Post #1603544

2026-04-21 20:07 UTC

@argv_minus_one @Elizafox @camertron One can believe that the current tools and the proposed legislation is bad... ...but also accept that the corporate media is also toxic. IRC is not Twitter. One thing is not the other. Chat lobbies for games, ICQ and Discord are far more like IRC than Twitter and tiktok. Scale and moderation are key. Corporate media wants to grow beyond their ability to moderate. In fact, they take profit in it. They aim to maximize engagement by harnessing negative posts and emotions. That&#39;s toxic. I would rather my kid be on Discord than on Facebook. But at the end of the day, it&#39;s about moderation and oversight.

Replies (1)

@Elizafox@social.treehouse.systems 2026-04-21 20:11

@Crissa@meow.social @argv_minus_one@mastodon.sdf.org @camertron@ruby.social Yeah exactly, corporate social media are profiting from your misery and have all the reason in the world to make your mental health worse because it drives engagement. It's called intermittent reinforcement which is the same thing slot machines use to fuel addiction to them, and also the same mechanism abusers use. The argument that somehow Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, etc. are somehow good for anyone, let alone kids, or good for eliminating isolation... that's literally justifying predatory behaviour. "Well they're now being tormented by the algorithm and shown a bunch of horrible shit about the world by a platform literally trying to make them addicted, but at least they're not lonely." And if there is one thing I've learned, being an abuse survivor: there are way worse things in this world than loneliness. Being abused is one of them. And yes, I would say it is equivalent, it is not hyperbole to say that a platform trying to make you suffer but offering good things once in a while so you keep coming back is literally abusive tactics. There are better ways to reduce loneliness. I'd rather my kid use IRC or Discord or Fedi (although that one is probably more of a "when they're like 15-16" thing) than any corporate social media. I disagree with blanket social media bans for minors, or attempts to keep them off the Internet, but I do agree: ban corporate social media, honestly.

Open ##2445335