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Why the fuck are people allowed to use any apps on their work-issued phones, or bring personal devices into sensitive locations? That's what you do when you have real national security concerns, so any concern about this is misplaced. War-gaming military units (and probably some real ones, too) get killed by even indirectly-location-aware dating apps all the time (and that's data China can easily access from American apps).
Major tech companies buy up every startup that could compete with them to shut them down, utterly fail to come up with a competitive product, mad that China beat them and now possesses the network effect power they tried so hard to build up over the last 20ish years.
News at 11.
The US already abuses its financial infrastructure to target things its government doesn't like (Operation Choke Point) in both foreign and domestic markets. Sure, they don't directly jam Radio Moscow; but they're more than happy to make sure anyone who makes a radio capable of receiving the band on which they transmit can't get paid. I think that's the same thing in intent and consequence- it's only surprising now because this time it's more overt.
Social media is not doing any damage to children by itself. What it does do is amplify problems inherent to/emergent from how we treat them- so if high school is some highly-age-segregated hellscape where petty bullshit is the only thing that matters in life, social media means that its power structure comes home with you and follows you wherever you go. (This isn't unique to high schoolers; it's also why most people are aware of progressive thought despite not personally knowing anyone who is.)
It's not surprising most people just want to treat the symptom, or confuse the symptom for the root cause. (No shit they're mentally ill; we're actively causing it.) Hard to get someone to understand something when their socioeconomic standing is a reward for not understanding it.
How would you suggest we fix high school? Integrate different age groups or somehow force things other than social status to be popular?
It isn’t as easy as it seems.
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