On one hand I do see the general damage current day social media is causing to practically every age group - children and elderly being the most exposed. It definitely needs to be reigned in, and restricting children from it is a good first step.
On the other hand, I remember the “golden era” of social media, the early days of Twitter, when IRC chatrooms were still a major way of communicating, when Facebook didn’t try to consume 100% of your free time, when advertising wasn’t really a thing on these platforms… but rather they focused on the connecting people bit. I remember making a number of friends based on common interests from around the world, learning new things, gaming together and so on.
And I honestly feel a bit sorry that the next generations won’t ever experience the “innocent” internet, the network of people who made things happen instead of the network of corporations that just swallow everything in their paths.
The issue isn’t social media or the internet, the issue is large corporate conglomerates turning us all into source of income to be exploited via advertising. It’s less a place to share ideas and connect and more about doing ANYTHING to keep us glued to the screen to make sure we’re swallowing some advertisement bullshit.
I’m a bit split on this ban.
On one hand I do see the general damage current day social media is causing to practically every age group - children and elderly being the most exposed. It definitely needs to be reigned in, and restricting children from it is a good first step.
On the other hand, I remember the “golden era” of social media, the early days of Twitter, when IRC chatrooms were still a major way of communicating, when Facebook didn’t try to consume 100% of your free time, when advertising wasn’t really a thing on these platforms… but rather they focused on the connecting people bit. I remember making a number of friends based on common interests from around the world, learning new things, gaming together and so on.
And I honestly feel a bit sorry that the next generations won’t ever experience the “innocent” internet, the network of people who made things happen instead of the network of corporations that just swallow everything in their paths.
The issue isn’t social media or the internet, the issue is large corporate conglomerates turning us all into source of income to be exploited via advertising. It’s less a place to share ideas and connect and more about doing ANYTHING to keep us glued to the screen to make sure we’re swallowing some advertisement bullshit.