The problem really is monetization. Because it drives the algorithm to unhealthy levels of “click this, react to that, buy x y z, compare yourself to this or that person”. Anyone remember the OG social medias of the late 90s and early 2000s? No ads, no real monetization. Just a place to talk and share pictures.
Life was better without this much social media and mental health is important.
We should definitely ban algorithms at least. They are the real problem.
Social media are poison, especially for a young mind.
Everyone are saying that social media is poison for young minds , but its older people who get scammed out of their savings on social media. Based of this logic there should also be social media ban on older generations as well?
Personalized algorithms are the issue, not social media. Predatory and addictive algorithms that distort societal discourse and ruin mental capabilities and health. Social media should act as a place to find information, not as a place for information to find you.
We could have social media where you only see content from accounts you follow. And then if you wish to find additional content, you can search for it, using, for example, hashtags/keywords. Recommended content could be based on the keyword you search and popularity (popularity in general, or filtered by e.g. location and time. For example, search for #Politics, order by most popular in Finland past 1 month.)
The idea would be that information is easy to find, but nobody can force-feed you content.
This is an insult to great American technology giants, some of the greatest companies in the world. 10000% tariffs are in order. America First! America First!
Thank you for your attention to this matter!
Depends on where this will take it. As an adult I use what platform I want, consume what content I want*, post what I want, internet is free
*if your first thought is THAT content you are a very big part of the problem why the internet soon will be gone
Friendly reminder chat control and mass censorship is still on the table, sad to see noone fighting
Friendly reminder that the Heritage Foundation and age verification lobbyists are pouring massive amounts of money into lobbying for this globally.
For those who haven’t already made up their minds , The Moral Maze podcast did an episode on this. It included a number of experts. All of them agreed that social media was very damaging for kids – they just disagreed on whether better parenting, regulation or banning was appropriate.
Life was nice with MSN messenger and Skype, it all went down after
Facing dreadful food standards in the late XIXth century, legislations were passed in order to streamline food protocols across the USA and also Europe, and make sure that one wouldn’t be risking their life eating some industrial stuff.
Same goes with algorithms. 20 years in the social media era, there hasn’t been any regulation in the US, by way of legislation, aiming at explicitely state what an algorithm is and is not allowed to do. Algorithms still are black boxes, whereas they should display explicitely the biases they ecourage, likewise any food product has to display its list of ingredients.
The government banning stuff because it’s bad for you has historically worked out well.
I said 10 years ago that social media is going to destroy the human race.
Sadly I was right…
Bring back the Usenet.
These are all companies in American hands, who have a stated goal of driving the union apart.
These tech bros are not the friends of Europe.
Come on they be treating social media like it was a drug yet took decades to get rid of leaded gasoline
Also nobody sees the huge issue in government regulating so heavily a form of speech???
It’s not a toxic chemical it’s just words and images on a screen!
You’d think “PLEASE think of the children” would fall out of fashion at some point, but the masses really seem to crave the government living their life for them, I’m glad my privacy is slowly being eroded because dogshit parents are unable to take care of their own children. We’re only a few years away from every social media post being nothing but government-approved topics, appropriate for our continued China-relations I suppose.
At the end of the day, it’s about money and control. They traded media control away for money and now realize that need to take media control back because an open social media is basically leaving your country’s backdoor open to hostile nation’s intelligence services for sentiment shaping and disruption.
Bunch of bootlickers in the comments ready to throw away everything as long as the can “save the children” can’t wait for a new goverment in 8 years to abuse this system and then everyone being all suprised.
18 comments
The problem really is monetization. Because it drives the algorithm to unhealthy levels of “click this, react to that, buy x y z, compare yourself to this or that person”. Anyone remember the OG social medias of the late 90s and early 2000s? No ads, no real monetization. Just a place to talk and share pictures.
Life was better without this much social media and mental health is important.
We should definitely ban algorithms at least. They are the real problem.
Social media are poison, especially for a young mind.
