4 Comments
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Ed Salisbury's avatar

A two-pronged approach may be useful, like with health: personal conduct (exercise/nutrition) + regulations (removing environmental toxins).

Regarding social media, personal conduct means monitoring our attention.

But additionally, we should recognize that social media platforms are public utilities, and institute tiered accounts:

Free: Limited posting/sharing/commenting, no privacy controls.

Pay: Above, but with privacy controls.

Premium: Unlimited posting etc, with privacy controls.

The results should include: reduced individual use (since most people would choose free service), and also reduced bot/troll networks (due to need for premium accounts).

Sean Gillis's avatar

I would also recommend pretty much anything by Cal Newport, but particularly Digital Minimalism and Slow Productivity. Good ideas on the personal conduct side to regain attention/ break free of apps and socials.

CHPD's avatar

Thank you for posting this.

A.J. Fish's avatar

What do you mean by this "However, I struggle to think of social media addiction as a product-liability problem". They tweaked the algorithm to uprank posts that recieved anger emoji reactions, higher than like emoji reactions. https://www.wsj.com/tech/facebook-algorithm-change-zuckerberg-11631654215?mod=article_inline

Anger is addictive https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/anger-in-the-age-entitlement/202001/the-most-common-addiction-angerresentment