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Meta Designed Products to Capitalize on Teen Vulnerabilities, States Allege

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Re: Meta Designed Products to Capitalize on Teen Vulnerabilities, States Allege

#41

Post by crowcroft »

The nuance with social media ('digital' media generally I guess), is how hard it is for third parties to verify/audit/understand wtf is going on to be able to prove if anything negative is happening.

With broadcast media like TV, I can see what the programming is, and I can watch the same ads that every other house is getting broadcast to know what's being shown to kids (and research companies do this). Similarly for retail media, I can go to a store and see what a retailer is doing.

For Meta with AI newsfeeds and targeted ads, it's impossible to know exactly what any one persons experience is. I don't know the veracity of this specific case is but as a minimum I think there should be some legislation that force these companies to be auditable in some way...

Re: Meta Designed Products to Capitalize on Teen Vulnerabilities, States Allege

#42

Post by stillwithit »

cscurmudgeon wrote: post #27
stillwithit wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I for one feel no obligation to your existence; no need to provide you food, shelter, healthcare. It would be government overreach to force such. Since I have no obligation to your existence itself, who cares what you have to say, or your philosophy? You’re just some pointless meat suit I have no responsibility to. There you go; you got exactly the world you project you want.

Isn't this the world we live in? Taxes for the common good, but the government doesn't force you to work and doesn't force you to directly provide for others. Well-intentioned but still moronic socialism/communist projects fail for a reason. They fail to understand scale and human psychology and the basics of economics.

Whole lot of capitalist projects fail. Moronic capitalism and all those failed startups, the resources wasted on them! Most new capitalist businesses fail in their first year! Morons everywhere!

Market of goods and services with prices determined by social behavior among buyers! Sounds like socialism!

I know language skills alone make it feel like yer smurt but when you go compose dumb logic, eh.

Re: Meta Designed Products to Capitalize on Teen Vulnerabilities, States Allege

#43

Post by splitwheel »

There is science driving the design of products to make them addictive.

For teen girls - the apps are designed to scare them about being socially excluded. For teen boys - the apps are designed to fill their need to master skills.

The issue that the government has to deal with with app addictions is self harm attempts by girls (e.g. emergency room visits) and underperformance of boys in the real world (e.g. low college enrollment).

If you are trying to make an addictive app, this is a good reference to understand the science: https://www.amazon.com/Hooked-How-Build-Habit-Forming-Produc...

BJ Fogg is a good reference too: https://www.bjfogg.com

Re: Meta Designed Products to Capitalize on Teen Vulnerabilities, States Allege

#44

Post by asylteltine »

BorisMelnik wrote: post #26
asylteltine wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Teenagers started having extreme and rampant mental health issues as soon as social media became pervasive. I’m sure it’s just a coincidence though.

it was bound to happen with any communication platform teens use on the internet, it was already starting in the early 2000s with text messaging, definitely MySpace

MySpace is social media

Re: Meta Designed Products to Capitalize on Teen Vulnerabilities, States Allege

#45

Post by dmatech »

I'd argue that Facebook itself is protected 1A speech (as are the recommendations of the YouTube algorithm). It's not a consumer product, and it's not a defective one. Parents have parental controls, and they should educate themselves on how to effectively use them.

I suppose that the broader concern is over precisely what duties a company has to its customers. They obviously have the duty to be truthful when making offers, but every customer relationship will have an adversarial component where each party benefits at the other's expense (or at the expense of third parties). In cases like a bar serving alcohol to customers, there's usually some responsibility to prevent patrons from getting extremely intoxicated and getting in a car. But that case involves a clear signal that someone is dangerous. Facebook doesn't know if someone's grades are suffering or if they're having mental health issues. It doesn't know if it should tell the user to "touch grass".

Re: Meta Designed Products to Capitalize on Teen Vulnerabilities, States Allege

#46

Post by marcosdumay »

avalys wrote: post #4

Do grocery stores “capitalize on vulnerability” when they place name-brand products at eye level? Do carmakers “capitalize on vulnerability” when they advertise pickup trucks as big tough vehicles for tough, outdoorsy men? Do providers of health insurance for pets “capitalize on vulnerability” when they say you need to buy their product if you love your pet? At some point people need to be responsible for their own d…

Not only I'll add to the choir of people answering "yes" to all those 3, but if any of those act in a way capable of redefining the reality people live in, they should be outlawed. Even if they are targeting adults.

