https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/labors-social-media-ban-will-not-benefit-young-people
I don't support a social media ban for people under 18 but not for the same reasons as the article's author, who is a high-school student affected by the ban: Writing for Green Left, Luka Koeger points out that "Instead of tackling the predatory algorithms, data harvesting and graphic content circulated by social media giants, the bill simply restricts young people’s access to information and communication." Under capitalism, the reason for social media is not to facilitate access to information and communication but to create new markets and new customers of consumer commodities. The harmful effects of social media on children are very well documented. But smartphones, which cost hundreds of US dollars, are a now a must-have commodity for those children whose parents can afford them; the other children lack access to Internet information and communication. The Internet amplifies social inequalities while exposing children to intense, unmoderated communication. Christian Fuchs wrote that the "... Internet and social media are today to a significant degree stratified, non-participatory spaces, and an alternative, non-corporate Internet is needed" [Fuchs, Christian. Social Media: A Critical Introduction (p. 82). SAGE Publications. Kindle Edition]. Social media is a bundle of commodities that are exchanged for data collected on where the child goes on the Internet and what they do; it is not reformable without changes to "the business model." Like health care and education in the US, we need de-commodification of social media worldwide for it to actually provide information and communication rather than to create new types of private property, new markets for it, and the permeation of capitalist commodity relations to the most vulnerable people. The marketing of commodities to children is certainly not new: "Frosted Flakes," "Fruit Loops," and many other breakfast cereals in the US contain more sugar than a child should consume in a day. But the marketing of that product requires the parent to buy it. Social media turns the child into an independent agent who trades the recording of their online behavior for access to certain types of information and communication that are free of family, community, and societal controls. Mark -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#34041): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/34041 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/110103769/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
