Social media is a public health emergency
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London: Do you know what will eventually do in social media? The health issue: it’s killing us, mind and body. As I predicted that on Sky News the other day, it occurred to me that, in a previous decade I would’ve said it with a cigarette on the go, the interviewer pausing to offer me a light.
But just as health scares stopped smoking in public, so social media will eventually become a taboo, even a matter for state regulation. I for one will be very happy. I wish we could uninvent it altogether.
Not a week goes by without another story of its deficiencies. Mark Zuckerberg is as responsible for what’s posted on his site as I would be for permitting racist haikus to be painted on my roof, and it’s time to stop passing the buck.
Facebook: Is it a health issue?
Photo: AP
We’ve had the conversation about how individual users need to learn to be nicer online and, thanks to other legal actions, we’re slowly getting there – but there will always be extremists, fake news and frauds, and these platforms ought to have found a better way of weeding them out by now.
They insist they’re trying their best and that it’s awfully hard – but as Mr Lewis says, their business model militates against doing what it takes. He’s right. Why wouldn’t these sites want to stick to a Wild West model that keeps costs low while maximising profit?
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