Global political trends spread like wildfire these days, and now several European countries, including Finland, are following Australia and looking at introducing social media bans for kids. Australia enacted the ban for under 16s, and Finland is looking at under 15s. While I reckon that this isn't actually going to work too well, I think that the sentiment is in the right direction, where the understanding that social media is a scourge on humanity is growing. Yes, it is bad for children, but I reckon in its current mainstream form, it is bad for everyone. Even the people making money from being on it.
There seems to be a correlation between the amount of time someone spends on social media, and the degradation of their mental and physical state. There is probably a study on it, but I can't be bothered looking for one, so I will just go with my feeling on the matter. Feelings are all that matter anyway, right?
Anyways, while I think it would be healthy for children to be kept off social media, I also think that it would be healthy for them to be off the majority of digital media, including TV shows and games, at least in the formative years through to about the age of five. Up to that point, they should be building their fundamental tactile skills, as well as their socialisation skills with other children. After that, then a slow introduction into some media could happen, but it should be far, far less than it is for most kids today.
But, kids aside, I wonder what would happen if say for the next five years, all mainstream social media where algorithms push content and users are incentivised by centralised mechanisms disappeared. What would it look like if the only social media was like Hive, decentralised, human-driven? What would it look like if the incentive to participate was that all the users were paid micro amounts in the same way as the creators, and the creators had to build for the audience, not for the algorithm.
I think it would be interesting.
And I reckon that over five years, there would be more creatives that are more diverse, but also a lot less viewers by time on site (ToS). Instead of doom scrolling through content in the hope for something interesting, consumers would spend time like they do here, with content and people they have connected with. But, this would also mean that they would spend less overall time consuming content, leaving them more likely to go out and do other things.
What if there was a streaming curfew?
For instance, what if it was only possible to watch 15 hours a week of streaming services like Netflix and Disney? That would be the equivalent of a movie a day, which if you think about it from the perspective of thirty years ago, is crazy. Two full days of work watching streaming content?
What if there was also a news media curfew?
No more than half an hour a day of news media, would mean that people would become more choosy with the news they follow, likely spending most of that time getting news that is relevant to them, rather than celebrity gossip. Or perhaps they would spend all the time on celebrity gossip.
Prohibition rarely works, but in today's world, neither does self-control. The way content is generated makes it compelling and endless, without offering much in return to the audience. Even the content that might be valuable, rarely seems to be consumed in a way that makes it functional, meaning it becomes valueless for the viewer. It just takes up time, and becomes a hanger for commercialisation.
Which is what all the mainstream social and news media comes down to anyway. It is all about commercialisation, regardless of the actual value it brings the audience. It is designed to make people feel like they are getting value from it, without actually changing the viewers behaviours into a more valuable direction. It is a scam. Even the news is "news" designed to generate outrage, which then generates more clicks and shares, more commentary on polarised conversations, and more time on site to drive commercialisation.
Maybe we should just ban it all.
Poll
In the poll below, there are 4 good/bad comments, choose one of each.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
Be part of the Hive discussion.
- Comment on the topics of the article, and add your perspectives and experiences.
- Read and discuss with others who comment and build your personal network
- Engage well with me and others and put in effort
And you may be rewarded.
I said bad results to everything only because I think there has to be some kind of alternative. I think we are a society that is easily addicted to things and if you remove one thing, something else is going to take its place. Without proper foresight, that thing could end up being worse that the prior. Since I know you only use your own photos, I am curious about the opening one. How did you find yourself in that situation? Was it the commercial your wife's company was doing a while ago?
Yeah, there would be replacements - but there were always other alternatives. I think it would be better to explore the alternatives than to keep going on this well-trodden path of misery.
Good question!
A few years back, friends of mine invited Yanis Marshall to Finland to give a weekend workshop. Women (mostly professional and semi-pro dancers) came from all over Finland to attend and I was taking photos across the event :)
It was pretty amazing to see how quickly the women were able to learn complicated and challenging choreography.
Knowing humanity, I'm afraid the replacements would be worse! That is cool about the photo. Dancing is something I never picked up on. I have your typical white guy rhythm, so it always amazes me when my nieces do their Tik Tok dances and stuff like that.
