Global political trends spread like wildfire these days, and now several European countries, including Finland, are following Australia and looking at introducing social media bans for kids. Australia enacted the ban for under 16s, and Finland is looking at under 15s. While I reckon that this isn't actually going to work too well, I think that the sentiment is in the right direction, where the understanding that social media is a scourge on humanity is growing. Yes, it is bad for children, but I reckon in its current mainstream form, it is bad for everyone. Even the people making money from being on it.

There seems to be a correlation between the amount of time someone spends on social media, and the degradation of their mental and physical state. There is probably a study on it, but I can't be bothered looking for one, so I will just go with my feeling on the matter. Feelings are all that matter anyway, right?

Anyways, while I think it would be healthy for children to be kept off social media, I also think that it would be healthy for them to be off the majority of digital media, including TV shows and games, at least in the formative years through to about the age of five. Up to that point, they should be building their fundamental tactile skills, as well as their socialisation skills with other children. After that, then a slow introduction into some media could happen, but it should be far, far less than it is for most kids today.

But, kids aside, I wonder what would happen if say for the next five years, all mainstream social media where algorithms push content and users are incentivised by centralised mechanisms disappeared. What would it look like if the only social media was like Hive, decentralised, human-driven? What would it look like if the incentive to participate was that all the users were paid micro amounts in the same way as the creators, and the creators had to build for the audience, not for the algorithm.

I think it would be interesting.

And I reckon that over five years, there would be more creatives that are more diverse, but also a lot less viewers by time on site (ToS). Instead of doom scrolling through content in the hope for something interesting, consumers would spend time like they do here, with content and people they have connected with. But, this would also mean that they would spend less overall time consuming content, leaving them more likely to go out and do other things.

What if there was a streaming curfew?

For instance, what if it was only possible to watch 15 hours a week of streaming services like Netflix and Disney? That would be the equivalent of a movie a day, which if you think about it from the perspective of thirty years ago, is crazy. Two full days of work watching streaming content?

What if there was also a news media curfew?

No more than half an hour a day of news media, would mean that people would become more choosy with the news they follow, likely spending most of that time getting news that is relevant to them, rather than celebrity gossip. Or perhaps they would spend all the time on celebrity gossip.

Prohibition rarely works, but in today's world, neither does self-control. The way content is generated makes it compelling and endless, without offering much in return to the audience. Even the content that might be valuable, rarely seems to be consumed in a way that makes it functional, meaning it becomes valueless for the viewer. It just takes up time, and becomes a hanger for commercialisation.

Which is what all the mainstream social and news media comes down to anyway. It is all about commercialisation, regardless of the actual value it brings the audience. It is designed to make people feel like they are getting value from it, without actually changing the viewers behaviours into a more valuable direction. It is a scam. Even the news is "news" designed to generate outrage, which then generates more clicks and shares, more commentary on polarised conversations, and more time on site to drive commercialisation.

Maybe we should just ban it all.

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