| ▲ | j_bum a day ago | |
> Here's a thought experiment: imagine Instagram, but every single post is a video of paint drying. Same infinite scroll. Same autoplay. Same algorithmic recommendations. Same notification systems. Is anyone addicted? Is anyone harmed? Is anyone suing? I do not buy this argument. Of course, most of the content on these platforms is innocuous, and may as well be paint drying. What's harmful are the harnesses that these companies have built to exploit the content. > Of course not. Because infinite scroll is not inherently harmful. Yes it is [0]. > Autoplay is not inherently harmful. Algorithmic recommendations are not inherently harmful. Yes, they can be [1] [2]. > These features only matter because of the content they deliver. The "addictive design" does nothing without the underlying user-generated content that makes people want to keep scrolling. These harnesses only work because people feed the machine. The harnesses are still harmful. This whole argument is predicated on a strawman that makes no sense. A gun doesn't work without bullets. But if a company designs and hands out the gun to the world, they should be liable for the consequences, even if they rely on users for the ammunition. [0] https://doi.org/10.1145/3544548.3580729 | ||