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Comment by BuckYeah | Hacker News Reader

I’m always amazed by how much some people want the government to control.

And I'm always amazed by how much some other people think the free market can do no wrong and should be treated in a completely laissez-faire manner.

It's only a natural reaction when nothing else is in control. Unless you think that social media platforms are fine as is.

I understand the hesitancy to government control, but at some point, what other mechanism is there? I'm seriously asking.

They weren't referring to Social Media Platforms, they were referring to the previous poster talking about AirBnB and Gambling specifically.

There are many mechanisms we can rely on, like teaching someone the tradeoffs of a dangerous decision.

You say that like addiction is just something that can be taught by parents to overcome. You can attempt to teach your kids to "just say now", but they are kids and are going to rebel against anything they are told they can't do. That's just part of being a kid. Once they do it and become addicted, telling them no is just a useless concept.

Part of the problem of laying it at the parent's feet is that there's a much larger than zero chance the parent(s) also shows addictive behavior. To quote the after school special, "I learned it from watching you, all right?" I still go back to the fact that the addictive thing is being intentionally manipulated to increase the addictive properties. It is not natural. It is the thing in and of itself that is the problem.

I don't know of any viable rehab potential for social media. I can only imagine the relapse potential would be closer to 100% than for any other drug.

I don't intend for my one example to fit all issues. Just trying to point out there is more we can do than rely on government legislation.

The other mechanism is parenting and self-control. I'm not too concerned in the long run about which path is chosen for addictive social media; its days are numbered either way.

This puts parents back in control of what their kids are consuming. Without laws like this, it’s extremely difficult for parents to supervise and control their children’s media consumption.

I get that in theory a kid could sneak off to use TikTok/Instagram on some friend's device away from home, but that's not what's happening. Parents are handing their kids smartphones with unrestricted access to these apps.

People here keep coming back to the social pressures of not allowing their kids on these platforms. It's one thing to give them a device for being able to keep tabs with locations and being able to get in touch with them, but once they have a device where other parents have allowed their kids on the platforms your kid will be made fun of for not being on there.

The parental controls the platforms put on there are non-existent or a mere joke at best (as the recent post about TikTok suggesting porn to minors illustrates). So a parent trying to do things then gets accused of "damaging" their kid by being over restrictive. So, again, what's a parent to do?

A kid won't be ostracized for not having a TikTok. I survived not being on Facebook when it was big in middle school, despite a relatively few dull kids making fun. The same will apply to drugs or gambling by high school, so best learn to deal with it. There are lots of good ways to be popular. Unless of course it's a really bad area, in which case your kid will get beaten up for almost no reason anyway.

But plenty of parents are addicted to TikTok as well. In which case, wouldn't surprise me if they think the kid needs it too.

Everyone's pro-democracy until people go "hey maybe allowing a few mega corporations to profit off of addicting everyone to dopamine feeds is actually bad for society."

The biggest con economists ever pulled was to model people as "rational actors" and then generate an entire worldview off of "if everyone acts in their rational self-interest then this works great."

People are almost fundamentally irrational. People are guided by emotion and superstition and a bunch of weird shit that makes it easy for them to get addicted to things that have little to no societal value. If not a government, what force should counter balance that?

If the choice is between the government and the landlord, I choose the government.

I'll choose the one that can't come after me with guns

I'll choose the one that I can at least vote out.

I'll choose the one I can get rid of at will without even having to vote

If you've found a way to participate in society without being constantly surveilled by private companies who frequently leak your most personal information, I'm all ears.

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