Marketing gets a lot of freedom because of the assumption that they only take over a small part of the information a person has access to. To the extent that this assumption becomes incorrect, those actions become attacks.

Re: Meta Designed Products to Capitalize on Teen Vulnerabilities, States Allege

#47

Post by [deleted] »

BizarreByte wrote: post #9
avalys wrote: post #4

Do grocery stores “capitalize on vulnerability” when they place name-brand products at eye level? Do carmakers “capitalize on vulnerability” when they advertise pickup trucks as big tough vehicles for tough, outdoorsy men? Do providers of health insurance for pets “capitalize on vulnerability” when they say you need to buy their product if you love your pet? At some point people need to be responsible for their own d…

> At some point people need to be responsible for their own decisions. You're asking this of a group that largely can't vote, sign contracts, and which America doesn't trust to drink. I can get worked up about Meta targeting children in ways which they don't have the experience, or knowledge to know about let alone to avoid. Children should be protected from bad actors like Meta and let me be clear, any company takin…

[deleted]

Re: Meta Designed Products to Capitalize on Teen Vulnerabilities, States Allege

#48

Post by hf67 »

quacked wrote: post #7
avalys wrote: post #4

Do grocery stores “capitalize on vulnerability” when they place name-brand products at eye level? Do carmakers “capitalize on vulnerability” when they advertise pickup trucks as big tough vehicles for tough, outdoorsy men? Do providers of health insurance for pets “capitalize on vulnerability” when they say you need to buy their product if you love your pet? At some point people need to be responsible for their own d…

Yes, yes, and yes. However, the three situations you named are targeting adults. Children and teenagers are worth insulating from the full might of advertisers, propagandists, and always-on virtual social circles.

Even Adults are fucked when info explodes. Cuz there are upper limits to what a 3 inch chimp brain can do.

It's been studied under so many different names Knowledge Gap Theory, Info Asymmetry, Bounded Rationality etc The more info Adults have to digest, bad decisions/exploitation are garaunteed.

Re: Meta Designed Products to Capitalize on Teen Vulnerabilities, States Allege

#49

Post by bilbo0s »

quacked wrote: post #7
avalys wrote: post #4

Do grocery stores “capitalize on vulnerability” when they place name-brand products at eye level? Do carmakers “capitalize on vulnerability” when they advertise pickup trucks as big tough vehicles for tough, outdoorsy men? Do providers of health insurance for pets “capitalize on vulnerability” when they say you need to buy their product if you love your pet? At some point people need to be responsible for their own d…

Yes, yes, and yes. However, the three situations you named are targeting adults. Children and teenagers are worth insulating from the full might of advertisers, propagandists, and always-on virtual social circles.

Here is the issue of with these kinds of things, where does it end?

Do tv shows target teens too much with high energy music and dancing?

Does media target them too closely with intentionally addictive music riffs from Taylor Swift to Billy Eilish?

Will we shut down all these video games that clearly target kids with bright colors and, let's call it what it is, "aestheticized violence"?

We need to be careful about how we go about trying to protect children in this regard.

Re: Meta Designed Products to Capitalize on Teen Vulnerabilities, States Allege

#50

Post by kibwen »

skeaker wrote: post #36
avalys wrote: post #4

Do grocery stores “capitalize on vulnerability” when they place name-brand products at eye level? Do carmakers “capitalize on vulnerability” when they advertise pickup trucks as big tough vehicles for tough, outdoorsy men? Do providers of health insurance for pets “capitalize on vulnerability” when they say you need to buy their product if you love your pet? At some point people need to be responsible for their own d…

Yes, yes, and yes. Advertising is almost always malicious. The days of it being primarily small businesses getting the word out about themselves are long over. Advertising firms now have actual psychologists that study ways to best exploit the brain of the common man, and that is wrong.

Hear hear. It's bizarre to see people like the parent commenter who are so unthinkingly accustomed to abusive and manipulative advertisements that they mistake its perversity for normalcy.
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