Thread

1. paulajohnson · 1790610990 · focus · HN ↗

   Tell me again about how we need to keep children off social media....

   1. nekusar · 1790612689 · focus · HN ↗

      The problem is for-profit corporate social media.

      Fediverse has never hired thousands of psychologists to gamify everything.

      Fediverse hasn't added adverts to sell really seedy or blatantly illegal products.

      Fediverse hasn't engaged in genocide in Myanmar or Rohinga, or anywhere else.

      Fediverse doesn't run mass psychology experiments on unsuspecting users.

      But Facebook/Meta, X, and others definitely have.

      Edit: for those of you who -1'ed it, where am I wrong?

      1. BeetleB · 1790614746 · focus · HN ↗

         I didn't downvote, but I am having trouble connecting your comment to the one you're responding to.

         1. nekusar · 1790615281 · focus · HN ↗

            The whole social media and under-18 argument isn't a problem with all social media.

            Its a problem with for-profit social media. The companies use gamification to addict and create terrible trends for everyone involved.

            Mastodon, peertube, lemmy, and federated media doesn't do any of these gamblification, gamification, psychological attacks, and more.

            To be fair, the techniques should be banned by the FTC for deceptive practices, for everyone. But the kids angle is what's being gravitated towards.

            1. BeetleB · 1790615734 · focus · HN ↗

               It was bad for kids even in the BBS days.[1] The things you mentioned merely made it worse.

               Put another way, it's as bad as your kids texting with random strangers. I know in the last decade the focus has been on all the big tech addiction mechanisms, but people were warning against them well before those came into play.

               [1] It was also great for some kids in those days. That doesn't take away from the risks.

Unofficial Hacker News client; not affiliated with Y Combinator.