A very smart person once said if you want the right answer to a question, don’t ask for it. Instead, provide the best answer you’ve got and let the critics exhaust themselves proving you wrong until they eventually hand the correct answer over for free.

Where/how did you learn of the hedge fund usages?

If the poster never comes back, I think it is fair to assume it is just a reasonable guess, right?

You thought you wouldn’t find kool aid drinking tech fanboys here? You might need a new compass.

Tech companies and their cults are perfectly represented by the South Park episode about Priuses

I think you and the original metaphor maker are still not seeing the failure of the analogy. The bank with a $2B default gets bailed out by taxpayers and the billion dollar borrower gets bailed out through bankruptcy court—also the taxpayer. The person borrowing $2 screws themselves, and the same person borrowing $2 gets to bail out the bank and billion dollar borrowers.

Psychological warfare? Apple’s loyal fan boys can definitely come off a little culty but to compare apples marketing to something violent is just being dramatic.

I’m always amazed by how much some people want the government to control.

And I'm always amazed by how much some other people think the free market can do no wrong and should be treated in a completely laissez-faire manner.

It's only a natural reaction when nothing else is in control. Unless you think that social media platforms are fine as is.

I understand the hesitancy to government control, but at some point, what other mechanism is there? I'm seriously asking.

They weren't referring to Social Media Platforms, they were referring to the previous poster talking about AirBnB and Gambling specifically.

There are many mechanisms we can rely on, like teaching someone the tradeoffs of a dangerous decision.

You say that like addiction is just something that can be taught by parents to overcome. You can attempt to teach your kids to "just say now", but they are kids and are going to rebel against anything they are told they can't do. That's just part of being a kid. Once they do it and become addicted, telling them no is just a useless concept.

Part of the problem of laying it at the parent's feet is that there's a much larger than zero chance the parent(s) also shows addictive behavior. To quote the after school special, "I learned it from watching you, all right?" I still go back to the fact that the addictive thing is being intentionally manipulated to increase the addictive properties. It is not natural. It is the thing in and of itself that is the problem.

I don't know of any viable rehab potential for social media. I can only imagine the relapse potential would be closer to 100% than for any other drug.

I don't intend for my one example to fit all issues. Just trying to point out there is more we can do than rely on government legislation.

The other mechanism is parenting and self-control. I'm not too concerned in the long run about which path is chosen for addictive social media; its days are numbered either way.

This puts parents back in control of what their kids are consuming. Without laws like this, it’s extremely difficult for parents to supervise and control their children’s media consumption.

I get that in theory a kid could sneak off to use TikTok/Instagram on some friend's device away from home, but that's not what's happening. Parents are handing their kids smartphones with unrestricted access to these apps.

People here keep coming back to the social pressures of not allowing their kids on these platforms. It's one thing to give them a device for being able to keep tabs with locations and being able to get in touch with them, but once they have a device where other parents have allowed their kids on the platforms your kid will be made fun of for not being on there.

The parental controls the platforms put on there are non-existent or a mere joke at best (as the recent post about TikTok suggesting porn to minors illustrates). So a parent trying to do things then gets accused of "damaging" their kid by being over restrictive. So, again, what's a parent to do?

A kid won't be ostracized for not having a TikTok. I survived not being on Facebook when it was big in middle school, despite a relatively few dull kids making fun. The same will apply to drugs or gambling by high school, so best learn to deal with it. There are lots of good ways to be popular. Unless of course it's a really bad area, in which case your kid will get beaten up for almost no reason anyway.

But plenty of parents are addicted to TikTok as well. In which case, wouldn't surprise me if they think the kid needs it too.

Everyone's pro-democracy until people go "hey maybe allowing a few mega corporations to profit off of addicting everyone to dopamine feeds is actually bad for society."

The biggest con economists ever pulled was to model people as "rational actors" and then generate an entire worldview off of "if everyone acts in their rational self-interest then this works great."

People are almost fundamentally irrational. People are guided by emotion and superstition and a bunch of weird shit that makes it easy for them to get addicted to things that have little to no societal value. If not a government, what force should counter balance that?

I'll choose the one that can't come after me with guns

I'll choose the one that I can at least vote out.

I'll choose the one I can get rid of at will without even having to vote

If you've found a way to participate in society without being constantly surveilled by private companies who frequently leak your most personal information, I'm all ears.

Don’t forget chickens eat bugs that eat things dosed in pesticides

The first sentence has almost no meaning. Basically anyone who has a 401k or SP500/VOO/etc owns significant amount of Apple stock. Not something worth pointing out.

There exists a world outside the USA bud.

But why? Do you also hide your speedometer when using cruise control?

No, but the ratio of data I use to data available per billing period, coupled with excellent coverage, meant being on data vs wifi made no difference whatsoever. It served absolutely no purpose.

Same with the battery icon. When you plug in your phone every night, but the battery lasts 2-3 days, knowing you're at 80% vs 72% has no purpose.

Why have them there if all they do is contribute to anxiety (why did I lose 3% faster?) and take up space in the top bar (where alarm and DND indicators live)?