Should we attempt to regulate how social media companies operate, educate children and parents on the possible harm and how to avoid it, or do anything with the goal of just improving the way technology is used?
No, we’ll just ban it. Something that has famously always worked well.
In a way this makes me a little sad. I met my wife via IRC, I built long lasting relationships with random people I met online when I was a teenager; I learned so much about programming and Linux/BSD/Solaris from online forums of people that took time to help my dumb ass out. All of that same potential to be swept under the rug because of trash like TikTok and Facebook.
As far as I (a non-British person) can tell the actual proposal hasn’t been released yet so: nobody knows.
I do know that I wouldn’t count on them doing a good job of defining what “social media” is; and if we’re being honest then IRC, Usenet, forums, and Lemmy should all be included in that definition as they are all forms of it.
I started coding when I was 10 (yea, I know, that’s earlier than usual, but still!) and I learned so much from programming forums and mailing lists that I think it’s safe to say my entire career would be on a very different or VERY delayed path if I wasn’t allowed access to those until I was 16.
Sorry, you must be old enough to pilot a multi-thousand-pound vehicle at highway speeds before we let you learn about the dark magic that is Perl and awk.
Should we attempt to regulate how social media companies operate, educate children and parents on the possible harm and how to avoid it, or do anything with the goal of just improving the way technology is used?
No, we’ll just ban it. Something that has famously always worked well.
In a way this makes me a little sad. I met my wife via IRC, I built long lasting relationships with random people I met online when I was a teenager; I learned so much about programming and Linux/BSD/Solaris from online forums of people that took time to help my dumb ass out. All of that same potential to be swept under the rug because of trash like TikTok and Facebook.
They’re not banning IRC or forums, though?
As far as I (a non-British person) can tell the actual proposal hasn’t been released yet so: nobody knows.
I do know that I wouldn’t count on them doing a good job of defining what “social media” is; and if we’re being honest then IRC, Usenet, forums, and Lemmy should all be included in that definition as they are all forms of it.
I started coding when I was 10 (yea, I know, that’s earlier than usual, but still!) and I learned so much from programming forums and mailing lists that I think it’s safe to say my entire career would be on a very different or VERY delayed path if I wasn’t allowed access to those until I was 16.
Sorry, you must be old enough to pilot a multi-thousand-pound vehicle at highway speeds before we let you learn about the dark magic that is Perl and awk.