this post was submitted on 18 Jun 2024
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[–] afraid_of_zombies -2 points 6 months ago (1 children)
[–] jeffw 7 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Oh, did they have studies showing that the mods and rockers damaged people’s mental health? Is that how this is the same?

[–] [email protected] -2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Probably yeah. The modern world is designed to hurt your mental health. Is that the fault of social media or simply the price of being aware? If I learned that many groups of people are being genocided from reading Wikipedia and that makes me depressed would you say Wikipedia causes mental issues?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

That is apples and oranges. Clicking through rabbit holes isn't the result of an aggressive algorithm designed to prime you for products being advertised. The motivation for the content being hosted is the major issue and exploitation of younger people in service of that motivation.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

Advertising may be your problem, but I know the government's not taking the "we dont allow kids to be served ads", so then what, they're mad it's the Chinese in the lead? The Kids aren't gonna be better off playing COD and watching action movies both of which are lightly disguised military recruitment propaganda aimed at them. You may be mad about it but based on their actions it's not the fact kids are getting exploited that made the Surgeon General speak out, it's that's kids are getting exploited and someone else is benefiting.

The mental health isn't going to get better even if social media didn't exist in general. People would just find a different outlet to develop maladaptive coping strategies with. Treating the symptoms isn't gonna cure the root issue, but the root issue is expensive so we all know they're not going to touch that.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

The advertising was an easy and obvious example. I set you up for a straw man but whatever. If you don't understand the harmful effects social media has on mental health and how it's different from other forms of media/content, I'm not going to hold your hand through that. The sophistication of engagement algorithms should be obvious. The purpose of a surgeons general warning would be to raise awareness of those specific mental health issues that can be aggravated by excessive social media use. Raising the awareness of an issue is step in the right direction. Fine to call it a band aid but there's no need to shit on progress of any type.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

Yeah, warning labels just make people dumber and less safe somehow.

[–] afraid_of_zombies -5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

"studies"

Probably with the same methodology that led to comic book burnings

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

"Probably"

Christian freak out 80 years ago vs modern doctors. Samesies, right? Ya dunce.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7785056/

https://www.apa.org/news/podcasts/speaking-of-psychology/teen-social-media-use

Comparing decades old satan panic stuff with modern behavioral sciences is legit the dumbest thing I've read today. Congrats.

[–] afraid_of_zombies 0 points 6 months ago (1 children)

80 years ago? The Covid microchip thing was 2 years ago and your best buddies are drinking raw milk again.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

Lol what? You're going from comic book bans to covid microchips now. Idk you're weird.