sorry for taking forever to reply ^^" > I know! But I have a hope in society, in our improvement as a species, that war and conflict grows less and less common

sorry for taking forever to reply ^^" > I know! But I have a hope in society, in our improvement as a species, that war and conflict grows less and less common. And I believe that should be a social aim. Generally agree with this, and when things look bad politically, I take comfort in looking back on life 300 years ago and celebrate that things have gotten better since then (the average French citizen now can read, write, and has access to universal health care, the average French citizen 300 years ago was a barely literate peasant). > Right. Yes, I think I'd support 18+, but even for adults require the companies don't use addictive algorithms. That may seem inconsistent, but the reason is, gambling already exists. Addictive social media algorithms are new. It is much easier to prevent something new, than to deal with something millennia old. And I genuinely think wiser - that is, act to prevent it before it becomes something like gambling and alcohol. > Yeah. It kinda does. But social media didn't require this in the past: it's developed it. So I feel it bans negative forms, not social media per se. But that said... Hmm... I think focusing on the features may miss what is generally the root cause of addiction - the environment. Not sure if you're familiar with Rat Park https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_Park https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_Park but I believe generally addiction issues are best solved via solving the environmental problem that leads people to becoming drug addicts, namely a lack of other ways to have fun, not by banning the 'addictive' activity, be it drugs, alcohol or gambling. To use a personal example, when I was an edgy 16 year old back in the mid-late 2000s, I went on 4chan a lot. Arguably, I was addicted, given that my 4chan time got in the way of homework and sleep. Now ~2007 era 4chan did not have an algorithm that optimized for engagement and ad revenue. It did not have infinite scroll. The only thing it had was a high volume of users submitting content, but that was enough to keep me staring at 4chan instead of doing more important things. A ban of "addictive algorithms and infinite scroll", which is similar to what you're proposing would not have blocked 4chan, or helped me live a healthier and more economically productive life. However, I'm totally okay with taxing "addictive features". If the Aussie gov't wants to tell Meta "hey, we notice you do things like 'push teenage girls to suicide to sell more ads', so we're taking a cut of everything you make in Australia, which we will then use to enact various initiatives which help the mental (and physical) health of teenage girls", I think that's great. Also relevant - I got on Facebook around the same time/age (~16, mid/late 2000s) I got on 4chan, and the latter has really been nothing but a positive presence in my life. Despite having moved between countries and continents, I have an easy way to find and reach people I've not seen in years, if not decades. > This is a really interesting comment! Why? (Not saying I disagree, for Youtube at least. But I'm really curious about this.) YouTube has become television 2.0. Basically everything bad that can be said about YouTube is "bad parts of cable television, amplified". However, it's a great way to learn basically anything. Facebook/Instagram are really good tools to help small businesses find customers. I have a friend launching her personal coaching business right now, and Instagram is how she finds and stays in contact with customers. As mentioned above, Facebook can also act like a 'global phone book', enabling people who have lost touch due to circumstances (moving away) to get and stay in touch. More generally, basically all the major social media platforms are popular because they give people who don't have a bunch of technical knowledge, who might not understand how to write up an HTML website, host it, and register a domain name, a platform to express themselves online. A Facebook or Instagram profile is the internet's version of the Model T. It makes having an online presence accessible to the unwashed masses, and, being something of a techno-optimist, I believe creating a world where anyone can communicate with anyone will lead to what you called "our improvement as a species", and make "war and conflict" less common, because we'll be too busy arguing online to actually be killing each other :)