3 ms·

Meh. I think it sound cool to say "We (or our youth) are not suffering enough!", but, I think it is just because society is changing so fast (too fast for our m

Meh. I think it sound cool to say "We (or our youth) are not suffering enough!", but, I think it is just because society is changing so fast (too fast for our monkey brain), more and more we can choose for fun instead of happiness and it's to easy. So we need to educate ourselves. How not to over-indulge and self-regulate when the whole world is at your feet. We also regulated the gambling industry, we can do it with other industries (ads, social media). I feel that our emotional spectrum stretches from about the worst we have been through to the best and adapts slowly over time (continuously recurring suffering is needed? I think we can do better). It's true that in current, nice, times the spectrum may be narrow, but we need to identify where the lows come from and combat them by educating ourselves as a species. Many of our habits (social networks) make us feel that some things are important to be happy (likes, looking like a Kardashian). But they rarely are. Some people are too young to understand this (and parents to old, with exponential change over generations the gap will only grow) so perhaps we should regulate. At the very least we should study the s* out of the phenomenon.

emteycz 6y ago
What kind of regulation are you thinking of? We regulated away losing real money stupidly fast over gambling, but you can still play the same machine if it's not real money. Frankly, I can't imagine any practically effective regulation of social media. I don't even understand what is the desired outcome of this potential regulation. Less socialization? People are not going to be OK with that.
- teekert 6y ago
  I'm thinking (among others) about the toxic effects of girls looking at perfect women all day long. So like a pack of cigarettes saying you are about to inhale a list of toxins and will get lung cancer, perhaps Instagram can say that you are about to look at a bunch of women that do not exist in reality: Their eyelashes are fake, their bums have been sucked up with a vacuum system (which hurt), they are not in Thailand, the background is fake. The private jet they are on is hired for 5 min, and their goal is to get you to mimic them and buy the stuff they get paid to promote. If you succeed to look and act like your fav influencer, you will not become happy, in fact you are more likely to become depressed. Moreover, most men do not find these women attractive (I'm still baffled why some young girls do think the duck-faced generation has any attraction but ok, maybe I'm old) and you are better of becoming a strong minded, gentle and independent individual if your interest is being attractive to potential mates (opposite sex of not). Maybe we could compel $socialMedia to show such warnings every now and then. It's just education, the same as listing side effects on (US) pharma commercials, and (EU) risky financial products.
  - emteycz 6y ago
    The fans won't care about warnings just like with cigarettes, and will find another way if it's blocked. Be it a Chinese app, or a website. No problems with using VPN if needed, you wouldn't believe how many young people already do. They really want to see these perfect women and not just that, but also to interact with them and their communities, and to buy stuff from them. BTW you're right that there is an obscene amount of what you're describing, but there is also a lot of more genuine influencers - it's easy to tell as a fan, one can't post stories with live streamed videos of it 24/7 if it's not true. Similarly with Facebook - ban/break it and the people discussing QAnon and flat earth won't disappear, they will move to another platform - and feel like martyrs there. The EU discusses plans to force FB to open up to external user accounts - I'm already worried about that unmoderateable mess. Overall, in case of drug abuse, gambling etc it's very clear what is right and what is wrong - but what's wrong with FB/Instagram/..., people interacting with people? That's what social networks are for, and people want it, the amounts of users are not coincidental. IMHO we should spend this regulation money on education instead, and include psychology, philosophy, parenting/children care etc.
    - teekert 6y ago
      Well we agree on the education angle. I just think it would be good to do it "in-context". That does require regulation indeed. Maybe the educational system would be a better target.

emteycz 6y ago

What kind of regulation are you thinking of? We regulated away losing real money stupidly fast over gambling, but you can still play the same machine if it's not real money. Frankly, I can't imagine any practically effective regulation of social media. I don't even understand what is the desired outcome of this potential regulation. Less socialization? People are not going to be OK with that.

teekert 6y ago
I'm thinking (among others) about the toxic effects of girls looking at perfect women all day long. So like a pack of cigarettes saying you are about to inhale a list of toxins and will get lung cancer, perhaps Instagram can say that you are about to look at a bunch of women that do not exist in reality: Their eyelashes are fake, their bums have been sucked up with a vacuum system (which hurt), they are not in Thailand, the background is fake. The private jet they are on is hired for 5 min, and their goal is to get you to mimic them and buy the stuff they get paid to promote. If you succeed to look and act like your fav influencer, you will not become happy, in fact you are more likely to become depressed. Moreover, most men do not find these women attractive (I'm still baffled why some young girls do think the duck-faced generation has any attraction but ok, maybe I'm old) and you are better of becoming a strong minded, gentle and independent individual if your interest is being attractive to potential mates (opposite sex of not). Maybe we could compel $socialMedia to show such warnings every now and then. It's just education, the same as listing side effects on (US) pharma commercials, and (EU) risky financial products.
- emteycz 6y ago
  The fans won't care about warnings just like with cigarettes, and will find another way if it's blocked. Be it a Chinese app, or a website. No problems with using VPN if needed, you wouldn't believe how many young people already do. They really want to see these perfect women and not just that, but also to interact with them and their communities, and to buy stuff from them. BTW you're right that there is an obscene amount of what you're describing, but there is also a lot of more genuine influencers - it's easy to tell as a fan, one can't post stories with live streamed videos of it 24/7 if it's not true. Similarly with Facebook - ban/break it and the people discussing QAnon and flat earth won't disappear, they will move to another platform - and feel like martyrs there. The EU discusses plans to force FB to open up to external user accounts - I'm already worried about that unmoderateable mess. Overall, in case of drug abuse, gambling etc it's very clear what is right and what is wrong - but what's wrong with FB/Instagram/..., people interacting with people? That's what social networks are for, and people want it, the amounts of users are not coincidental. IMHO we should spend this regulation money on education instead, and include psychology, philosophy, parenting/children care etc.
  - teekert 6y ago
    Well we agree on the education angle. I just think it would be good to do it "in-context". That does require regulation indeed. Maybe the educational system would be a better target.