4 ms·

i don’t know anything about the other issues facing the school but to say social media addiction is a “dumb” thing to address seems incredibly naive to me. gro

by tempsy 4y ago

i don’t know anything about the other issues facing the school but to say social media addiction is a “dumb” thing to address seems incredibly naive to me. growing up is hard enough as it is and social media absolutely can be detrimental to mental health if used excessively. imo the only reason we haven’t properly addressed the issue as a society is because it’s incredibly difficult to “prove” from a research perspective given the newness of social media.

finnh 4y ago
Social media is awful and terrible; no argument there. But SPS has much larger problems to address internally before tackling this broader societal issue.
- tempsy 4y ago
  You can do two things at once.
  - b1ue64 4y ago
    You can't do them well if you're incompetent.
    - remarkEon 4y ago
      I don’t think anyone is imagining that SPS is going to implement social media regulation, it’s asking the courts (and indirectly Congress) to do that.
idopmstuff 4y ago
Social media addiction is an important thing to address, but a school district filing lawsuits against social media companies just seems like the worst possible way to address it. This is an organization whose entire purpose is educating kids. If they want to address social media addiction, why on earth would they not start by educating kids about it?
- LarryMullins 4y ago
  I expect that'll work about as well as gym teachers teaching kids not to have premarital sex or smoke drugs. Such admonitions might sometimes work for individual kids, but on the whole they don't work. TikTok/etc is unlike sex and illicit drugs in that it's a commercial enterprise that is operating openly and can in theory be sued into submission. You can't sue a plant anybody can grow in their closet, but you can sue a tech company.
  - asdff 4y ago
    Exactly. A student will sit there, arms crossed, internally opposing everything the administrator is saying because they've convinced themselves already its bullshit. They already think they will just find work as an influencer: https://thehill.com/changing-america/enrichment/arts-culture/3614182-1-in-4-gen-z-ers-plan-to-become-social-media-influencers/ https://thehill.com/changing-america/enrichment/arts-culture...
  - idopmstuff 4y ago
    Gym teachers telling kids not to have premarital sex or smoke drugs isn't teaching them. You can teach kids how condoms work and that STDs stay with them for life. You can teach kids that drugs these days can be laced with fentanyl and how to acquire and use fentanyl test strips. Those things won't stop kids from having sex or doing drugs, but they can certainly and do mitigate some of the harm. You can take a similar approach to social media. Gym teachers telling them not to use TikTok will obviously not work, but you can teach them about how their data is shared and monetized. You can show them examples of people who posted things on social media and had their lives ruined over it. If the leaders of a school district have adopted the approach that you just can't teach kids anything they don't want to hear, I think they ought to find different jobs. As for the lawsuit, sure, you can sue a social media company? Will you win? Maybe, after extensive and costly litigation. Will those companies be forced to change their behavior in meaningful ways that will impact your students? Maybe, or maybe they'll just pay a fine and make superficial changes that last until the next lawsuit concludes in half a decade, then repeat. And besides that, even if you manage to win and dismantle Facebook, TikTok, etc., you'll have an infinite number of other companies coming in to fill the void. You can sue a tech company, but you can't sue a general class of software. You can legislate against it, but at best that is a long, hard road.

by tempsy 4y ago

finnh 4y ago

Social media is awful and terrible; no argument there. But SPS has much larger problems to address internally before tackling this broader societal issue.

tempsy 4y ago
You can do two things at once.
- b1ue64 4y ago
  You can't do them well if you're incompetent.
  - remarkEon 4y ago
    I don’t think anyone is imagining that SPS is going to implement social media regulation, it’s asking the courts (and indirectly Congress) to do that.

idopmstuff 4y ago

Social media addiction is an important thing to address, but a school district filing lawsuits against social media companies just seems like the worst possible way to address it. This is an organization whose entire purpose is educating kids. If they want to address social media addiction, why on earth would they not start by educating kids about it?

LarryMullins 4y ago
I expect that'll work about as well as gym teachers teaching kids not to have premarital sex or smoke drugs. Such admonitions might sometimes work for individual kids, but on the whole they don't work. TikTok/etc is unlike sex and illicit drugs in that it's a commercial enterprise that is operating openly and can in theory be sued into submission. You can't sue a plant anybody can grow in their closet, but you can sue a tech company.
- asdff 4y ago
  Exactly. A student will sit there, arms crossed, internally opposing everything the administrator is saying because they've convinced themselves already its bullshit. They already think they will just find work as an influencer: https://thehill.com/changing-america/enrichment/arts-culture/3614182-1-in-4-gen-z-ers-plan-to-become-social-media-influencers/ https://thehill.com/changing-america/enrichment/arts-culture...
- idopmstuff 4y ago
  Gym teachers telling kids not to have premarital sex or smoke drugs isn't teaching them. You can teach kids how condoms work and that STDs stay with them for life. You can teach kids that drugs these days can be laced with fentanyl and how to acquire and use fentanyl test strips. Those things won't stop kids from having sex or doing drugs, but they can certainly and do mitigate some of the harm. You can take a similar approach to social media. Gym teachers telling them not to use TikTok will obviously not work, but you can teach them about how their data is shared and monetized. You can show them examples of people who posted things on social media and had their lives ruined over it. If the leaders of a school district have adopted the approach that you just can't teach kids anything they don't want to hear, I think they ought to find different jobs. As for the lawsuit, sure, you can sue a social media company? Will you win? Maybe, after extensive and costly litigation. Will those companies be forced to change their behavior in meaningful ways that will impact your students? Maybe, or maybe they'll just pay a fine and make superficial changes that last until the next lawsuit concludes in half a decade, then repeat. And besides that, even if you manage to win and dismantle Facebook, TikTok, etc., you'll have an infinite number of other companies coming in to fill the void. You can sue a tech company, but you can't sue a general class of software. You can legislate against it, but at best that is a long, hard road.