Everyone are saying that social media is poison for young minds , but its older people who get scammed out of their savings on social media. Based of this logic there should also be social media ban on older generations as well?
Personalized algorithms are the issue, not social media. Predatory and addictive algorithms that distort societal discourse and ruin mental capabilities and health. Social media should act as a place to find information, not as a place for information to find you.
We could have social media where you only see content from accounts you follow. And then if you wish to find additional content, you can search for it, using, for example, hashtags/keywords. Recommended content could be based on the keyword you search and popularity (popularity in general, or filtered by e.g. location and time. For example, search for #Politics, order by most popular in Finland past 1 month.)
The idea would be that information is easy to find, but nobody can force-feed you content.
This is an insult to great American technology giants, some of the greatest companies in the world. 10000% tariffs are in order. America First! America First!
Thank you for your attention to this matter!
Depends on where this will take it. As an adult I use what platform I want, consume what content I want*, post what I want, internet is free
*if your first thought is THAT content you are a very big part of the problem why the internet soon will be gone
Friendly reminder chat control and mass censorship is still on the table, sad to see noone fighting
Friendly reminder that the Heritage Foundation and age verification lobbyists are pouring massive amounts of money into lobbying for this globally.
For example, the Age Verification Providers Association (AVPA) corporate lobbyist group is likely running a major pro-age verification astroturfing campaign at the moment, in addition their lobbying of governments. The CEO of the Age Verification Providers Association (AVPA) Ian Corby, is literally taking the time to spam the comments sections of [Techdirt articles](https://www.techdirt.com/2022/08/26/who-would-benefit-from-californias-age-appropriate-design-code-apparently-porn-companies-privacy-lawyers-and-medical-disinfo-peddlers-but-not-kids/#comment-2366092) (California), and [Michael Geist articles](https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2025/10/senate-bill-would-grant-government-regulatory-power-to-mandate-age-verification-for-search-social-media-and-ai-services-accompanied-by-threat-of-court-ordered-blocking-of-lawful-content/#comment-194170) (Canada’s bill S-209).
For those who haven’t already made up their minds , The Moral Maze podcast did an episode on this. It included a number of experts. All of them agreed that social media was very damaging for kids – they just disagreed on whether better parenting, regulation or banning was appropriate.
Life was nice with MSN messenger and Skype, it all went down after
Facing dreadful food standards in the late XIXth century, legislations were passed in order to streamline food protocols across the USA and also Europe, and make sure that one wouldn’t be risking their life eating some industrial stuff.
Same goes with algorithms. 20 years in the social media era, there hasn’t been any regulation in the US, by way of legislation, aiming at explicitely state what an algorithm is and is not allowed to do. Algorithms still are black boxes, whereas they should display explicitely the biases they ecourage, likewise any food product has to display its list of ingredients.
The government banning stuff because it’s bad for you has historically worked out well.
I said 10 years ago that social media is going to destroy the human race.
Sadly I was right…
Bring back the Usenet.
These are all companies in American hands, who have a stated goal of driving the union apart.
These tech bros are not the friends of Europe.
Come on they be treating social media like it was a drug yet took decades to get rid of leaded gasoline
Also nobody sees the huge issue in government regulating so heavily a form of speech???
It’s not a toxic chemical it’s just words and images on a screen!
You’d think “PLEASE think of the children” would fall out of fashion at some point, but the masses really seem to crave the government living their life for them, I’m glad my privacy is slowly being eroded because dogshit parents are unable to take care of their own children. We’re only a few years away from every social media post being nothing but government-approved topics, appropriate for our continued China-relations I suppose.
At the end of the day, it’s about money and control. They traded media control away for money and now realize that need to take media control back because an open social media is basically leaving your country’s backdoor open to hostile nation’s intelligence services for sentiment shaping and disruption.
Bunch of bootlickers in the comments ready to throw away everything as long as the can “save the children” can’t wait for a new goverment in 8 years to abuse this system and then everyone being all suprised.