4 ms·

Short answer: yes. Long answer: yes. It's interesting to see people deny this over and over, as they bask in the cold glow of their phone's screens.

krapp 2y ago
It's interesting to see people who are supposed to be intellectually biased, worldly and skeptical fall for propaganda and moral panic simply because their hatred of the modern web and popular culture blinds them to what should be obvious attempts to manipulate them as a pretext to regulate and control free speech and expression. Whenever you're presented with a narrative of breathless hyperbole and fear about "the children" you should at least question the motives behind it, especially when the implied response is "the government needs to do something." To me this sounds little different than the satanic panic or child sex cult fears of the 1980s. Did such things exist? Sure. Was there a satanic child molester hiding behind every bush? No. The whole thing was a fear-driven campaign purposely blown out of proportion in order to justify increased authoritarianism by the justice system and to demonize and harass the gay population. And of course the entire thesis of the article is that Section 230 is harmful and social media should be regulated by the government "for the children." Bad Thing(tm) is corrupting the morals of the youth and driving them to depression and suicide and something must be done. Where have we heard this before? Are there people so addicted to and emotionally harmed by social media that it drives them to suicide? Probably. Can social media have negative effects on mental health? Sure. Is it leading to a "teen suicide crisis?" No, that's an obviously emotionally-driven phrase intended to frighten and manipulate people. Is the answer to have the government use its monopoly on violence to regulate speech on the web? Absolutely not.
- deafpolygon 2y ago
  What does fearmongering have to do with it? If we go by fearmongering, then the government and society at large would push to put a phone on each and every child starting from birth. Your reply conveniently ignores the sharp uptick in suicidal ideation and attempts among teenagers, especially among ages 12-16… with girls the hardest hit. Expectations for children are now to always be on-call to their peers 24/7 and for parents to always reach them every second of the day with gps tracking to boot. Social media companies like meta have already been whistleblown as spending an insane amount of time and money using psychology to engineer their applications to be as addicting as possible. Adults can barely restrain themselves, so why do we expect children to pass unharmed?! You can sit behind your buzzwords and intellectual wrangling, but there is no denying that social media has a massive negative impact on children and there are ramifications that reach far later in life.

krapp 2y ago

It's interesting to see people who are supposed to be intellectually biased, worldly and skeptical fall for propaganda and moral panic simply because their hatred of the modern web and popular culture blinds them to what should be obvious attempts to manipulate them as a pretext to regulate and control free speech and expression. Whenever you're presented with a narrative of breathless hyperbole and fear about "the children" you should at least question the motives behind it, especially when the implied response is "the government needs to do something." To me this sounds little different than the satanic panic or child sex cult fears of the 1980s. Did such things exist? Sure. Was there a satanic child molester hiding behind every bush? No. The whole thing was a fear-driven campaign purposely blown out of proportion in order to justify increased authoritarianism by the justice system and to demonize and harass the gay population. And of course the entire thesis of the article is that Section 230 is harmful and social media should be regulated by the government "for the children." Bad Thing(tm) is corrupting the morals of the youth and driving them to depression and suicide and something must be done. Where have we heard this before? Are there people so addicted to and emotionally harmed by social media that it drives them to suicide? Probably. Can social media have negative effects on mental health? Sure. Is it leading to a "teen suicide crisis?" No, that's an obviously emotionally-driven phrase intended to frighten and manipulate people. Is the answer to have the government use its monopoly on violence to regulate speech on the web? Absolutely not.

deafpolygon 2y ago
What does fearmongering have to do with it? If we go by fearmongering, then the government and society at large would push to put a phone on each and every child starting from birth. Your reply conveniently ignores the sharp uptick in suicidal ideation and attempts among teenagers, especially among ages 12-16… with girls the hardest hit. Expectations for children are now to always be on-call to their peers 24/7 and for parents to always reach them every second of the day with gps tracking to boot. Social media companies like meta have already been whistleblown as spending an insane amount of time and money using psychology to engineer their applications to be as addicting as possible. Adults can barely restrain themselves, so why do we expect children to pass unharmed?! You can sit behind your buzzwords and intellectual wrangling, but there is no denying that social media has a massive negative impact on children and there are ramifications that reach far later in life.