| > Social media was unleashed onto the world with no harm studies or thought for the long term impact. To require a safety study for anything someone might "unleash" as a public product would be bonkers: nobody would be able to release anything at all. But I do not think social media as such — when originally it came to prominence — was anything that caused significant harm. Things like internet forums, BBs and blogs did have some troublesome elements rooted in privacy of the participants (allowing harrasement, for instance). In all though, it was a positive for society though — I have learned so much as a kid by exploring areas where experts out their expertise out and discussed challenges with you. While the trend of this continued with the birth of modern social media like MySpace, Facebook, Orkut/Google Wave/Google Plus, Twitter, Instagram, Digg, Reddit, Flickr... originally they were a significant net positive for society too — they opened up the world for many to express themselves (just like blogs did for the more technically savy). At some point, trying to monetize attention, the winning social media companies started applying well established (from traditional media), arguably immoral marketing tactics: leveraging psychological research to keep people engaged and sell ads for their financial gain. I believe targeting these practices regardless of the media type is what needs to be regulated. Harassment is already well regulated, but with kids (and adults), they do not always take it seriously or are not able to detect it: I am acknowledging this needs work too. |