So many people here endorsing prohibition affecting everybody just because some folks aren't able to control themselves. I simply don't want the state to nanny me.
EU to crack down on TikTok, Instagram's 'addictive design' targeting kids
311–320 of 503 posts
Re: EU to crack down on TikTok, Instagram's 'addictive design' targeting kids
#312Earlier quoted context omitted.
Goes away, or is liable for the content promoted to the frontpage under the OP's take? But I'd agree, that it's personalisation rather than just curation that's the issue. I think even requiring sites to have a "bring your own algo" version (and where ads are targetted to the algorithm, rather than the person) would cure a lot of ills. As is, even with something like Spotify where you _are_ paying there's no easy way…
> Goes away, or is liable for the content promoted to the frontpage under the OP's take? Same thing. There is no Hacker News if Y Combinator becomes liable for user submitted content. It’s an obvious backdoor play to make sites go away. If a site becomes liable for content posted, you cannot allow users to post content without having the site review and take responsibility for every comment and every post. The people…
I think you could finesse it by saying that on HN, the users submit the content and the users also determine (by voting) what is popular. Ycombinator doesn't promote or bury any particular post with their own algorithms; they don't exercise any editorial review or control. (I don't think that's exactly true today, but it could be).
But to the larger point, I would actuall agree that sites should "review and take responsibility for every comment and every post." They are the ones amplifying and distributing this content, why should they have zero responsibility for it?
Yes that would dramatically change what gets published online, but I think that would be a good thing.
Re: EU to crack down on TikTok, Instagram's 'addictive design' targeting kids
#313Re: EU to crack down on TikTok, Instagram's 'addictive design' targeting kids
#314So many people here endorsing prohibition affecting everybody just because some folks aren't able to control themselves. I simply don't want the state to nanny me.
People are complaining about products engineered to be as addictive as possible, we're talking about something more than simple self control
Re: EU to crack down on TikTok, Instagram's 'addictive design' targeting kids
#315how about the shareholders? /s
Re: EU to crack down on TikTok, Instagram's 'addictive design' targeting kids
#316Earlier quoted context omitted.
But if you stop using social media, you don't still have a risk of lung cancer in the future. The effects of social media usage are surely reversible by stopping using it and then some retraining of the brain. The effects of years of smoking are not so reversible in terms of what it does to your body.
I hope you're right but I think you're dead wrong. Social media has not only affected the mental health of millions of people negatively, it has brought about social, political and economic harms that will affect the planet for generations.
In the absence of any evidence, it is really unclear why anyone needs to catastrophize about generations of harms.
Is there any reason to believe that "social media existing" is a worse and more enduring harm than tens of millions of people dying in the Second World War, the trauma of the survivors, the vast destruction of infrastructure,or the start of the risk of nuclear war?
Yet the post war baby boom seems to have led a remarkably fortunate life, overall.
Re: EU to crack down on TikTok, Instagram's 'addictive design' targeting kids
#317So many people here endorsing prohibition affecting everybody just because some folks aren't able to control themselves. I simply don't want the state to nanny me.
> some folks aren't able to control themselves
I get that there are some people who have anomalous abilities to self control, and i understand that they might have a hard time empathizing with those of us that dont have that level of control. However to chalk up the solution as be a better person, when in reality corporations are spending billions on research and design of addictive products is just short sighted.
We saw the same thing with smoking. Plenty of people said "meh, why cant the smoker just quit, I did". Which missed the point. The tabacco companies knew if they could get kids smoking at a young age it was less likely they'd ever quit.
Its naive to assume that the social media companies are not doing the exact same thing.
Yes there is room for individual accountability, but also we need to be realistic about the amount of energy that is being spent subverting people's attention and self control.
Re: EU to crack down on TikTok, Instagram's 'addictive design' targeting kids
#318Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the case of Instagram: You show the videos from the people you follow on instagram, then no more short videos at all. Possibly a search box. If you search on youtube then it can rank any way it wants, just not use e.g. anything from the viewing history. No "related videos" column. That's what YouTube used to be. But YouTube (unlike TikTok) worked well before it had rabbit holes. For TikTok the situation is worse.…
I think it would be great if all of these apps had an option to function like you propose: Your feed is a simple view of people you’ve chosen to follow. The end. Then all of the people who have trouble with self-control on infinite feeds can enable this mode, and everyone who wants the recommendation algorithm can leave it on. This is the optimal outcome that actually serves everyone’s personal goals for using these…
> I think it would be great if all of these apps had an option to function like you propose: Your feed is a simple view of people you’ve chosen to follow. The end.
This is something EU regulation requires them. Earlier this year the Dutch courts ruled as such, all the way up to appeal. It's just a matter of time before other European courts repeat this ruling.
https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/dutch-court-upholds...
Re: EU to crack down on TikTok, Instagram's 'addictive design' targeting kids
#319So many people here endorsing prohibition affecting everybody just because some folks aren't able to control themselves. I simply don't want the state to nanny me.
People are complaining about products engineered to be as addictive as possible, we're talking about something more than simple self control
everybody has a choice to just uninstall apps, leave the phone at home, switch it off at 8pm etc. that's what it means to be an adult. some people get addicted to work or sports - people even died from it - should we ban that, too?
Re: EU to crack down on TikTok, Instagram's 'addictive design' targeting kids
#320Earlier quoted context omitted.
What you described sounds like an authoritarian hellscape and the suggestion would be met with laughter in any civilized country.
It's what happens in China with Tiktok. The Party said Tiktok needed to have educational content instead of stupid content. Tiktok complied. The CCP may be many bad things, but they don't fuck around when it comes to education and making sure their youth aren't wasting their youth on stupid dance videos.
I am aware that that’s what happens. That’s what I’m criticizing.