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Posted by thm 15 hours ago

TikTok's 'addictive design' found to be illegal in Europe(www.nytimes.com)
592 points | 427 commentspage 3
jcynix 12 hours ago|
Here's a reading and listening tip for handling social media addiction:

Frank Possemato: How to Live an Analog Life in a Digital World: A Workbook for Living Soulfully in an Age of Overload

How to live an analog life in a digital world | Frank Possemato | TEDxBU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEMffdUgWCk

He does not say stop everything, but instead offers realistic tips to reduce one's dependency, e.g. he suggests to take breakes and training to stay offline for certain intervals (e.g. half an hour, or an hour)

ineedaj0b 7 hours ago||
Had they invented Ice Cream in the 2020s, lawmakers of Europe would find it illegal for it's addictive properties. They'd also decree a universal milk fat percentage, perhaps even a law calling dairy farming slavery.

Anything but be competitive

Havoc 8 hours ago||
The trick bit is that addiction and showing people what they want to see are near indistinguishable. It's optimizing for same thing basically and don't think it'll be possible to legislate a clear distinction
Barrin92 7 hours ago|
There's a big difference between healthy wants and addiction. The latter involves compulsion and craving. The clearest sign anyone is addicted to something is that they use something precisely when even they don't want to.

I'd even say it's orthogonal to the content and what someone wants to see. You can design an app full of crap that's addictive purely because of its reward mechanisms, and on the other hand you can design something that discourages addiction while having high quality content, it's not optimizing for the same thing. People get addicted to mechanisms, not to content, the same way you can enjoy a nice scotch but the addict goes for the five dollar handle of vodka. The latter doesn't want the vodka, he wants the alcohol.

Addiction in many ways erodes genuine higher-order wants and only leaves stimulation. I'd not be surprised if people who watch 8 hours of TikTok a day don't even care what they watch any more.

delichon 13 hours ago||
I use X almost entirely from the desktop where I have an extension installed that lets me whitelist my follows, and see nothing else. I recently browsed the same feed on mobile ... and it was entirely different! I think I spent a half hour and saw zero content from my follows, just one ticktok style video after another. For those who find these services without value, I now understand. But I feel revolted rather than addicted. Will I now experience a mysterious compulsion to view the naked feed?
Aurornis 13 hours ago|
> I recently browsed the same feed on mobile ... and it was entirely different! I think I spent a half hour and saw zero content from my follows

At the top of the mobile app there’s a “For You” tab and a “Following” tab. You must have been on the “For You” tab.

Switch to the “Following” tab.

If you start scrolling the “For You” tab and do it for half an hour straight, you’re basically signaling that this the content you wanted to see and will continue getting more of it.

johnhamlin 8 hours ago||
Imagine having a government that demands a company like TikTok stop abusing its users instead of checks notes forcing its sale to your cronies so you can silence your critics. Must be nice.
tock 8 hours ago||
I think algorithmic content recommendations must be banned from social media. Its too powerful wrt influencing the masses. People should go back to just seeing content from their friends.
crazygringo 12 hours ago||
> On Friday, the regulators released a preliminary decision that TikTok’s infinite scroll, auto-play features and recommendation algorithm amount to an “addictive design” that violated European Union laws for online safety.

How is this any different from Reddit? From Instagram? Why single out TikTok?

Applying laws unevenly is a form of discrimination.

uriahlight 12 hours ago||
Europeans really need to get their heads out of their butts. Their solution to every problem is nanny state regulation.
Ylpertnodi 11 hours ago||
> Europeans really need to....

Which country, or countries are you talking about? Are you including the UK?

Unlike the States, with one language, we have many.

thinkingtoilet 12 hours ago|||
What's your solution to the current problem? Because the free market ain't working.
coredev_ 10 hours ago||
Nah man, I'm glad for you that you live in country X where you do Y instead, but at the same time as an European I'm pretty satisfied regulating big shitty companies
davidmurdoch 12 hours ago||
What other instances of "we did our job as little too well" are there?

I can think of tabacco and other drugs, but that's not really the same. Monopolistic behavior doesn't really fit either. Maybe Kleenex marketing doing so well their name became interchangeable with the word "tissue"?

islandfox100 12 hours ago||
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperpalatable_food , One could argue about the plastic usage of the Coca-Cola company, etc
davidmurdoch 12 hours ago||
Good call. Maybe the US needs a food score system on the label like they have in some European countries. Obviously that system has it's flaws though
sensanaty 2 hours ago||
The EU (Maybe it's only Dutch, not 100% sure) food score system is completely idiotic since it applies to products within the same food category only, but it's not really explicitly spelled out anywhere that that's the case and as far as I know there's not even a reliable way of knowing what product falls into what category (e.g. is a freezer pizza in the same category as potato chips/snacks, or is it a baked good?), or even how they came to the score at all. So a bag of chips, a 4 cheese pizza and a head of lettuce can all have an "A" grade, with nothing to indicate what that actually means.

I'm amazed at how many people, even now after a decade of this system being in place, get confused about why a bag of chips is apparently an A. It's very misleading IMO and not very useful for conveying info, that's what the ingredient list is for tbh.

seydor 9 hours ago||
Condoms or contraceptives (if they correlate with the drop of fertility
heyheyhouhou 13 hours ago|
They should do the same with Instagram and Youtube shorts... but wait, they are not chinese, they are allowed to mine us...
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