Well hello there, folks! Are you tired of reading about doom and gloom? Look no further! Today we’re going to have a laugh and talk about the social media pandemic that’s sweeping the nation.
In the past, we’ve made the mistake of overreacting to a pandemic (we won’t name names, you know who you are). But now, we’re making the opposite mistake. As social media (or “anti-social media,” as we like to call it) infiltrates our lives and destroys our emotional well-being and trust in institutions, we’re doing absolutely NOTHING about it. Yup, we’re just letting it happen.
If you want a good chuckle, check out Jonathan Haidt’s essay in the Atlantic’s May issue titled, “Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid.” Haidt doesn’t waste much time cataloguing the various catastrophes caused by social media, as we all know they’re happening. What he DOES do is blame the eruption of a new game on social media platforms around 2013. Before that, they were relatively harmless ways to connect with people you already knew. But then they became a breeding ground for hostility and aggression towards total strangers, all thanks to some ingenious coders (or should we say, mad scientists?).
Haidt writes, “The newly tweaked platforms were almost perfectly designed to bring out our most moralistic and least reflective selves.” Yikes. And if that’s not bad enough, these platforms are specifically designed to be addictive and operate as “a universal solvent, breaking down bonds and weakening institutions.” Great, just what we need.
If you’re not convinced that action needs to be taken, take a look at the documentary “The Social Dilemma” from 2020. Everyone’s favorite mea culpa is the one from the Twitter engineer who said after launching the retweet button, “We might have just handed a 4-year-old a loaded weapon.” Um, yeah. Even those who understand social media best are terrified for their kids to use it at all. That should tell us something, shouldn’t it?
Governments around the world have applied the “precautionary principle” to new technologies when the risks were uncertain. And, let’s be honest, the risks of social media are pretty damn certain. So why are the regulatory agencies, who usually love to scare us about the dangers of things like vaping and video games, suddenly so silent on this issue?
Haidt doesn’t have all the answers, but he suggests age limits, user verification, and modification of tools like the share function. We regulate young people’s access to tobacco, alcohol, and gambling, so why aren’t we even debating limits on social media, which is currently wreaking havoc on their lives?
So folks, let’s not repeat our mistakes from the past. We can take action now against the social media pandemic before the damage becomes even more indubitable and widespread. And if we find out later that our actions were ineffective or unnecessary, we can always reverse them. What are we waiting for, huh? Let’s get to it!
Serious News: washingtonpost
