Bipartisan Group of States Sue TikTok Over App's Effects on Kids' Mental Health \ stacker news ~tech

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Bipartisan Group of States Sue TikTok Over App's Effects on Kids' Mental Health www.cnbc.com/2024/10/08/tiktok-sued-dc-addiction-virtual-currency.html

196 sats \ 9 comments \ @Cje95 8 Oct tech

Give @kepford's super engaging post right now #714785 I wanted to share at least a tiny sliver of unity in the US. Its not often we see bipartisan state lawsuits with D.C., New York and California leading the lawsuit and Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, Vermont and Washington.

This covers north to south and east to west of the continental US which is nice to see as well. It wouldn't be surprising to see additional states join as well.

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21 sats \ 7 replies \ @Bell_curve 8 Oct

What about instagram and Reddit?

Very suspicious that TikTok is singled out

21 sats \ 5 replies \ @SwearyDoctor 8 Oct

yeah, this is part of the judicial war on tiktok. Also, this whole "social media causes mental illness" thing has always been bullshit. They said that about series, movies, music, comics, and back in the day, also about the theater when it came up (in other terms, of course, "mental illness" is conceptually a very recent phenomenon). no, corporate social media is exploiting you for clicks and is doing it by showing you things you love and hate. It connects you to all the shit in the world that the legacy media had been hiding from you, or at least only presented in very sanitized ways. Also, we live in a society that systematically erases the very possibility of change; you're supposed to vote for parties that are all the same, choose between media that is all the same, consume goods that are all the same. "TINA" has been made the imperial ideology. if after that, you fall into desperation, that's the correct reaction (until, of course, you realize that this is not beyond change, just not in the "given" channels.)

21 sats \ 2 replies \ @Cje95 OP 8 Oct

Numerous studies have shown that social media triggers serotonin and dopamine creating an addiction. Legacy media can't do this because honestly, it takes to long. These things have to be kick and easy to access which traditional media is not.

21 sats \ 1 reply \ @SwearyDoctor 8 Oct

no, sorry, but that's not how it works.

addictions, classically, happen when you regularly introduce something to the body, causing it to stop producing it (or a similar thing) with time. Thus, when you stop ingesting it, everything is busted. This is drugs and alcohol. This is the "original" idea of addiction.

Literally anything else is a metaphorical use of the term "addiction" that has gotten traction in recent year in wake of medicalization. i.e. the extension of the realm of responsibility of medicine for all kindas of things people have and do that's disapproved of by others. Gambling, sex, work addiction, all kinds of things are metaphorical uses of the term to gain a medical "grip" on something someone considers a problem (usually the family, unhappy with something someone does). There are literally cases of "bitcoin addiction" floating around, where wives were unhappy that their husbands were watching green and red candles all day. (Sociologist here! There's a mountain of literature on the expansion of the addiction trope.)

Serotonin is simply what happens in the brain when something makes me happy. Shows and movies absolutely produce that if you like them.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Cje95 OP 8 Oct

So... ummm this is what I studied, got my degree in, and did an undergrad thesis in so sorry you are stuck in the 20-30 years ago idea but we have learned more about the brain in the last 5 than in the entire human existence.

If you knew anything about this topic you would know A) a neurotransmitter is not "simply what happens in the brain when something makes me happy" and B) wouldn't ignore the HUGE impact dopamine has. Dopamine after all plays an enormous impact on brain chemistry in general dopamine creates a pleasurable high when desired actions are performed. It is directly involved with movement, memory, reinforcement, and reward.

Sorry sociology doesn't work when it comes down to a hard science and this is coming from someone who got his major in psychology and a minor in neuroscience.

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @Cje95 OP 8 Oct

Numerous studies have shown that social media triggers serotonin and dopamine creating an addiction. Legacy media can't do this because honestly, it takes too long. Social media is quick attention-grabbing and thus actually does do a level of brain rewiring

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @xz 8 Oct

I suppose TINA is:

Instagram or Tiktok. Facebook or Linkedin. Wechat or Alipay. Visa or Matercard. Android or iOS. Victory Gin.

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @Cje95 OP 8 Oct

TikTok's algorithm is by far the best in the space and being the market leader taking them down a notch would set up addressing the others.

Plus they have the whole ban over them.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @xz 8 Oct

It's hard for me to understand. I have a friend who has kids who are in some ways smart, but unable to put down a smartphone, forming ADD, and reinforcing autism.

As I remember, there was a policy a few years back in P.R.China which restricted online activities for kids under a certain age. I think this was obsensibly linked to online gaming. Perhaps MMO games which I think have always been under some kind of restrictions, if seldom enforced, at least back in the days when there were internet bars.

Being more of the TV generation, the best I can do to rationalize the addictiveness of gaming or social media, is using analogies of cocaine or opium derivatives and synthetic derivatives. But I think even that is not nearly a good analogy.

I'm not sure what are the solutions to the divisions in the US, other than a sane leadership that values the meaning of life, liberty and love of itself. US policies affect more than just the US, so fair to say we all have a vested interest to see the US, the EU and other places adopting forward looking policy.

Sueing Tiktok might be rational, but I'm not sure whether the effect will be so helpful.

What would be a better remedy after money has changed hands. Investing that money into teaching kids how algorithms work, how they are employed in social media and how they might be affected by them. Even how they might use there own algos..

or just to keep sueing, and keep restricting the next social media platform, again and again? You gotta give kids a better alternative.