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Teen Social Media Bans Miss the Point

70 points · 118 comments · eustoria

  1. tomjen3 · · focus · HN ↗
    There is nothing wrong with social media; if anything, we need more social media.

    What we need less of are the attention-maximizing, eldritch-horror things that have stolen social media and now walk around wearing the skins of the entity that summoned it.

    Facebook is not social media — if you don't believe me, go on Facebook and count how many posts are from people you had mutual interactions with and actively choosen to follow and how many are everything else (not including native ads, I understand the platforms have to make moeny).

    It's the same issue, if not worse, on X/Twitter.

    I wouldn't know the status of TikTok for the same reason I don't know what the current status of street drugs, but as I understand it you can't even meaningfully follow people on TikTok — it's just mindless consumption from people you don't know.

    How can it be social media if there's no social component?

    Email is social media; chatting with your guild members in World of Warcraft is social media. Until at least a few months ago, commenting on a pull request on GitHub was more social media than Twitter was.

    The first step in dealing with the world is to look at things as they actually are, not as they were twenty years ago.

    1. mitxela · · focus · HN ↗
      What you're saying is we need less social media, and more social networks.
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