We are already raising a coddled generation who have little concept of basic liberties and natural rights. We will have a disaster on the horizon when they grow into adults, and who will accept the same treatment from the government this time.
For instance, I follow powerlifting pretty closely. A lot of folks who have been around for a while will tell their viewers something similar to, “don’t structure your training like the people on Instagram”, or “don’t believe everyone is like the people on Instagram - it’s just a highlight reel”. Because of the algorithms they use, you only see the strongest people on your feed, because that’s what people want to see. It’s exciting. But even if the algorithms were tweaked so that somehow this didn’t happen, while still providing content you wanted to see, it wouldn’t solve the issue.
Continuing with my above example, nobody posts their grueling, three-hour-long workouts. They post the single PR (personal record) they hit, or some motivational song played over their heaviest set of the day. They post the four-month diet transformation, not the daily low-calorie meals, the times they have cravings, the unremarkable week-to-week changes. They do that because they know that’s what people want to see, but more than that, they do it because that’s what they’re proud of.
The reality is that people are much more than what they are proud of. People have good days, and people have bad days. People have motivated days, and people have days where they drag their feet. People have strong and weak days, heavy and light days. Sometimes these phases last for weeks or months. When you assess others through the lens of their social media profile, you see a minuscule sliver of who they are and what is going on in their life. That sliver is curated by them to be exactly what they think makes them look best.
So to come full circle, even if all the algorithms on social media platforms tried to be less detrimental to mental health, I don’t think it would work. Instead of seeing the strongest people on the planet hitting PRs and thinking themselves weak, people would see whoever they followed hitting PRs and think themselves weak. Social media encourages you to compare yourself to what others are posting, which is a cherry-picked sample of the best moments in their life.
No one's bad lifts made it into the magazine either. No one posted off season pictures in a bodybuilding magazine basically ever. Ever picture the person was in the absolute peak shape of their life.
The users need to take responsibility for their use because there is no other solution. Users need to stop blaming other people.
We tried prohibition before to protect people who can't control their alcohol use and it was a disaster. The solution is if you drink too much you get help for your addiction.
With kids, parents need to actually be parents. Parents have basically abdicated responsibility for their kids when it comes to social media. Over protect the kid in meaningless ways but then send them to bed with an unlimited porn device and complete access to all kinds of mentally unhealthy behavior.
"Everyone is doing it" is not an excuse for shitty parenting.
Children have the right to be protected until adulthood.
Kids in the USA are "protected" to/from walking to school. They must be driven. etc...
Also they don't have this right. Parents might have a responsibility to protect them, children don't have a "right" to protection.
This gets said often and it's true. But it's also self sustaining, and not just at a societal level, at an individual level. I previously worked with many people who lead full lives with minimal online interactions besides group chats with family. They were not significant people in a significant place but they lead meaningful lives. I personally find it helpful to remember that.