Comment by yannyu | Hacker News Reader

Comment by yannyu | Hacker News Reader

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I think the underlying issue that the article briefly mentions but is likely a much more prominent cause is that we have destroyed local, physical communities over the past 30 years.

The same community where I grew up biking, walking, and wandering around as a child now has police who say that they must respond if an adult calls in about unsupervised children anywhere in town.

A combination of rising costs, privatization, social media, and smart phones has made it so children can't spend time together without adults monitoring them. They literally are not engaging with each other in physical space the way that many of us engaged with each other as children up until the 2000s. We can see and feel that things are different as adults, but for children the real impact is socially and emotionally stunting. Children no longer have any low-stakes space where they can experiment and learn. And when we destroy the physical, in-person community where children can find support and comfort, should we be surprised when they latch onto the loudest people on the internet?

I absolutely agree with the role of social media on our rising polarization.

Many people have talked about and analyzed this. But the analysis that I find most insightful is also the first one that I read. https://www.amazon.com/Trust-Me-Lying-Confessions-Manipulato.... It not only discusses how the dynamics of what goes viral leads to polarization, it also explains how the economics of how news is delivered today mirror those that created the yellow press over a century ago. And why both wind up delivering polarizing conspiracy theories with limited factual accuracy.

I have no idea what to do about the problem. But at least I feel that I can understand it.

> polarizing conspiracy theories with limited factual accuracy

Huh? Like the idea that young men are widely being told that "everything is their fault because they have male privilege?"

Well that one is my son's lived experience, so I'm going to debate the factual accuracy.

Better examples include "the 2020 election was stolen from Trump" and "Ron DeSantis manipulated COVID data in Florida". (I picked one from the right and the left for equal opportunities at offending people.)

You haven't offered any facts for anyone to dispute the accuracy of

I named two conspiracy theories. The fact that people may object to is "that is a conspiracy theory that is not supported by the facts."

That's an opinion, not a fact.

Social media is just a portion of the problem though. As parents, we hear from our kids and other parents about how children all over the country are desperate to get their hands on a smartphone, and we have conversations about the right time to get them a phone, what functionality that phone should have, how much parents should monitor it, etc.

When you ask the kids why they want a smartphone, typically the main two reasons are to be able to communicate with friends and to be present on social media. A child's experience is that socializing is done through texting, video calls, and social media now, rather than being in-person at a park, store, or cafe.

When you ask parents why they gave their kids a smartphone, typically parents will cite the socialization reason above, as well as safety and "not wanting their kids to fall behind". Many parents believe it's in their and their child's best interest to have the ability to monitor where their child is and what their child is doing and are willing to go along with the socialization thing to achieve that.

Social media is a part of the problem, but the underlying problem for children is that many aren't able or willing to socialize outside of devices, and the underlying problem for parents is that they aren't able or willing to let their children be out of communication for long periods of time.

It isn't just that social media is a problem, it's that we have cultivated a world where children, parents, and cities/governments see personal devices and social media as the best available solution for the intersecting problems of community, socialization, and safety.

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