Also, as someone who is younger and grew up with the “technology is ruining our kids” story…

There’s a difference between tech in general compared to tech during formative years. As a kid, tech was still gaming on the weekend and using a family computer. The computers at school were still old dinosaurs nobody used. My first typed project was when I was 12. My first phone was a graduation present for going to high school (I did have a phone since I was 9 for safety because I was actually kidnapped once, but couldn’t actually use it normally and it was a unique circumstance).

Meanwhile, kids are growing up with phones in their pockets and Chromebooks instead of paper. I think there’s a drastic difference between tech for teens/adults / tech that’s not in your pocket, and that.

Plus it’s super unregulated and being increasingly monetized. It’s not just a matter of using social media to watch dumb videos or catch up with friends, there’s now a highly trained algorithm that pushes for inflammatory material and engagement. I’m a woman who likes gaming and Reddit will recommend me some pretty shitty content because of that that I have to regularly mute (like r/asmonwhateverhisnameis) - I can recognize that content as bad and I’m a woman so sexism is a nice deterrent. Imagine if I was a teenage boy though… my algorithm is frustrating for me but could seriously fuck up a developing kid. Whereas even 5 years ago, r/popular and r/all were much more mixed and apolitical. Top videos were that guy who threw his phone in the air and landed on his nuts.