| ▲ | juliansimioni 15 hours ago | |
I think it's more than unwilling, we're straight up unable. Not in principle, but because it's a coordination problem. Think of how many parents now want their kids not to have a smartphone or social media. There's genuine, well researched evidence that this would be good. But there's also real harm to kids who see all their friends with iPhones and Instagram. It might sound silly to us but it's definitely real feeling to the kids. A lot of the parents who let their kids use smartphones and social media probably could be easily convinced that it's a bad idea, they just don't know. Or they don't know how bad it is, and so something else, like displaying status via a nice phone, they value more highly. But until we can reach critical mass, and fight the (not insignificant, and quite intentional) momentum to use social media, it will be hard. | ||
| ▲ | abnercoimbre 13 hours ago | parent [-] | |
The livelihoods of many come from social media, so this is a war not unlike regulating the tobacco industry (remember when we could smoke on planes? It was un-American to suggest banning people's right to do so.) A recent HN thread examined [0] the NYC ban on smartphones for teens at school. We see positive results so far. | ||