• Jimbel@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    31
    ·
    24 days ago

    The addictive design of platforms, software and algorithms should be adressed, not the users age.

    And the tech companies should be made responsible to design more healthy platforms, etc.

    The problem is the design of tech, not the people using it.

    • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      12
      ·
      23 days ago

      Why is everyone forgetting the parents in this shit. They are the ones giving their kids access to this shit, not monitoring and moderating their access to this shit, and letting screens do the job of raising their kids instead of doing it themselves.

      • Zink@programming.dev
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        23 days ago

        You are correct, but that does not absolve the companies or the government of any responsibility. It should not be “anything goes” as far as intentionally addictive designs on anything with a screen for the same reason they can’t just put cocaine in Doritos. They still engineer in what they can, but with some guardrails. And even in that case the regulations here in the US leave a lot to be desired.

          • fodor@lemmy.zip
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            23 days ago

            What you say is true but it’s off topic because that’s not the current situation. What we’re actually seeing right now is that parents literally do not want to take their devices away from their kids and they don’t want to supervise their kids. It really is that simple.

            This is not a situation where most parents are trying to do the right thing and they can’t do enough and they need an extra hand. This is definitely a situation where many parents aren’t even putting in a good effort.

            You know like what if they didn’t give their kid a cell phone. What if they took the cell phone away at 9:00 p.m. Most parents would never dream of doing either of those things.

            • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              22 days ago

              What you say is true but it’s off topic because that’s not the current situation. What we’re actually seeing right now is that parents literally do not want to take their devices away from their kids and they don’t want to supervise their kids. It really is that simple.

              So saying its a parental responsibility is off topic, and what we should focus on is… parental responsibility.

    • coolmojo@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      23 days ago

      But without the addictive design the users don’t spend enough time to see all the ads and tracking required to reach the target growth. Somebody think of the shareholders /s

    • whoisearth@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      23 days ago

      It’s interesting because I was talking to my psychologist about this last week.

      Mental illness runs in my extended family specifically my best friend is a functional alcoholic. He grew up the son of a functional alcoholic.

      We all agree that alcoholism is an addiction, just like gambling, social media, etc.

      The problem is that as a society we are addressing the specific addiction. AA for alcoholics. For gambling the government has programs you can admit yourself to.

      What I was postulating to my psychologist is the real problem is some people have un underlying susceptibility to addiction. My experience with addicted people is regardless of good or bad if you remove an addiction they will replace with an unhealthy obsession on something else. Alcohol will be replaced with something else because the problem is the person has an imbalance they can’t do something in moderation. I’ve seen this time and time again.

      Plus factor in comorbidities like ADHD and you have a stew going.

      My point being, yes you’re correct tech is a problem, but it’s 100% the people too in some cases it’s just without the social media their addiction may have been benign so not visible. “Oh look at Mary with her beanie baby collection.” Or “oh look at Jack he really is a go getter running his 10k rain or shine every day.”

      • Jimbel@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        20 days ago

        I guess the difference between addictive tech like social media and stuff like alcohol is the scale.

        Alcohol is more a problem of an individual and its nearest people.

        Big tech is a threat to democracy and the cohesion of society.