I think there are other digital technologies that are also a lot like drugs and deserve similar regulation. I.e. if your social media company decides it wants to be a platform and insert stuff to inflame you or generate more engagement....it's a drug, not a tool for social connection..

I think there are ways you could serve ads and make money as a business, just not as much money, and not be basically a drug. The social media giants choose not to do this of course and will have to be forced.

I am distinctly less libertarian/classically liberal/etc. than the average user of HN though. So I understand that this opinion is likely to get me downvoted. I prefer to think that I live in the real world and have seen the damage these things have caused and am not in a tech-only friend group bubble.

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ShinyLeftPad a day ago | parent | next [-]

Social media still connects real humans to real humans (sure often badly and trying to profit from it at the expense of users). This however takes the other human out and plugs you into itself, which is a simulated average of humans based on their work taken without consent

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AlexandrB 21 hours ago | parent [-]

No it doesn't[1], except perhaps by turning a bunch of thoughful humans into an online mob. Social media amplifies humanity's worst impulses for clicks. The connection part is purely incidental and is going away now that AI can just generate whatever 30s conspiracy theory video you want to watch instead of having a person do it.

	▲	ShinyLeftPad 21 hours ago \| parent [-]
		The connection thing maybe was incidental before but it's now the main value proposition of social media. we all can now generate sh#t by ourselves so why would we need social media at all if not connection. I have dozens of real people i know whom i keep in touch with through social media

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amiantos 21 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

unfortunately humans have shown themselves to be completely unable to properly restrict manipulative drugs like alcohol, caffeine (which doesn't need to be in sodas at all, the sugar is already addictive enough), nicotine, advertising, social media, and so on when capitalism would suffer as a result... we should not get our hopes up too high.