Keir Starmer ist nach dem „bahnbrechenden“ US-Urteil „sehr daran interessiert“, gegen „süchtig machende Funktionen in sozialen Medien“ vorzugehen
https://www.lbc.co.uk/article/keir-starmer-action-addictive-features-social-media-5HjdWtf_2/
Von tylerthe-theatre
26 Kommentare
[deleted]
I can see state mandated bed times being a thing at this rate.
Starmer very keen to have a glib, easy, friendly media headline with no actual political consequences or government spending, which does not require him having to take a firm political stance? Yeah, I’ll bet he is.
If Starmer actually wanted to act on social media companies and their addictive features and predatory algorithms, one would think the obvious approach would be to hold the companies themselves to account.
Get rid of it for under 16’s.
It’s so addictive in general.
Its unpopular to say, but speaking as someone who grew up with unrestrained access to social media, I fully support this.
Yes please. These platforms have been a complete catastrophe for society for well over a decade. They need to be held accountable for their practices, their actions and the things they host. Now.
Holy fuck please do something about social media quickly
You have an election to win you can’t just wait for Musk to pump another round of free advertising to the right
This is a problem I acknowledge that. But why anyone would trust Labour, the Tory’s or even reform, to combat this fills me with anxiety and dread. Why do you want your privacy and freedom taken anyway just for a cheap bandage solution.
It’s so weird to me – some people act like algorithms are some sort of unknowable independent force. To me, they are attack dogs bred and trained for maximum damage and the billionaire owners of them did this with full knowledge of what they were doing. Bartenders get in trouble for over serving, publishers can be charged with libel, broadcasters get in trouble for misinformation, so imo social media platforms should be held accountable too. (I think I’ve mixed enough metaphors and strained analogies here lol).
A really good read or listen is the book The Anxious Generation. It explains very well the impact of different types of social media on both girls and boys, explaining the differences between them and the impact.
People who use social media are the product for these companies, they sell your data to advertisers and target adds to sell products. It does significantly more harm to children as their brains are developing, on top of any damage an adult would have from over use.
So let’s just fix this then stop the OSA nonsense eh?
Yet people have bemoaned the House of Lords trying to implement a social media ban for under 16s.
Great idea, but I do not trust him in the slightest to deal with it properly.
There absolutely needs to be something done. We need transparency over these ‘algorithms’ feeding us shit and brainwashing/radicalising people.
I will never understand why things like Youtube and even Reddit are constantly trying to shove far right propaganda in my face all the fucking time when, if their algorithms actually did as we thought, would recognise I am the last person who wants to see that shit.
My brother grew up on an iPad and has always had questionable views and opinions that I 100% attribute to Youtube forcing toxic shit on him.
Games need it too. I love games but sometimes I feel like im having to put in a ton of willpower to resist the addictive features that gaming companies are forced to add in order to stay competitive.
Remove algorithms that push content
This ID stuff is just being pushed by Facebook because they’ve unleashed so many AIs that people won’t pay for advertising unless they know it’s going to humans
That’s! The reason for it
I don’t know how common the experience is, but lately I have been noticing addiictive qualities about youtube, which I have on my smart TV. I’ll sit down with the intention of finding something good to watch and then waste a couple of hours watching shorts which are presumably chosen by the algorithm becuase they attract my attention. Some is decent stuff, and some is AI slop, but it definitely wastes lots of my time. I’d rather see a film or TV show.
I took the youtube app off my TV, but I have weakened and put it back.
I wish it had a setting to never show me anythign under say, 10 minutes.
„Addictive features within social media“ is pretty much intrinsically linked with social media because the goal of a social media company is to maximise engagement e.g. try to ensure that the end user spends as much time on your platform as possible.
In common parlance I think people actually use the term „social media“ to mean a platform that feeds you content which captures your attention.
We don’t really describe, say, WhatsApp or the messaging component of Instagram as being „social media“. The algorithm with the reels or shorts or videos, or the news site with headlines that suck you in, is actually the mainstream definition of what social media _is_.
Old school something like the Facebook feed of only your friends‘ content is outcompeted in the marketplace, almost by definition, because it.. captures less attention. You open it, catch up, close it, do something else (probably scroll reels).
Even if you can get people off whatever you describe as suboptimal content e.g. rage bait, political stuff, divisive gender things, etc, you still have the issue that scrolling gardening reels or whatever in every possible blank moment is not really a great use of potential.
What can even be done? I dont get it. Can ban it for kids but they’ll find a way around it and its the 50+ group who it effects more anyway. The endless loading feed is a bad one but can that actually be banned?
If we can with gambling sites, we can with social media.
They both use the exact same techniques to profit from addiction.
Let people hide recommended and suggested content and only see content from people they choose to follow. Let people get rid of reels/shorts and other short form content. Disable auto play by default. Disable default notifications for every little like likes or suggested people by default.
Basically give people more control and make the default experience less stimulating. Yes there are extensions that can do this if you choose to, but force companies to add them directly on the website/apps.
It really is a toss up to see whether social media, microplastics or, you know, people still actually smoking (or drinking alcohol or soda) is going to be this generation’s “wait they actually did that?”.
A couple days ago a major Anime website was hacked and had accounts stolen. Had this website complied with the latest Online Safety Act then every UK user would have been doxed as the site would be required to retain age verification information
This was the exact type of example this government was warned about when it began its „WE MUST PROTECT THE CHILDREN ONLINE“ crusade and it’s the exact example our corrupt, and I WILL say corrupt in light of the Mandelson leaks, technological minister responded to by accusing people of being pedophiles for warning him this would happen
And now this government wants to go for even more crackdowns on the internet even as hackers are already proving that dangers being faced with peoples information being stolen are contrary to the technological ministers claims in fact NOT „worth the risk“
Lfg
Coming off instagram has been a total wonder for my ability to be productive in a meaningful way
I have mixed feelings about Reddit but feel its far less harmful
But maybe just as harmful for the right leaning incel crowd? Idk
In response to the lady who (very sadly) killed herself after spending all day on social media as a child? Where were her parents? Why didn’t they take her phone/computer away?