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Comment by Funes- | Hacker News Reader

I'd love to see what a global ban for TikTok, WhatsApp, Instagram, YouTube, and X would look like. Even better: massive breakdown of iOS and Android installations. Just for a couple of weeks, then revert to the nightmarish status quo we live in. Now that would be an interesting experiment. The change in people's behavior would be palpable for those fourteen days, I bet. It'd be so much fun.

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Daniel Dennett was strong proponent of alternative information distribution mechanisms in case of internet goes down for everyone. We haven't even studied such scenarios.

I'm a strong proponent of alternative information distribution mechanisms within the Internet. An "anti-normie" kind of channel of information. Hell, up until the web 2.0 came along, the Internet was exactly that for the most part.

We got something similar with social interactions during covid lockdowns (if your country had those). Btw i feel like people would go literally MAD, I can see it when just WhatsApp crashses for just a couple hours (doesn't happen often but I remember people's reactions when it happened). You can get a feel of what it would do for yourself by getting a dumbphone and limiting yourself from accessing social media.

>You can get a feel of what it would do for yourself by getting a dumbphone and limiting yourself from accessing social media.

I already do that. It's the most alienating and pessimism-inducing thing. I'd just love to see a world where people aren't hunched over, staring at a screen for 90% of their waking life.

> It's the most alienating and pessimism-inducing thing

Not using a smart phone makes you feel like that?

Have you tried going to a classroom full of young adults like yourself in the last eight to ten years, without using one? I did, for years. You'll feel like there's no point in trying to socialize with anyone most of the time, as there's a huge barrier between them and yourself. Even when the phones aren't physically involved, people are way, way less social now than back then. Engaging in spontaneous conversations or interactions with people you aren't really familiar with is something that isn't seen in a positive light as much anymore. It's even panic-inducing or seen as ill-advised for many people, in environments that should be very conducive to such things, and safe for them to take place (college, for instance).

Ah, so it makes you feel like that because of the phone use and antisocial tendencies of others. That makes sense.

I'm truly worried for us.

I'm haven't been in the young adult category for a few years now :)

What you describe fills me with really bad feelings. I truly feel bad for all that the younger generations are missing, and what we're losing as a species.

I'm still holding out hope that we'll see a bit of a social antibody reaction to the corporate takeover of the social sphere. I see some hope amongst younger folks, but it's pretty dire, and your descriptions make me less hopeful.

Tech is fun to play with, sure, but if the cost is that we lose our humanity when in each others presence - well I'd rather throw most of it in the trash. We're unconsciously throwing away much of what it means to be human - and all for the sake of some corporate profit. It's like a social suicide.

People would just switch to a different service.

I have trouble lumping those 5 services together. Maybe its something to do with me being a middle-age American male?

Instagram/X/TikTok: Hot garbage. Good riddance. Ban them and this country is a better place.

Whatsapp/YouTube: Actually quite useful. The former for real-time global communications. The latter for visual how-to's of all kinds (bicycles, home maintenance).

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