(a) governments can make a material difference. Casinos are regulated and monitored to minimize addiction and its damage;
(b) public education, especially for teens, on this fact that social media (like casinos) is designed to attract you to spend more and more time with it.
(c) tax: casinos pay a sizeable amount of tax to support the supplementary control measure.
I am sure there are more. Generating public awareness (like what your post is doing) is a good step forward.
For sure but I feel like software is different. It’s kind of like the gov tells the casino they’re only allowed to use a specific type of machinery for the manufacturing of material playing cards, but the gov is not allowed to go in the factories, only see the final product. I feel like the same thing is applied in software where only the end product can be viewed and not the source code
We have websites like European Alternatives and AlternativeTo to help us find alternatives for our software stack. We also have initiatives like Omakub to help us get set up on Linux quickly (at least for developers) and there are initiatives in Europe to make it easy for the public sector to use Linux.
Maybe it's time with a social stack project, where various social apps can be rated for how well they support us talking to our friends (and just that) and various "stacks" can be suggested for communities of various sizes to make it easier to move off from the big, commercial social networks. I'm in many communities that default to using Facebook for internal comms, even as everyone agrees about its shortcomings and would love for their to be easy alternatives to move to (probably a combination of an email newsletter for the most important stuff and an old school forum with threads sorted by topics for everything else).
The Audre Lorde quote is relevant: “For the master’s tool will never dismantle the master’s house. They may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change."
This really hits. What you describe here isn’t just addiction—it’s emotional extraction at scale. These platforms don't just want our time, they want our inner lives. And over time, it feels like they hollow out the meaning from our interactions, leaving behind a loop of performative connection and engineered urgency.
I've been writing about this too, through a lens I call Reality Drift—the slow warping of what feels real under systems optimized for engagement. Your piece captures the emotional core of that drift better than most. Subscribed.
Neal Cassady and Allen Ginsberg spent hours at a time for many days sitting face to face on a bed, verbalizing every thought that came to their minds without censure. Imagine the knwoeldge of self, self-acceptance and understanding of one's place in the world and of the place of others that must have accrued to both of them.
If enough people do this kind of thing IRL and rely on word of mouth alone to spread the ideas, the world will begin to transform as you invision.
If you can tell 6 people today something of such great value that each of them feels a need to tell six friends tomorrow, and each of those tells 6 more the next day, etc., that would reach every person on the planet in 2 weeks outside of any app or digital platform. (Do the math).
This is a very lofty ideal, but it is almost impossible to achieve. This is because the resources that social media giants possess now are even greater than those of some countries. It involves enormous interests on a global scale. Every person on this planet is influenced by these social media platforms, whether they use them or benefit from them. Moreover, it is human nature to need social interaction. Social networking apps have become so popular, constantly evolving over the past ten to twenty years without interruption, because their design aligns with human nature and human needs.
Like drugs, cigarettes, and alcohol, humans have needed these things for thousands of years. From the beginning of recorded history, it can be observed that humans have needed alcohol; it's the same principle.
I think we can take lessons from both Ralph Nader and disability activists -- the civil sector is a critical piece to pushing for change by both industry / govt.
I'm setting up a Users Union and think it has potential to be a needed and currently missing voice in the discussion. Reach out if interested in discussing / collaborating.
I think that regulating this makes much more sense than having the government try and fund it as a public good.
One option might be to tax online advertising. A lot of low quality sites are more likely to have ads, so encouraging consumption for paid sites would promote better content. People will scroll for free junk, they won't pay for junk.
Josh Hawley had a bill to address some concerns with social media but I don't think it went anywhere.
This is literally what I’m doing with Mosslet. It’s not attempting to be the next new social media. It’s a private way to simply connect outside of the surveillance pipelines.
At the individual level at least, there are pretty reliable and easy ways to free yourself from most of this. Just treat algorithmic feeds, all of them, like the venomous snakes they are. Then adjust your participation on each platform according to your needs and preferences.
For example:
- Youtube has a pretty good recommendation algorithm, once you tame it. Watch only stuff you actually want; if you misclick or fall for some clickbait, remove it from your history so it won't influence future recos. Alternatively, disable history entirely and just search for what you want and subscribe to channels as you wish. In either case, DISABLE AUTOPLAY at all costs.
- Whatsapp: one-to-one and group chats work just fine, no algorithmic crap involved. Disable notifications for group chats to keep sanity. Disable number bubbles from your Android or iOS homescreen.
- Facebook: if your social life requires a few Facebook groups, keep a tab open on each group on your laptop. Remove or disable the app from your phone. If you absolutely need to check FB stuff on your phone, disable all notifications and never even open the feed. Go straight to the groups or people's pages that interest you.
- Instagram: probably same thing; never used it.
- X, Bluesky and similar: either find a way to get a chronological feed with no out-of-network crap, or stop using. (I chose the latter.)
- Substack: use it as originally intended for blogs/newsletters. Skip the feed altogether. I actually prefer adding the substacks I follow to an external RSS reader (feedly), and clicking articles from there.
Another good trick is to use as few phone apps as possible, and do everything you can from your mobile browser. Then disable notifications for the whole browser. This way no app can nag or manipulate you.
We can learn from the casino industry.
(a) governments can make a material difference. Casinos are regulated and monitored to minimize addiction and its damage;
(b) public education, especially for teens, on this fact that social media (like casinos) is designed to attract you to spend more and more time with it.
(c) tax: casinos pay a sizeable amount of tax to support the supplementary control measure.
