CREEPY SOCIAL MEDIA

The way that social media can affect children
is probably similar to the telefone.





David

Some of you might be interested in this article from CNET about a new social network for kids and their families.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-19518_3-20078924-238/ohanarama-a-social-network-for-kids-and-their-families/?tag=cnetRiver

Interesting!

It seems to be mostly about playing games though -- I haven't found any equivalents of wall posts, or status updates, or comments, or messaging.

Here we go:



http://www.ohanarama.com/faq.php

That could work.

That seems to be just messaging, though.

Still not sure if it would be an interesting enough replacement for the means of communication she already has -- email, texting, etc.

Also it doesn't seem to be totally free. (You get a certain amount of "neuros" free but you seem to be goosed to buy more.... I dislike those kinds of sites.)

I'll keep an eye on it...

I had another chat with the little girl who is the subject of the opening post. She told me she had told her mom, but not anyone else--by which i knew she referred to me having told her my name in real life. I told her good, you should always tell your mom about people you talk to online. We discussed Alice in Wonderland, and i told her about John Tenniel and some other illustrators. I had a very stong impression that her mother was with her at the time. I am very gratified to see that he mother takes such a close interest in her online activities.

Just like every good mother should!

untill they reach a certain age, of course.

(apnews)

Looking back on some of the earlier posts in this topic, it almost seems quaint.

But over the past 15 (!) years, we've all gotten a good look at the huge petri dish that is social media/AI, particularly for underage folks.

Vaccine misinformation. Election conspiracy theories. Holocaust denial. Incel "culture". Hard swings to both the political right and left due to algorithms favoring outrage. Child porn. AI slop. Exhortations to vulnerable people to just kill themselves. Theft from seniors and other elder abuse. Identity theft. Hate groups recruiting in all sorts of places. Academic cheating, writ large. A hard yet covert push in the direction of a microscopic attention span and a boatload of social anxiety.

While outright banning of social media doesn't really solve the problem of what happens when someone finally gets their mitts on TikTok, etc., it may potentially help to protect growing brains from being overly influenced by it.

After all, in the US, we have laws against minors drinking. Does that stop them from sneaking stuff from liquor cabinets? No. Does it stop them from paying someone to buy beer for them at a package store? No. Does it stop them from going nuts when they turn 18 or 21 or whatever the legal age is? No.

All we can really hope for is that people who are possibly naive and certainly have, as a group, much less self-control, self-awareness, and impulse control than us older folks have (as a group), can be protected from the darkest impulses and exhortations out there.

There are privileges that come with adulthood. The right to decide your own fate. Not being required to stay in school. Rights to drink and smoke. To buy and own firearms. To have your own credit cards. To work. To vote. To marry.

And while those rights and privileges come at different times, they are all hallmarks of being older.

Maybe our society will be better off if social media became one of those privileges.