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> It seems like this generation's children will grow up having social media as a natural, integral part of society. So, perhaps the same argument should apply

by yumraj 5y ago

> It seems like this generation's children will grow up having social media as a natural, integral part of society. So, perhaps the same argument should apply to unfettered access to online porn as well, yes? If not, why not? Perhaps we should allow kids unfettered open access to porn as well. I fully understand that the above is a provocative argument and am not suggesting we do that, but IMHO there is only a very fine line between the two since both are very addictive and at a young age can result in psychological harm.

dartharva 5y ago
> there is only a very fine line between the two Is there, really? Watching porn is not something you see people admitting to publicly. In the majority of the world it has originally been considered a taboo (or an outright crime), or at most a guilty pleasure. Porn is not a way of socializing or keeping up with trends or discussing politics, social media is. The two have fundamentally different purposes and reason for existence. Please note that I am not making any case for allowing children to use social media. I have myself kept away from it, and I indeed consider it just as poisonous for the mind as you do. My point was that it's inconsequential now to try to put bans on the overall broad concept of social media. For better or worse, social media is already an essential part of the world's collective information infrastructure. Society has already shaped itself to accommodate its dominance. Even if you cut access to one platform, there will always be another to take its place. But social media, as a concept, can't go away. It's too late for that now, and the right way to go now is to regulate mainstream social media such that it becomes a safe space for people of all ages.
- yumraj 5y ago
  I don’t disagree with the latter part, 2nd para, of your comment. My original comment was that the parents’ role is sorely missing from all the narratives and it needs to be there. That is all. I fully support regulating any and all social media. It’s not either/or, it’s both.
lozenge 5y ago
Hacker News etiquette is to take the strongest form of people's arguments. There's a lot of space between "ban then from cellphones" and "give them completely unfettered, unmonitored access to everything". Your comments jump between one and the other with no in between.
solveit 5y ago
You're not exactly being charitable to the person you're arguing against, but taking your slippery slope at face value, we already have a generation of adults who basically grew up with unfettered access to online porn, and sensationalist headlines notwithstanding, we're basically fine, or at least not any more fucked up than baseline. (The first half of the 20th century saw people grow up with decades of carnage, so the baseline is pretty lenient.)

by yumraj 5y ago

dartharva 5y ago

> there is only a very fine line between the two Is there, really? Watching porn is not something you see people admitting to publicly. In the majority of the world it has originally been considered a taboo (or an outright crime), or at most a guilty pleasure. Porn is not a way of socializing or keeping up with trends or discussing politics, social media is. The two have fundamentally different purposes and reason for existence. Please note that I am not making any case for allowing children to use social media. I have myself kept away from it, and I indeed consider it just as poisonous for the mind as you do. My point was that it's inconsequential now to try to put bans on the overall broad concept of social media. For better or worse, social media is already an essential part of the world's collective information infrastructure. Society has already shaped itself to accommodate its dominance. Even if you cut access to one platform, there will always be another to take its place. But social media, as a concept, can't go away. It's too late for that now, and the right way to go now is to regulate mainstream social media such that it becomes a safe space for people of all ages.

yumraj 5y ago
I don’t disagree with the latter part, 2nd para, of your comment. My original comment was that the parents’ role is sorely missing from all the narratives and it needs to be there. That is all. I fully support regulating any and all social media. It’s not either/or, it’s both.

lozenge 5y ago

Hacker News etiquette is to take the strongest form of people's arguments. There's a lot of space between "ban then from cellphones" and "give them completely unfettered, unmonitored access to everything". Your comments jump between one and the other with no in between.

solveit 5y ago

You're not exactly being charitable to the person you're arguing against, but taking your slippery slope at face value, we already have a generation of adults who basically grew up with unfettered access to online porn, and sensationalist headlines notwithstanding, we're basically fine, or at least not any more fucked up than baseline. (The first half of the 20th century saw people grow up with decades of carnage, so the baseline is pretty lenient.)