I am sure there are more. Generating public awareness (like what your post is doing) is a good step forward.
Thanks for a candid post.
How would the first point be applied? TikTok open sourced some part of their recommendation system, but we don’t know if it’s being used by them.
Casinos reveal some details too. Like you pointed out, it's not a foolproof system. But regulations/fines/license suspension do help.
For sure but I feel like software is different. It’s kind of like the gov tells the casino they’re only allowed to use a specific type of machinery for the manufacturing of material playing cards, but the gov is not allowed to go in the factories, only see the final product. I feel like the same thing is applied in software where only the end product can be viewed and not the source code
Absolute banger
We have websites like European Alternatives and AlternativeTo to help us find alternatives for our software stack. We also have initiatives like Omakub to help us get set up on Linux quickly (at least for developers) and there are initiatives in Europe to make it easy for the public sector to use Linux.
Maybe it's time with a social stack project, where various social apps can be rated for how well they support us talking to our friends (and just that) and various "stacks" can be suggested for communities of various sizes to make it easier to move off from the big, commercial social networks. I'm in many communities that default to using Facebook for internal comms, even as everyone agrees about its shortcomings and would love for their to be easy alternatives to move to (probably a combination of an email newsletter for the most important stuff and an old school forum with threads sorted by topics for everything else).
Absolute banger
The Audre Lorde quote is relevant: “For the master’s tool will never dismantle the master’s house. They may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change."
Ted Kaczynski would like to have a word with you.
This really hits. What you describe here isn’t just addiction—it’s emotional extraction at scale. These platforms don't just want our time, they want our inner lives. And over time, it feels like they hollow out the meaning from our interactions, leaving behind a loop of performative connection and engineered urgency.
I've been writing about this too, through a lens I call Reality Drift—the slow warping of what feels real under systems optimized for engagement. Your piece captures the emotional core of that drift better than most. Subscribed.
Neal Cassady and Allen Ginsberg spent hours at a time for many days sitting face to face on a bed, verbalizing every thought that came to their minds without censure. Imagine the knwoeldge of self, self-acceptance and understanding of one's place in the world and of the place of others that must have accrued to both of them.
If enough people do this kind of thing IRL and rely on word of mouth alone to spread the ideas, the world will begin to transform as you invision.
If you can tell 6 people today something of such great value that each of them feels a need to tell six friends tomorrow, and each of those tells 6 more the next day, etc., that would reach every person on the planet in 2 weeks outside of any app or digital platform. (Do the math).
This is a very lofty ideal, but it is almost impossible to achieve. This is because the resources that social media giants possess now are even greater than those of some countries. It involves enormous interests on a global scale. Every person on this planet is influenced by these social media platforms, whether they use them or benefit from them. Moreover, it is human nature to need social interaction. Social networking apps have become so popular, constantly evolving over the past ten to twenty years without interruption, because their design aligns with human nature and human needs.
Like drugs, cigarettes, and alcohol, humans have needed these things for thousands of years. From the beginning of recorded history, it can be observed that humans have needed alcohol; it's the same principle.
I think we can take lessons from both Ralph Nader and disability activists -- the civil sector is a critical piece to pushing for change by both industry / govt.
I'm setting up a Users Union and think it has potential to be a needed and currently missing voice in the discussion. Reach out if interested in discussing / collaborating.
https://www.theusersunion.org/
what if! n
Check out Mastodon, I wonder how you didn't mention it as it seems the best candidate to solve all these issues.
so.... yeah, what is the solution then - abandon subscription model? back to software ownership? FOSS altogether ??
I think that regulating this makes much more sense than having the government try and fund it as a public good.
One option might be to tax online advertising. A lot of low quality sites are more likely to have ads, so encouraging consumption for paid sites would promote better content. People will scroll for free junk, they won't pay for junk.
Josh Hawley had a bill to address some concerns with social media but I don't think it went anywhere.
This is literally what I’m doing with Mosslet. It’s not attempting to be the next new social media. It’s a private way to simply connect outside of the surveillance pipelines.
At the individual level at least, there are pretty reliable and easy ways to free yourself from most of this. Just treat algorithmic feeds, all of them, like the venomous snakes they are. Then adjust your participation on each platform according to your needs and preferences.
For example:
- Youtube has a pretty good recommendation algorithm, once you tame it. Watch only stuff you actually want; if you misclick or fall for some clickbait, remove it from your history so it won't influence future recos. Alternatively, disable history entirely and just search for what you want and subscribe to channels as you wish. In either case, DISABLE AUTOPLAY at all costs.
- Whatsapp: one-to-one and group chats work just fine, no algorithmic crap involved. Disable notifications for group chats to keep sanity. Disable number bubbles from your Android or iOS homescreen.
- Facebook: if your social life requires a few Facebook groups, keep a tab open on each group on your laptop. Remove or disable the app from your phone. If you absolutely need to check FB stuff on your phone, disable all notifications and never even open the feed. Go straight to the groups or people's pages that interest you.
- Instagram: probably same thing; never used it.
- X, Bluesky and similar: either find a way to get a chronological feed with no out-of-network crap, or stop using. (I chose the latter.)
- Substack: use it as originally intended for blogs/newsletters. Skip the feed altogether. I actually prefer adding the substacks I follow to an external RSS reader (feedly), and clicking articles from there.
Another good trick is to use as few phone apps as possible, and do everything you can from your mobile browser. Then disable notifications for the whole browser. This way no app can nag or manipulate you.