Post

My hottest “I have no data to back this up” take is that phones aren’t making young people less happy. What’s making them less happy is living in a world where everyone is having their reality defined by recommendation algorithms that can only care about whether something keeps you watching.

I’m working on a post that talks about the three pillars of the new social contract. Plutonomy (if you are already at the top things are good), extractive relationships (enshittification, employers as private abusive governments), and (vaguely) social relationships being no longer grounded in space.

I’m sure the algorithm(TM) isn’t helping, but I don’t think young people are literally gambling away their future because their phones told them to. Of course I have my work cut out for me to make the case for this new social contract idea. It’s also anglophone/US centric might not be universal.

1 repost2 likes

No replies yet.