Violet

but at the same time it's pretty goddamn evident that a child growing up with only them for emotional support and life skills would be, like... that's not going to work out

so while I don't really care if it's a website or how it works, I am really invested in there being spaces where weird lonely kids can connect that are not under the direct control of their parents

and there are many better ways than social media to achieve that, but the question isn't "what would you do if you were king of the world?" it's "everything else being the same, should teenagers have access to social media?", so

#Oops i ranted

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in reply to @pervocracy's post:

emma @trilobite2/21/2024, 5:05 PM

feel this so much. I deleted twitter off my phone at the start of January and only use it on my laptop now, which ends up being maybe once every three days. feels like the jury’s still out on whether I can find a way to make up for the social benefits it provided! but still we persevere.

Ash Greytree @AshGreytree2/21/2024, 5:32 PM

I do think that institutions such as schools in Seattle suing social media companies are doing so in good faith. They have to deal with the brunt of a lot of this stuff.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/01/schools-sue-social-networks-claim-they-exploit-neurophysiology-of-kids-brains/

Cliff 🦖 Pervocracy @pervocracy2/21/2024, 5:49 PM

I would absolutely not object to social media being made less addictive, that's why Cohost is essentially my only social media now.

But my concern is how much of the goal here is to create child-safe non-addictive social media spaces, and how much is to cut kids off from every means of non-parent-mediated electronic communication.

in reply to @pervocracy's post:

Perpetual Motion @Perpetual-Motion2/21/2024, 8:42 PM

I'm in my thirties and I'm still feeling this. The lack of ability for me to meet people with shared interests in this small, rural town I'm forced to live in means that without social media I'd be completely isolated from non-business human contact. So, like, what do you do? Socialization is just as much a need as food and shelter. And while the internet can't provide a balanced diet, it's better than starving.

eevee @lexyeevee2/21/2024, 10:04 PM

thank you for threading the familiar needle of "yeah so my parents were abusive, but not, like, you know... abusive"

@hexiv2/23/2024, 12:41 AM

It's tricky because you're right that kids with shitty parents are the ones who need the internet most, but I also think that kids with shitty parents are the ones most likely to be harmed by the internet. I'm not sure I've been harmed by social media/the internet, or at least, not in any long term way. I have a lot of psychological problems but I think I would have had them without the internet too; before I was burying myself in social media every day, I was burying myself in a book.

I'm also physically ill, and the combined fatigue left me largely unable to get out of bed and socialize in person. So the internet was like, my lifeline, even though my parents were very good parents.

SArpnt @SArpnt2/25/2024, 12:21 AM

id like to eventually make a reasonably good place that kids could be on the internet