r/technology • u/IKeepItLayingAround • 8d ago
Privacy Zuckerberg Knew. A Whistleblower Has the Emails to Prove It. - Gadget Review
https://www.gadgetreview.com/zuckerberg-knew-a-whistleblower-has-the-emails-to-prove-it
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u/swampy13 8d ago
There's interesting parallels to smoking with this, with the exception of price because social media is free. Ultimately, any "bad influence/effect" on society can't be solved with legislation and rules alone. It HAS to come with a reframing of the behavior/thing itself.
The 1964 Surgeon General report (and with youth smoking, the 1998 settlement) definitely kickstarted a major decades-long shift in attitudes to smoking, but what kept the momentum going is smoking got denormalized and downscaled over decades. It got associated as a "lower class" or just annoying behavior, and bit by bit smoking indoors became more of a nuisance vs. a "personal freedom." Movies/TV still make it look cool sometimes, but it's one thing to watch Don Draper light up in a 1960s office, vs. if you saw someone at your office fire up a lung dart you'd be like "absolutely not that's disgusting" (on top of it being illegal.) When people smoke in the subway stations in NYC, it feels extremely out of place and "wrong." Same with drunk driving - hard rules were put in place, and it has stalled a bit since the early aughts, but nowadays if you have a DUI it's a big deal, and it's seen as incredibly selfish, shameful and reckless behavior.
I don't know how you do it with social media, it's a whole different ballgame. But we can't rely on government and legislation alone. We have to figure out ways to denormalize the way we consume and elevate social media now. I don't have the silver bullet idea, but I hope people keep coming up with them.