Trend in the News: From Wellness Tech to Technological Wellness
Week of June 22nd, 2022
Lawmakers Want Social Media Companies to Stop Getting Kids Hooked–Wired
New bills all cross the US would force platforms like TikTok and Instagram to ditch their insidious features that keep youngsters glued to their phones. There is a new surge of public interest in taking action to protect kids whose lives are now almost entirely mediated by tech. Could new regulations stem the teen mental health crisis?
BeReal app is Instagram’s next rival for teens (It aims at authenticity: no filters, photo editing, gorgeous celebs, and ads–and it’s growing like crazy)– NPR
The new social media platform BeReal asks users to post just one “real”, unedited photo a day. It can’t be “liked” or shared. And teens are increasingly choosing a feed that is intentionally boring. It’s expressly designed as a counter to Instagram and Snapchat, which are all about performance: people bragging about vacations or cool parties. On BeReal, there’s little fear of missing out and it’s quickly become the second most-downloaded social app (behind TikTok) and its valuation may soon hit $630 million
UK online safety bill could set tone for global social media regulation (Is Zuckerberg ready for a nearly $10 billion fine?)– The Guardian
The UK’s new online safety bill is a landmark piece of legislation that could set the tone for social media regulation around the world–with strict new regulations ensuring children are not exposed to harmful content; and, for the big players such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, ensuring that adults are protected from legal but harmful content, too. Failure to do so would mean huge fines for companies, such as 10% of annual global turnover, which, in the case of Facebook, would be more than $9.7 billion.
California parents could soon sue for social media addiction–Associated Press
California could soon hold social media companies responsible for harming children who have become addicted to their products, allowing parents to sue platforms like Instagram and TikTok (all companies that had $100 million in gross revenue in the last year) for up to $25,000 per violation under a bill that passed the State Assembly a couple weeks ago. The bill defines “addiction” as a condition affecting kids under 18 who are both harmed — either physically, mentally, emotionally, developmentally or materially — and who want to stop or reduce how much time they spend on social media but they can’t because they’re obsessed with it.
How the Internet turned us into content machines–The New Yorker
More new books are examining how social media traps users in a brutal race to the bottom and essentially calling for more “technological wellness.” Content defines content as digital material that “may circulate solely for the purpose of circulating” in an overwhelming flood of text, audio, and video that fills our feeds and has grown to encompass just about everything we consume online. The Internet is Not What You Think It Is argues that the Internet limits attention, with a business model of digital advertising that incentivizes only brief, shallow interactions.
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