> we should make the world less awful so that teenagers won't be exposed to that
I also think that, but am way more pessimistic on this part. If there is a path forward, I’d assume it starts by reducing the amount of people hating the world as it is today and deciding to bail out eternally.
> Whether that requires active restrictions or not depends on whether you believe you can make the mentally healthy activities more captivating than the doomscrolling
My knee-jerk reaction would be “we should ban content targeted at hurting other people’s mental health”, but I don’t see it as a viable approach in so many ways, from how to define what is hurtful, what is intentional, and freedom of expression in the first place.
But the same way we can design cities that improve residents’ well-being, I wish we found better designs (and probably business models and incentives) for our social media landscapes.
I actually enjoyed a lot more the social media before facebook (even Instagram, before it got purchased…thinking about it, those were all available on our phones too) and I still see niches (mostly small sub-reddits) that work different from the other bigger networks. Not saying we should go back there, but there’s stuff that could be inspiring.
I also think that, but am way more pessimistic on this part. If there is a path forward, I’d assume it starts by reducing the amount of people hating the world as it is today and deciding to bail out eternally.
> Whether that requires active restrictions or not depends on whether you believe you can make the mentally healthy activities more captivating than the doomscrolling
My knee-jerk reaction would be “we should ban content targeted at hurting other people’s mental health”, but I don’t see it as a viable approach in so many ways, from how to define what is hurtful, what is intentional, and freedom of expression in the first place.
But the same way we can design cities that improve residents’ well-being, I wish we found better designs (and probably business models and incentives) for our social media landscapes.
I actually enjoyed a lot more the social media before facebook (even Instagram, before it got purchased…thinking about it, those were all available on our phones too) and I still see niches (mostly small sub-reddits) that work different from the other bigger networks. Not saying we should go back there, but there’s stuff that could be inspiring.