KM sent me this link to an article by Ezra Klein in The New York Times. “When I read it,” she wrote, “I thought of you and the email conversation we had about the assumptions behind those we use for sources. How can we find any source that will validate our thinking? This is another interesting take on it that I’d love to hear your reaction to. I found it very interesting.”
I read the article and I think Klein is largely correct in all regards.
He correctly identifies the chief problems with social media (as I have seen them as an industry insider). He has identified the most popular “solutions” that are being put forward by various consumer advocacy groups, industry spokespeople, and politicians. And, to his credit, he doesn’t shy away from raising the philosophical difficulties in trying to solve them.
I agree, too, with the point he makes toward the end of the essay: Other than general, categorical, common-sense restrictions for children, which can easily be done without any civil rights problems, trying to police content fed to adults is and will always be seriously problematic.
Check it out and let me know what you think.
