Addicted to Social Media - Page 1 - News, Politics & Economics

Friday 27th March

AbbeyNormal said:

Do you feel the same about kids taking drugs/alcohol/vapes? Is it the parents who should be prosecuted rather than the drug dealer/dodgy shops?

I thought it interesting that the father of a school shooter was prosecuted recently in America.

21,368 posts

214 months

Friday 27th March

I think it's good news. I'm not one for conspiracies normally but I do think we are letting big business and billionaires exploit us and take over our lives. Is that even a conspiracy anyway?

vikingaero

12,663 posts

194 months

Friday 27th March

I, vikingaero, am addicted to social media. Where's my 6 mil?

FourWheelDrift

92,042 posts

309 months

Friday 27th March

Is the USA going to start making everyone give the data scraping companies their ID to access their social media, for you know, children's safety too?

119

18,017 posts

61 months

Friday 27th March

So as usual, parents are completely incapable of dealing with their children and expect someone else to do it.

Pistom

6,270 posts

184 months

Friday 27th March

119 said:

So as usual, parents are completely incapable of dealing with their children and expect someone else to do it.

It's far worse than that - parents are encouraging their kids!!!

bloomen

9,719 posts

184 months

Friday 27th March

Pistom said:

119 said:

So as usual, parents are completely incapable of dealing with their children and expect someone else to do it.

It's far worse than that - parents are encouraging their kids!!!

It's not really comparable to getting square eyes from watching too much TV.

It's supercharged from the ground up to inveigle its way into your consciousness. The creators know exactly what they're doing.

davek_964

10,933 posts

200 months

Friday 27th March

Even if is FB and YouTube "fault" - which personally, I don't agree with - I'm a little lost on why spending too much time on FB as a teenager requires compensation such that you're now a multi-millionaire at 20.

That makes up for the "trauma" of not getting enough "likes" does it?

Dog Biscuit

2,029 posts

22 months

Friday 27th March

I think for parents the awareness and understanding of how SM works and what it has morphed into is only just becoming clear to a lot I'd suggest.

Many of the parents grew up with FB and it's initail mission of 'connecting people'.

There's a lot more media coverage and rage against the macnine these days wich is good. I honestly feel its a wild west that need way more regulation.

The growing parental concern is a great thing imho

Edited by Dog Biscuit on Friday 27th March 13:22

21,368 posts

214 months

Friday 27th March

Pistom said:

119 said:

So as usual, parents are completely incapable of dealing with their children and expect someone else to do it.

It's far worse than that - parents are encouraging their kids!!!

They are addicted too. Expecting them to help is pointless and just avoids the issue.

119

18,017 posts

61 months

Friday 27th March

Randy Winkman said:

Pistom said:

119 said:

So as usual, parents are completely incapable of dealing with their children and expect someone else to do it.

It's far worse than that - parents are encouraging their kids!!!

They are addicted too. Expecting them to help is pointless and just avoids the issue.

What issue?

Lack of parenting skills?

21,368 posts

214 months

Friday 27th March

119 said:

Randy Winkman said:

Pistom said:

119 said:

So as usual, parents are completely incapable of dealing with their children and expect someone else to do it.

It's far worse than that - parents are encouraging their kids!!!

They are addicted too. Expecting them to help is pointless and just avoids the issue.

What issue?

Lack of parenting skills?

If you like. How do you think the government should address that?

JagLover

46,343 posts

260 months

Friday 27th March

Apparently YouTube were able to demonstrate only short periods logged onto her account which rather disproved addiction but were found liable anyway.
I suspect this is a push for age verification services by the backdoor. Which in reality will be digital ID

Derek Smith

49,167 posts

273 months

Friday 27th March

119 said:

Randy Winkman said:

Pistom said:

119 said:

So as usual, parents are completely incapable of dealing with their children and expect someone else to do it.

It's far worse than that - parents are encouraging their kids!!!

They are addicted too. Expecting them to help is pointless and just avoids the issue.

What issue?

Lack of parenting skills?

Social media algorithms are deliberately aimed at making users addicted. It was similar to the tobacco giants who made smoking addictive. Many people don't understand just how powerful the systems are, and there were/are few warnings out there. How is anyone, parent or no, to understand the dangers when the source of their information is these powerful media giants who strive to keep them hooked?

There was the argument that we should not blame the tobacco manufacturers despite them knowing the dangers and ignoring it, and actually aiming at teenagers whose development was not yet completed so were easy targets.

It's only recently that it's become well known to those into computers and such that social media can be harmful, yet we expect parents, working hard to keep the home together, to understand the risks, the ones the media giants keep telling them don't exist. One side is washing it's hands and it ain't the parents. It's not that those who run social media didn't understand what they were doing, it was the whole point of their business models. Hook the kids.

To the parents, there's nothing wrong with FB. They just chat to their friends and family. How are they to understand just how insidious the in-built systems are designed to be.

But let's blame the parents, most of whom would not understand the risks. So much easier than admitting that we all use social media so are, in certain ways, part of the problem. We, on PH and such, legitimise SM. Why wouldn't kids not want to do the same, but with their own choice of poison. Did you not bunk off school, smoke with your mates, drink booze, try a spliff - or two, do verbotten things with a girl, all the stuff your parents told you not to and would have stopped you doing if they knew? I road in the trucks of trains. My parents would have been apoplectic if they'd known. They would probably think SM would have been preferable. Probably lower risk.

Nanny state is a common meme of PH, beaten into second place by the equally meaningless politics of envy, and whenever the government tries to deflect children from SM, there is such an uprising on these threads, although not enough to actually do something.

It's not such a simple case of the parents' fault, although it's so easy and satisfying to blame them.

Sporky

10,965 posts

89 months

Friday 27th March

Derek Smith said:

We, on PH and such, legitimise SM.

I think it's worth distinguishing between forums and algorithmic social media.

PH doesn't deliberately push negative content into anyone's feed.

Pistom

6,270 posts

184 months

Friday 27th March

Derek Smith said:

It's not such a simple case of the parents' fault, although it's so easy and satisfying to blame them.

It's a lot easier to blame someone else for your own children's failings.

It is of course far more complex than blaming the parents but they are best placed to prevent harm.

It isn't as if the cause and effect is hidden.

21,368 posts

214 months