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Comment by alistairSH | Hacker News Reader

What do you want to be done exactly?

Public algorithms, or at least some 3rd party review. Ban infinite-scroll on social media platforms. Require feeds to be configurable (users can set to "newest first" or "top picks" or whatever else). I'm sure I could come up with more, that's just off the top of my head.

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These seem like awkward things to encode into law in a durable way. Laws are long-term blunt instruments, banning something like infinite scroll will have all kinds of unintended consequences.

That's true - these things might be better implemented as regulations out of the Executive branch - but that would still require legislation authorizing somebody to implement the regulations.

Interesting that the US governance model is devolving to "decrees from the king" thanks to exec orders

We'll see how much longer the states accept that for.

State governments are much more interested in participating in the cable news culture wars to pump up next election numbers then they are in actually governing. I doubt it.

And the decrees are obeyed by the bureaucracy only when the bureaucracy likes the king.

Not really. Regulations promulgated by the executive branch and EOs both need to have a basis in law and are subject to judicial review.

I’m infinitely scrolling hacker news comments right now. You think adding a next page button is gonna change anything?

Have you ever watched a teenager (or addicted adult) scroll thought their IG feed? It's disturbing. They just scroll and scroll and scroll waiting for the tiny little dopamine hits. I don't know if a "Next" button fixes it completely, but it almost has to be better, even if only marginally so.

FB's research shows that, yes, any friction between you and the next post/article/item will decrease the likelihood that you see it.

A click == friction.

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