I totally relate to that.
It's just like cutting a tree from it branches. It grows back.
It should be cut from the root instead.
So instead of removing, we address and that start from the inside.
I call it choice.
Change comes only when the desire is there and it takes choice to do it.
I agree that social media, as it is today, does more harm than good, not just to children but to adults too. Seeing European nations putting restrictions is good, but parent has more to do when it comes to this since they are the ones closer to the children.
Most of the content online like you said is driven to generate links, share and the bottom line is the monetary value attributed to it. Many content creators are only doing content just because of what they believe they could get from it and not really about their audience and the funny thing is that these content creators know what people actually want and give it to them. These days it is difficult to even regulate as most of these kids are wiser than even some parents.
Also, the mainstream and social media have done a lot of damage even to adults in the sense that the amount of time spent on it and also the kind of adult content popping up on everything is crazy. It is just that we have to guide our hearts and be more focused on what matters to us and our well-being.
I don't think the government actions will do much overall, but I hope that in making the move, at least some parents become more active in raising their children, instead of pushing them to digital media.
So many adults "don't have time" to do all kinds of healthy things - but plenty of time to scroll bullshit on feeds.
I think that it would be great if there was only decentralized news and social media. Right now every media outlet has some agenda behind it and people are too easily controlled and radicalized through it.
It would be more interesting at least and having it less "fed" would mean that we would actually be able to attend to our interests, not as much to the manipulations.
The real issue isn't just the access, but the fact that these platforms are designed to override self-control.If users had to actually engage and build connections to get value—like we do here—the 'doom scrolling' would die out naturally because it's too much effort for zero return.It would definitely result in less screen time and more actual living.It’s a scam designed to sell ads, and most people don't even realize they’re the product being sold. Self-control is a losing battle against a billion-dollar algorithm.
Yes it is. Especially when most people think that they are making the choices for themselves.
Social media should become a cooperative and collabirate together to spread skills and education amongst youth much like universities but in a more democratic manner.
That was the early promise of the internet - until it was commercialised.
Tht's where we went wrong. We need to change this...
I wonder, those who spend time on social media, svrolling through stupid content, are they be creative or efficient enough to write or share meaningful content on hive? If they ever get into...
I expect some of them would be, but they have lost their creativity through content overload.
One thing I know for sure: if Hive were the only social network, you'd stop upvoting (20%). And I'd buy myself a villa somewhere in Italy for 3,500 HIVE.
I don't think I would stop upvoting comments :)
I think that kids should be allowed to write Hive posts from early age. I am not sure how young. Instead of spending time on facebook they could benefit from being active on Hive. If people would start earning and engaging from younger age perhaps they would feel stronger connection. Also for some kids few hundred HP would already feel like a lot so perhaps they would treat it like something precious.
It shouldn't even be about the earning - it should be able having the ability to write, create, and interact with humans.
I also think that Facebook should be closed for children. To be honest, most people are now addicted to Facebook and through it, everything from rumors to misdeeds and various obscenities are filled. Moreover, many children are staying away from education due to Facebook and chatting. Even adults are sacrificing their humanity to earn money from here.
Facebook is only one of them and probably not the worst these days. TikTok and similar are likely far worse.
Nowadays people are more focus on what pays on social media. Whether it affects us positively or negatively they don't care, money is the goal.
I think that might be the case where you are, but most of the world doesn't look to get paid by social media. They just consume endlessly.
I don't know where I sit on the bans. I don't necessarily think they will hurt, however I don't think it is governments place to parent either.
The requirement to eliminate the algorithms we all hate would be a nice start for government if they want to regulate something.
In the end, I don't need, nor do I want the government telling me what speech and how much to listen to. I also don't want some algorithm telling me either.
It's a parents' place to parent...but when that parent is addicted to social media and suffering all the ill-effects from their own stupidity it's not really going to help the child. Maybe children and parents should be banned from social media...and everyone else too.
Blame the government partially, but I see the parent as directly responsible as evidenced by parents helping the under 16 year olds to get around the new regulations and access social media.
#shitparents
Not blaming government at all, in fact the opposite. It is on the parents to parent, not the government. You do bring up a good point of when the parent is shit and spends all their time on the media and uses it to babysit their kid too. Maybe time to hold parents more accountable.
