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It's the social media, like everyone here is saying, however the missing point around here is that it's hard to be happy and have great mental health when you h
by ok_dad 3y ago
It's the social media, like everyone here is saying, however the missing point around here is that it's hard to be happy and have great mental health when you have to struggle and hustle everyday to earn enough to live. Not to mention in America if you lose a job you lose health insurance. To me it's pretty clear that the real problem is the world sliding into a new "gilded age" and everyone can see it in real-time because of social media, and we're all fucking depressed about it. I've been using computers quite significantly since I was about 8 in the Prodigy-then-AOL era; probably several hours a day or more and at least as much as I look at my phone today. I wasn't really depressed until things started to become clear that I had a lesser future than my parents had, and I learned that primarily from social media. Shutting down social media would just mask the problem somewhat, not eliminate it, in my view.
- hoosieree 3y agoTed Chiang has an essay that also compares our current era to the gilded age: https://www.newyorker.com/science/annals-of-artificial-intelligence/will-ai-become-the-new-mckinsey https://www.newyorker.com/science/annals-of-artificial-intel... It's ostensibly about AI but the deeper issue is concentration of wealth and power. Banning one harmful social media company (e.g. TikTok) does nothing to change the incentive structure. As long as harmful social media remains profitable, it will continue.