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I think saying that we got social media "wrong" today is not unlike looking at 1920s and 1930s cars and saying that we got automobiles wrong. We've only barely

I think saying that we got social media "wrong" today is not unlike looking at 1920s and 1930s cars and saying that we got automobiles wrong. We've only barely figured out what components social media is even made up of at this point.

lostgame 3y ago
Similarly; though, this is a chance to analyze the components we make it from, and look at the long term effects of using these technologies.
SecretDreams 3y ago
Sure, I agree. The counter that I would offer is what are the time-based consequences of us getting something wrong? How quickly do the wheels fall off so to speak? With cars, which we can say came to be around the 1920s, we didn't start to care about safety or environmental concerns until maybe the 1960s/70s. In that sense, we did some damage and corrected our trajectory 40-50 years later and have been improving them further ever since. I would say social media evolved much more quickly and the consequences accumulated faster. Specifically around protecting kids (from the beginning we should have had protections in place to keep kids off social media or in a protected version; likewise, parents shouldn't have been allowed to plaster pictures of their kids online.. effectively monetizing them). So social media went wrong and it went wrong pretty quickly. The odds of us fixing it before a lot more damage is done are low because social media companies also have a lot more power and lobby our government in ways auto could only dream of. The pace of AI adoption/use will likely match or exceed social media and the consequences of "getting it wrong" will accumulate that much more quickly. Not saying we turn it off, but we should have protective frameworks in place early on or we will do some irreversible damage in excess of social media and at a quicker pace.
- forgotmypw17 3y ago
  I think the faster pace of evolution also means that we can correct our mistakes faster.
  - JohnFen 3y ago
    We're really, really bad at correcting our mistakes. We're much better at ignoring them and thinking of them as some sort of "law of the universe".
JohnFen 3y ago
> is not unlike looking at 1920s and 1930s cars and saying that we got automobiles wrong. I think it's really clear that we did get automobiles wrong.

lostgame 3y ago

Similarly; though, this is a chance to analyze the components we make it from, and look at the long term effects of using these technologies.

SecretDreams 3y ago

Sure, I agree. The counter that I would offer is what are the time-based consequences of us getting something wrong? How quickly do the wheels fall off so to speak? With cars, which we can say came to be around the 1920s, we didn't start to care about safety or environmental concerns until maybe the 1960s/70s. In that sense, we did some damage and corrected our trajectory 40-50 years later and have been improving them further ever since. I would say social media evolved much more quickly and the consequences accumulated faster. Specifically around protecting kids (from the beginning we should have had protections in place to keep kids off social media or in a protected version; likewise, parents shouldn't have been allowed to plaster pictures of their kids online.. effectively monetizing them). So social media went wrong and it went wrong pretty quickly. The odds of us fixing it before a lot more damage is done are low because social media companies also have a lot more power and lobby our government in ways auto could only dream of. The pace of AI adoption/use will likely match or exceed social media and the consequences of "getting it wrong" will accumulate that much more quickly. Not saying we turn it off, but we should have protective frameworks in place early on or we will do some irreversible damage in excess of social media and at a quicker pace.

forgotmypw17 3y ago
I think the faster pace of evolution also means that we can correct our mistakes faster.
- JohnFen 3y ago
  We're really, really bad at correcting our mistakes. We're much better at ignoring them and thinking of them as some sort of "law of the universe".

JohnFen 3y ago

> is not unlike looking at 1920s and 1930s cars and saying that we got automobiles wrong. I think it's really clear that we did get automobiles wrong.