me aside at a party to come take a sip of TikTok.

Re: Fear and denial in Silicon Valley over social media addiction trial

#245

Post by jen20 »

slopinthebag wrote: post #97
jen20 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> or even cable television to nearly (any?) degree 24-hour commercial cable news (in the US) is the original sin of addictive media.

I'm not seeing any signs of addiction even within an order of magnitude of social media.

Probably not looking in the right places then. The over 50s are a prime candidate (also for Facebook addiction, but largely reposting nonsense from cable news).

Re: Fear and denial in Silicon Valley over social media addiction trial

#246

Post by SR2Z »

gzread wrote: post #240
SR2Z wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference between heroin and nicotine, practically speaking, is that one of them will ruin your life and make you a burden to everyone around you and the other one will make you a little grumpy.

What about cocaine? I know high-functioning people addicted to cocaine. Should that be allowed?

Honestly? I wouldn't stop people developing drug addictions until they're a burden to society. The "war on drugs" was never going to be able to stop drugs from coming into the US, but it DID stop regular people from having to deal with junkies on their street.

I wish that more people would understand that this was the real success of the policies, and be honest with themselves that it's the only real reason they were enacted. We should obviously offer support for addicts to quit their substances, but I don't think the police should get involved until they're making a nuisance. Criminalize importing and selling cocaine, not possessing it. If there's a homeless drug addict making the neighborhood feel unsafe, arrest them for that and not the drugs.

Re: Fear and denial in Silicon Valley over social media addiction trial

#247

Post by aprilthird2021 »

salawat wrote: post #221
aprilthird2021 wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If it were one building in one state doing this shit, no one would care, and we'd just block or tell people don't go in the building. Most retail environments do design their storefronts, logos, placement of products, even foods have higher than normal sugar, oil, and butter content, all in the service of keeping people coming back for more whether or not it is healthy for them. How do we draw the line? Without reg…

>How do we draw the line? Without regulations in place how is it fair to say companies are negligent in allowing people to become addicted to their products? How about, "If it involves exploiting aspects of human psychology that have to be taught to be mitigated it's not allowed?". There. No more marketing. For anyone. As it should have been. My heart to the artists and creatives that'll have to find employment someh…

> How about, "If it involves exploiting aspects of human psychology that have to be taught to be mitigated it's not allowed?". There. No more marketing. For anyone. As it should have been.

An economy collapsing idea such as this is a non starter and you know it.

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