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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 19th, 2023

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  • The difficulty is asking people to get started with this. People want to get to work/navigate as quickly as possible to where they need to be, they don’t want to be figuring it out. Social media can be janky and you’ll be patient, but if you’re late for something because you’re struggling to adjust to an app you’re more likely to go back to Google/Apple Maps









  • We need to break them up, and legislate against their practices for the future but this is something that can happen right away and hit them in their pockets

    That was in my original comment. I was clearly making the point that the aim is to legislate against harmful practices. I don’t think most people need it spelled out for them why that is, or why we can’t do it right away but I’ve done my best to be patient in explaining it to you.

    If you want to take a weird stance that I’m being mean to corporations that’s up to you, but I didn’t say anything vengeful let alone posted a ‘screed’




  • Gambling is not physically addictive, but for its worst addicts it’s as ruinous as cigarettes.

    Social media is similar in that the dependence is psychological, and the harm caused can vary from basically none, to tremendous psychological and material damage (up to and including suicide as a result of self-esteem, bullying or body issues).

    I would agree that it’s our generation’s cigarettes simply because it’s ubiquitous and the impact on both health and society is unquestioned by the masses. It simply is. We don’t smoke on a plane anymore because we don’t want to give everyone cancer, but we don’t take the same precautions to protect unconsenting individuals, like children, from becoming mush-brained iPad babies manipulated by the TikTok and YouTube algorithms.

    Let’s not forget that social media, Facebook to be specific, is blamed for fanning the flames of multiple ethnic conflicts in Asia and Africa that have ended in genocide. It’s likely that cigarettes do more harm to the individual user, but social media does more harm to society. This is something we will have to reckon with in the future, and once we establish sensible controls and norms we’ll wonder how we lived like this for so long.