>Hopefully people will soon see it's not the drugs, it's the people themselves who need to be fixed. Drugs are just a tool, and if people don't change, it will just be replaced with something else and the cycle will go on and on.

Easy way to shift the blame if one has ever taken part in designing these products.

Hell I remember years ago on HN when that book about getting people hooked/addicted to an app was a popular book to discuss, making the analogy more true.

You’re right, maybe people are the problem. Just like how the Sacklers pushes their wares and hooked the masses so did SV

Well, yeah drugs aren't the problem. Same analogy applies to drugs, "addictive" apps or anything that one may call addictive in any sense.

In the end it's the people who use them, you can't blame the creator of them as long as they don't lie about the product.

The opiate crisis is also largely a people problem. What the sackler's did was bad but it would have happened without them.

Like in this case, some reasonable regulations may help, but won't solve the problem

>> Hopefully people will soon see it's not the social media platforms, it's the people themselves who need to be fixed.

Same applies to drugs, smoking, gambling, drinking etc. but we recognise those things as potentially harmful and take steps to restrict them, regulate them, and make them as safe as we can (with varying degrees of success and failure obviously). Social media gets kids even earlier than most of the things I’ve listed above and the best we seem to have done is self-reporting your age to make sure you’re over 13. It’s embarrassing and I have no doubt that in 50 years we’ll be looking back at some of the people that worked on these platforms the same way we look at people who worked in the tobacco industry.

Yeah same applies to drugs, smoking, gambling and drinking too.

They might be potentially harmful, people should be informed about how they work and possible consequences, but going beyond and restricting/regulating is no-no.

And BTW I'm saying this as a person who know and have experienced their effects, don't really like to do them, and who has no interest or connections to any company in those fields.

>> They might be potentially harmful, people should be informed about how they work and possible consequences, but going beyond and restricting/regulating is no-no.

So a child should be able to purchase booze, cocaine, heroin provided they are informed of the risks?

Yup.

Again I'm not supporting any use of substances, but I think everyone of any age or gender should be deciding for their own when it comes to their body.

Yeah, those junkie 5 year olds really ought to take responsibility for their actions. I really hope you're trolling.

I'm not trolling. Though if their parents let them into situations where they can get heroin, it's the parents that need to take the blame.

>> if their parents let them into situations where they can get heroin, it's the parents that need to take the blame

That's very different to:

>> I think everyone of any age or gender should be deciding for their own when it comes to their body.

It also doesn't account for shitty parents.

Well anyone can decide for their own. But if someone, say 9, wants heroin, their parents should prevent this.

Shitty parents is definitely an issue though I still think we should focus on parents instead of ${potentially addictive service/substance provider}.

Yeah I might have not been clear on my first comment.

This is the same dodge massive polluters make: everyone needs to pitch in to solve this! Pay no attention to the few industries that are massively responsible. Recycling! Electric cars!

Consider that any biological entity alive today has a few billion years worth of behavior and instinct more or less hardwired into it. "Just change the people" isn't trivial and probably not possible. Artificial technologies like social media platforms, on the other hand, at least can be changed.

why do those companies employ teams of people doing A/B testing to maximize engagement?

> it's the people themselves who need to be fixed.

You're asking for the human race to grow up and be more mature. Fat chance of that.

Well, I definitely agree with that part.