Parents should be accountable...and should hold themselves accountable. It's not really happening though and I guess that's where the government come into it and play their hand. Better that than no action at all.
Yeah, I get it, but regretfully our government here always overreacts and overreaches when it comes too regulating. I'd be afraid our government would fucking overextend beyond just 16yo and start infringing on more social media. There is always some political shmuck that wants to tell you what to read or listen to.
Yep, I understand completely. We're facing revised gun laws based on the Bondi Beach mass shooting here, although the laws won't be followed by the extremist cunts who do the shooting so it'll end up an infringement on my rights and that I'd every law-abiding firearms owner.
Yep I figured that was coming for you all. Sucks
Everything you see in social media is commercialized. If the government can enact a rule that bad content that does not make any positive impact will not be monetized then things can get a little bit better.
I voted against news curfew because I think breaking and important and essential news can occur anytime and would need to be reported and seen by the public so they can respond to it in time, if it requires that.
Then decentralized social media, I voted against that too. If everything or anything becomes fully decentralized, chaos is bound to break out, there are those that would want to break the rules, it happens even on hive, that's why we have the hive watchers who wield a kind of centralized influence over the platform. Complete decentralization would be very difficult to achieve.
I think moving towards decentralized platforms might encourage deeper connections and creativity, instead of the mindless scrolling we all know too well.
The girl in the front left looks like she’s letting out the fart of her life.
Drew me in.. now for the post reading.
I think the desire is in the right place with the drive to get kids off these media platforms at the younger ages but it’s, in my opinion, a shoehorn to get digital ID’s rolled out en masse. Directly identifying someone to their digital profile via a drivers license. How’s that going for the poor bastards in the UK? Not so well last I heard.
I know our self control is abysmal particularly now with the blue light dopamine slot machine that is a phone but I’ve been seeing some great companies that are trying to shift the paradigm like Daylight. Will it be enough, is the question?
I know this was kind of a thought experiment but I am always going to hard disagree with any censorship beyond personal (which does extend to "people with diminished capacity in your care") :)
The only things those stupid policies ever do is pretend that something is being done (and make people feel like something is being done, after all feelings are most important XD) when the reality is they won't come anywhere close to addressing the actual problems that lead to those behaviours.
Limitations should be self-imposed. It is our failure as parents and as self-improvers (self-destroyers) that we go ape **** about interesting things. Practice self-control or degrade. Personal choice.
Not saying my self-control is excellent or something. But I vote for getting there myself and I think I am degrading far slower than before.
Voting has ended! Curious how the crowd leaned? Check out the final tally and join the conversation.
The top-voted choice is 1. Bad results if social media was banned for kids? with 9 accounts voting for it.
My favorite author's book: [Literature] Johann Gottlieb Fichte: Sun-Clear Statement 2/41
Social media, even though it is making negative impact in the society, has come to stay. We might be complaining of how it has affected the mental health of people especially our children but what can we do?.
The government alone trying to control the amount of time children spend on social media will not give the required result. Parents should try their best to control their children and restrict them from what they consume as earlier as possible or else it will be too late
Be a better human. Be a better parent.
Stop blaming th government and everyone else and say no to the child's use of social media. But nah, most parents are shit parents...and addicted to social media themselves.
Social media is one of the most important thing that has happened to the Gen Z's today, they can barely do without it. Any form of education that is not coming from social media, they will be less interested. I think the best way to stop this children for wasting time on social media is by controlling the kind of information being passed on social media. Instead of trying to limit or cut them off totally, expose them to more educative content.
I don't think content control is any better and probably it is worse. Content control means that authority dictates what people see, programming them even more, but even worse. Cutting off completely means people have to find new ways to entertain themselves.
When you look at a decentralized platform like Hive, how interesting and profitable it is in the long run if you offer value, both educative and the connections you make here, you will just be wondering why people are still wasting their time on social media platforms that take away their time, money and still destroy them mentally.
Maybe all this were all programmed to be so.
I think the problem with Hive is that too many are using to make money, without wanting to invest money into the token directly. They want something for nothing.
The social internet these days is driven by rage and desire - a pretty poor combination for positive growth.