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Twitter's Plan to Help Young People Not Get Too Overwhelmed by Bad News Doesn't Go Far Enough

posted by on Friday June 02 2017, @04:19PM   
from the switch-off dept.

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

When we consider how much time young people spend on social media, negative news content may have a bad impact. And those already psychologically vulnerable may be particularly susceptible to the ill effects of a constant stream of negative news. This is because stress responses are often accentuated in those already suffering from symptoms of anxiety, depression and other mental illnesses.

So, it is encouraging to see some technology companies proactively showing concern about their users' mental health. For example, Twitter is teaming up with the youth mental health organisation ReachOut to provide resources to help young people learn about the possible negative impacts of social media, so they won't be overly consumed by it and know how to cope if they are.

This is a good start – Twitter is making more information available. But it can do more, and Twitter shouldn't be the only one doing it.

Yes, I'm certain this is exactly what is needed. Much better idea than shutting your Twitter app.

Source: The Conversation

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Original Submission

• children shouldn't be on the internet children shouldn't be on the internet (Score: 3, Interesting) by a-zA-Z0-9$_.+!*'(),- on Friday June 02 2017, @05:18PM (3 children)

  by a-zA-Z0-9$_.+!*'(),- (3868) on Friday June 02 2017, @05:18PM (#519454)

  Like back in the '90s and '00s the internet was correctly portrayed as a haven for crime and evil - a Mos Eisley spaceport of villainy. That hasn't changed even if everyone has decided to slap some smiley faces on it to make some money along the way. Children aren't supposed to watch movies unsupervised, or television, and the internet is everything bad TV and Movies could offer times 1,000 on acid.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_F2sfMm-ynU [youtube.com]

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  https://newrepublic.com/article/114112/anonymouth-linguistic-tool-might-have-helped-jk-rowling

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• Re:children shouldn't be on the internet (Score: 2) by kaszz on Friday June 02 2017, @05:56PM

  by kaszz (4211) on Friday June 02 2017, @05:56PM (#519476) Journal

  People that can't let go of the bad parts of town will not do so on the internet either. It's a human problem not a technological one.

  Parent

• Re:children shouldn't be on the internet Re:children shouldn't be on the internet (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 03 2017, @12:05AM (1 child)

  by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 03 2017, @12:05AM (#519644)

  Children aren't supposed to watch movies unsupervised, or television, and the internet is everything bad TV and Movies could offer times 1,000 on acid.

  Inherent in your complaint is the assumption that nothing can make it better. Well, any parent can tell you that is OK to let their children watch the PBS Kids channel unsupervised. That you can let them watch a G-rated movie unsupervised too. There is no reason that all the billions of dollars in tech can't improve the situation for internet users too.

  Besides this isn't really about seeing extreme things on the net. This is about seeing too many shit-quality things and not enough high-quality things.

  Parent

  • Re:children shouldn't be on the internet (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 03 2017, @05:39AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 03 2017, @05:39AM (#519744)

    "There is no reason that all the billions of dollars in tech can't improve the situation for internet users too."

    .
    .
    .

    You are a soft-brained cunt and for the sake of humanity I sincerely hope you get terminal cancer soon.

    Parent