[dmos62]

Many parents find parenthood difficult and are happy that something distracts their kid. Further, kids that tend to get more addicted to stuff like this tend to live in stressful circumstances.

It's easy to say be a better parent, or produce a better environment for your kid, but it's not as easy to help people with that. If we can make social media healthier for everyone, that's a big deal.

[macintux]

Many parents grew up with TVs as their screens. It's a reasonable extrapolation to think that their kids will be fine with devices as their screens.

[hylaride]

I've thought about this, too. The difference is that for most of us, TV shows ended at the top/bottom of the hour. I grew up watching morning cartoons in the 1980s starting at 6am, but the times that the shows ended reminded me that it was time to get dressed, eat, etc.

Now, all the video services have feedback loops where they can determine what keeps people glued and provide more of that. Some "programs" like cocomelon have dialled that up to 11.

The only defence is the terrible parental controls and/or taking devices away. That almost always results in "fights".

[cynicalpeace]

The best defense is to not introduce it to them.

not a perfect defense, but a very good one.

[wiseowise]

TVs didn't create echo chambers tailored to a person.

[macintux]

I didn't say it was an accurate extrapolation.

[cynicalpeace]

"If we can make cocaine healthier for everyone, that's a big deal" technically true, but also, don't use cocaine.

I get parents use it to babysit their kids. That's bad parenting. I'm a parent. I know it's not easy, and tempting to use it.

But you're not supposed to yield to those temptations. Part of being a leader, which is what being a parent is, is sucking it up.

[dmos62]

Social media is not inherently predatory. Even between different providers Instagram/Facebook/TikTok/Youtube you find extremely different approaches in respect to that. Instagram is the worst, in my experience. You can bake in algorithm behaviors that uplift, educate, help you not become addicted. Chinese TikTok for kids was once rumored to be like that.

And, yes, you can regulate cocaine too. There's nothing stopping us from taking the business away from drug-dealers and having actual health professionals distribute it in sensible ways.

[cynicalpeace]

"don't do drugs, kids" is essentially my message, do you agree or not?

idc how potentially beneficial screens may be, in the future (now?) we will start treating screens like smoking

Some of us are still in the "smoking can be good for you stage"

[dmos62]

I disagree. I don't want kids to abbuse drugs, smoke, drink, or doomscroll. But, what do you accomplish from saying "don't do it"? You don't want to take away anyone's agency, right? Further, this is not only about kids, people of all ages are susceptible to these patterns of behavior.

My message is basically, make it non-taboo, educate, give people tools to manage their behavior, prosecute predatory behaviors. To regulate social media, we can heavily regulate ads in social media; make ad algos, feed algos, recommendation engines transparent by law, in a way inspectable by individuals as well as journalists; put legal constraints on what these algos can do; use cryptography to get rid of fake accs and bots, without compromising anyone's privacy.

[cynicalpeace]

"Don't take away agency!" proceeds to recommend the government take away agency

the best thing that can be done right now, rather than waiting for a broken government to fix our problems, is to admit to ourselves and parents that kids should not receive phones or iPads

it's not a good thing! taboos serve a purpose and it absolutely should be a cultural taboo.

[dmos62]

I don't consider it a violation of agency if you forbid abuse of others. Agree to disagree.