Whistleblower to Congress: Facebook products harm kids and democracy

Re:Whistleblower to Congress: Facebook products harm kids an... by janed0pecod on Tuesday October 05, 2021 @01:54PM (#28762991)

Except social media has a lot of upsides along with all the bad while the tobacco industries have literally none...only downsides (well if you don't count jobs created and all that but that is a low bar since any unethical thing can create job). But ultimately you're not doing a fair comparison here.

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Re:Whistleblower to Congress: Facebook products harm kids an... by haswell on Tuesday October 05, 2021 @02:07PM (#28763192)

It's easy to conclude that now that we understand just how bad tobacco is. But if you rewind a bit, I think people would have said the upsides of smoking were:

- It helps you relax and makes you feel good

- Promotes socialization with the other smokers you know

- Helps you look sophisticated / cool

- I don't have the citation handy, but I recall seeing old advertising campaigns that touted all kinds of benefits

Now we know that none of those perceived benefits matter since the more likely outcomes are severe health issues and death. Doesn't matter if it fosters community if that community will die because of it.

The other part of the comparison that gets a bit messy is that the existence of social media isn't necessarily the primary issue - it's the application of engagement algorithms that prioritize specific types of content. That is what I'd argue has no inherent value (aside from monetary), or dubious value at best.

I'm not saying this is the choice that must be made, but it is conceivable that the harm caused by the current state of the product is enough to mitigate the positive factors.

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