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Absolutely. Social media and its consequences has been a disaster for the human race. Ban it for everyone.
by Gud 9mo ago
Absolutely. Social media and its consequences has been a disaster for the human race. Ban it for everyone.
- add-sub-mul-div 9mo agoThe loss of all anonymity and privacy on the internet is much worse than this generation's version of the "won't someone think of the children" scare. It's wild how many people are eating this up.
- spockz 9mo agoThe one (teenage verification for specific services such as social media) does not require the other (require uploading ids to every site on the internet). For one, the scope is limited and secondly, there must be different schemes possible.
- Gud 9mo agoI’m not suggesting “upload an id”. I’m suggesting ban all these brain slugs outright. Make META a criminal organization. Put Zuckerberg behind bars.
- raw_anon_1111 9mo agoYes we should give the government more power and put up “The Great American Firewall” so Americans can’t use any foreign Facebook like companies.
- add-sub-mul-div 9mo agoI didn't respond to the suggestion of absolute prohibition because it's too ridiculous a concept to take seriously.
- vjekm 9mo agoIt's the only reasonable thing to do; the status quo is what's ridiculous.
- ikety 9mo agoWhat if there is simply nothing that can be done? I don't mean to sound defeatist, but what if there are some things that truly are like pandora's box. We can't put the lid back on. All we can do is educated people on how to use the tools correctly
- jplusequalt 9mo ago>All we can do is educated people on how to use the tools correctly This lives in opposition to the people who own the websites/apps goals. So it won't happen.
- johnnyanmac 9mo agoI'd love to arrest billionaires, but can we at least suggest some specific and resonable goals forst? Baby steps. Eat the rich is a good mantra and banner, but not an action plan. Here in America we have at most 3 years of this left and at median 1 year (with a huge nebulous cloud based on the reaction to trying to seize power). There's a lot we can do to build up to the ultimate mantra.
- pluralmonad 9mo agoWhile we're architecting the lives of millions of strangers what other reasonable things would you personally like to disallow?
- donkeybeer 9mo agoYour personal blog fucktrump.com is social media. I tipped the government about it so it can be correctly blocked and you punished with jail.
- Dylan16807 9mo agoSo you chose to respond to something they didn't say instead? Weird tack.
- donkeybeer 9mo agoDo you disagree with the first amendment? That's fine, just get it repealed first.
- int_19h 9mo agoIf I host a personal server with a Facebook-like app for myself and a few friends, at which point do I go behind bars in your brave new world?
- vagrantstreet 9mo agoLouis Rossmann had a vid about this and it's much more than jut anonimity, it's about protecting yourself from being exploited by algorithms. Can go as far as influencing your political voting, or who knows what else. Does tiktok have good intentions keeping your hooked all day on end?
- jmye 9mo ago> "won't someone think of the children" scare Pretending that's what the anti-social media stance is, is hilariously dishonest. Anyone pretending there is any anonymity and privacy to protect on the internet, right now, has their head in the sand, especially if they use social media.
- dyauspitr 9mo agoWho cares? What exactly is lost. Personally I’m not going to give them my ID, I’m just going to stop using those parts of the internet.
- oompydoompy74 9mo agoHilariously, the website hosting the post you are currently commenting on is Social Media by almost any definition. Autocracy and autocratic thinking are never the solution. You don’t know what’s best for everyone.
- SoftTalker 9mo agoNot really. By a broad definition, yes. But here there is no algorithmic filtering of what you see based on data about you that is tracked and data about you purchased from data brokers. Nor is there a team of psychologists constantly working on ways to hit your dopamine triggers and keep you engaged.
- Apocryphon 9mo agoBut that isn't the main issue with Discord, either, despite their attempts to add features like the ICYMI tab. The problem of Discord is more in the social than the media.
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- 9rx 9mo agoSocial media has none of that. Sometimes it is conflated with that as Facebook was social media for the first five minutes of its life, until they realized you can't make money with social media and quickly pivoted.
- vjekm 9mo agoThis place should burn too.
- tokai 9mo agoAnd every video game is a RPG because you play a role.
- AlexandrB 9mo agoI agree that social media is a plague. Unfortunately, the legal definition of "social media" is likely to be so broad that it will include things like Hacker News or even old-school forums. The real plague is the infinite scroll, engagement-farming social media like Twitter, post-newsfeed Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok. I'm skeptical that laws addressing social media will target the right problem given how rich/powerful a company like Meta is vs. some guy running an Anime forum.
- replooda 9mo ago> some guy running an Anime forum. I expected all of them to have become Discord channels at this point.
- Zambyte 9mo agoI've flown across the US to meet what will likely be lifelong friends[0], and just went out to dinner and an escape room with some others, all of which I connected with through Bluesky. The worst of social media is terrible, but I would hate to lose the best of it by banning it outright. The really negative parts come are - Underage people who do not have the emotional maturity to deal with digital public spaces - Emotional manipulation through "algorithmic" timelines (chronological or bust) - Waves of unwanted interactions Social media seems like it can be a positive tool to me. I would love to be able to continue to use it as I am. I do think there is a conflict of interest issue between the mental health of the people that use social media, and for-profit corporations that provide social media services. Regulating social media in a sane way has become difficult due to how much financial sway social media companies have on legislation, but it's an important fight to fight. [0] I have a thread on my bsky account with a bunch of group photos, if you're interested it shouldn't be hard to find. I'm not linking it because I'm not interested in people engaging in it from here.
- Gud 9mo agoBlue sky is a social network, not social media. A subtle but important distinction
- runako 9mo agoI am super curious about this distinction! Could you say more?
- Gud 9mo agoOn a network, people interact with each other. In ~media~, you have a few specialized ~creators~, and doom scrollers. Compare Lunarstorm anno 2000 and instagram 2026.
- Izkata 9mo agoThe "media" in "social media" doesn't refer to image/video/audio, it refers to "the medium being used". Twitter/Blue Sky/etc are all social media. Read it like "a medium being used for social interaction".
- Morromist 9mo agoSure, social media is bad for kids. Why can't their parents regulate them though? Isn't keeping kids away from dangerous things a basic requirement of being a parent? I propose passing laws that make parents who let their kids on social media pay fines and risk having social media sites blocked by their ISP rather than just making all adults have to get an "internet license".
- Gud 9mo agoIt’s bad for everyone, except for the advertisers, and arguably it’s bad for them as a 2nd order effect.
- jplusequalt 9mo agoI think we just need to ban social media in general. It's done more harm to our societies than good.
- johnnyanmac 9mo agoGood bye, Hacker News. I knew ye uhh... Well, I knew ye.
- Gigachad 9mo agoHN would be improved if the comment section was removed and it was just high quality submissions. All the AI generated engagement bait articles would stop.
- int_19h 9mo agoComments are where 90% of the value of HN is. If you remove them and it just becomes another news aggregator, I very much doubt that it would retain most of its users. Nor would submissions be "high quality".
- sleepybrett 9mo agodefine 'social media' .. were BBSs social media? usenet? email? aol instant messenger? physical community bulletin boards? classified ads? newspapers?
- donkeybeer 9mo agoWhat is social media?
- rdm_blackhole 9mo agoWhat happens when the governments around the world decide to ban something that you care about? Will you be so eager to agree with them or will you cry that your rights and your freedom are being taken away? Don't like social media, fine, nobody is forcing you to use it.