Social media needs drug-style regulation
We should start to think of social media regulation like we think about drug regulation. It would be insane to ban or legalize all drugs. Instead, we measure specific properties, understand the LD-50, and make case-by-case recommendations and rubrics. Social media is tremendously new, and it’s not surprising we haven’t gotten this right (consider how Victorian times used opium to treat a cough).
I think what we need for social media is:
- Age verifications.
- Specifications for algorithms / features / interfaces.
- Proper gating.
I think it’s wrong to say that anyone under 16 shouldn’t use social media as a whole. I’d let a 9-year use Facebook circa 2005 (pre-feed), but I wouldn’t want a 20-year old using Instagram today (vertical-swipe predatory algorithms).
If Feeds and Likes create a digital popularity app that fuels the already intense middle school experience, then maybe kids should have a version of social media with different functionality.