Proposed US law would ban infinite scroll, autoplaying video (opens in new tab)

while i am not convinced this law would do anything useful given that there is plenty of other low hanging fruit for the government to address, i don't think this is a good response. for things that maliciously target human behavior and emotion, you can't just say "oh, use self-discipline" or "just stop". human behavior simply doesn't work that way. addictions are real. i call this type of targeting "emotional hacking", and it has become all too prevalent in the form of advertising, loot boxes, subscription-based purchases, and in pretty every form of media.

i think we have probably vastly underestimated the negative effect of social media and various other media addictions, especially in the development of children and teenagers.

for some time now, human technological development has outpaced and surpassed social and behavioral development, and this is obviously a real problem. the only way to handle it is to limit technology.

Although I'm not in favour of the law, why not both? After a certain point it begins hard to blame people for being susceptible for the patterns engineered by the professional psychologists companies hire to do their advertising and draw up their reward models. To lump it all on self-discipline is only once removed from linking, say, drug addiction to a matter of mere self-discipline.