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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

#71

Post by fnimick »

blackhaz wrote: post #37
NickC25 wrote: post #3

Should come as no surprise, honestly. Above all else since turning public, Meta is in the business of making money. It's not illegal to target user's vulnerabilities in order to get the user to spend more time or money on their platform. It's unethical as hell, but it's business 101 - the shareholders would revolt if Zuck came out and said "here's this opportunity to make you all a ton of money, but we're placing our…

This is like saying - hey, let everyone buy their guns without background checks, because the shop has to make money!

If background checks weren't legally required, no store would be doing them. Every flagged check is a lost sale after all.

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

#73

Post by liquidpele »

haltist wrote: post #63
dotandgtfo wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are you stating? I genuinely don't get the point. Are you saying that screens/apps don't cause addiction?

He is saying people need to be more techno-optimistic and stop paying attention to all this fear mongering hack jobs about social media algorithms. These algorithms deliver billions of dollars of value on a daily basis. Money and GDP are more important than depressed teens. It's important to focus on what actually matters: market capitalization and profitability.

Poes law almost got me.

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

#74

Post by dxbydt »

superkuh wrote: post #66
dotandgtfo wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are you stating? I genuinely don't get the point. Are you saying that screens/apps don't cause addiction?

I thought I was clear. There is no such thing as "internet addiction" or any subset. There's actually not even "gambling addiction" anymore. It's been properly renamed to "gambling disorder". But I guess we're not talking facts here. Instead we're concentrating on how it feels to us. And various ambitious policians are realizing they can use that collective lay delusion to further their careers. I am not pro-corporat…

> even more dangerous to apply a label like "addiction" to them

my dude, teens leaving school are crossing the street without even looking up, because they're scrolling insta. Ok so they are dumb teens. What about the crossing guard lady ? She is paid money by the school board to monitor the crossing lane so the cars don't hit the teens. Now, the crossing guard also doesn't look up, because she is scrolling insta too. How do you think all this ends ?

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

#75

Post by antiviral »

splitwheel wrote: post #43

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 colle…

Yes, and moreover, the important point in the article that some people seem to be forgetting is that Meta itself believed that certain design choices led to addictive products and worked to incorporate those designs despite harmful consequences to children and adults alike. It matter much less that anyone on the outside believes this or not.

Additionally, saying that children and adults should be wholly responsible for this is like saying the Chinese and not the British should be responsible for their opium addiction (see Opium War) and that homeless in San Francisco should be responsible for their Fentanyl addition. They can always just say no, right?

I worry that if nothing is done, this will only get worse, addiction will become the norm, of one sort or another, and you can just look at history of the Opium War to see where this leads.

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

#76

Post by richardwhiuk »

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…

Companies take advantage of kids all the time - there's a huge history of this - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advertising_to_children

The entire toy unboxing industry is built around advertising to children.

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

#77

Post by dotandgtfo »

superkuh wrote: post #66
dotandgtfo wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are you stating? I genuinely don't get the point. Are you saying that screens/apps don't cause addiction?

I thought I was clear. There is no such thing as "internet addiction" or any subset. There's actually not even "gambling addiction" anymore. It's been properly renamed to "gambling disorder". But I guess we're not talking facts here. Instead we're concentrating on how it feels to us. And various ambitious policians are realizing they can use that collective lay delusion to further their careers. I am not pro-corporat…

Ok, it's just such an absurd position I wanted to make sure. So essentially you're arguing about semantics?

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

#78

Post by anthk »

splitwheel wrote: post #43

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 colle…

>For teen girls - the apps are designed to scare them about being socially excluded.

Any female magazine ever.

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

#79

Post by Arson9416 »

ff317 wrote: post #31
quacked wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Arguably, adults are worth protecting as well. A lot of marketing and even design intent for adult products is also extremely misleading and intentionally designed to prey on our collective fallibility. In that sense, it's at the very least unethical, and maybe should be illegal. We have some laws about truth-in-advertising, but they're very weak in a lot of scenarios.

What are you thinking about specifically? Some examples might help others see your perspective better.

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

#80

Post by EGreg »

splitwheel wrote: post #43

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 colle…

There's a good article about how to fix it: https://www.laweekly.com/restoring-healthy-communities/

(Disclaimer: it talks about my work)

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