In his new book Technical panic: Why we should not be afraid of Facebook and the future, Robbie Soav questions the conventional wisdom that social media poses an unprecedented threat to the well-being of American youth.
“I think there was a lot of panic about social media, which is disproportionate to the actual harm,” Souv said in episode 488 of Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast. “A lot of it is hyperbole; much of this is exaggerated. “
He says the current furor on social media is reminiscent of the way politicians have talked about video games such as Doom and Mortal Kombat back in the 90s. “Everything that was said about video games 20 years ago turned out to be wrong – they do not encourage violence, they do not turn young men into school shooters,” he said. “And I wonder if in 10 or 20 years we will look back on this moral panic in a similar way.”
Much has been done through the power of algorithms developed by Facebook and Google, which, according to Souve, recall an earlier panic over the dangers of subliminal advertising. “I like that when I’m on Facebook, I get it [ads for] Dungeons and dragons goods, not car ads, ”he says. “If I watch TV, I get car ads. I will not buy a car. It doesn’t matter to me. I wish I could scroll through them quickly. I see things on Facebook that I would actually like. This is a good thing. “
Technology companies are fueled across the political spectrum, with everyone from Donald Trump and Senator Josh Hawley to President Biden and Senator Elizabeth Warren calling for new regulations. Soave says it would be a huge mistake to allow politicians to exercise too much power over one of America’s most innovative industries. “Maybe for a lot of people they say, ‘Well, if everyone in government wants that, that means it’s right,’ while I go the other way – if everyone wants that, it’s definitely bad,” he said.
Listen to the full interview with Robbie Soav in Episode 488 of Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy (above). And see some highlights from the discussion below.
Robbie Soav on Dungeons and dragons:
“At the moment I am [dungeon mastering] two groups, and I play in the third, although this one is over and I think they will raise my character to another group. So there is a lot of overlap between my different worlds and characters. It’s so much fun … Since I write for a libertarian magazine, my main group is very libertarian in style of play. The other group drives a little to the right. The main difference I’ve noticed is that the group on the right loves the battle and kills everything it encounters, and kills the characters it makes up, while libertarians want to talk their way – or exchange things – from every situation. They will avoid battle at all costs. “
Robbie Soav on the culture of cancellation:
I’ve written a lot about cases of what people call a “culture of revocation,” of people being attacked or criticized for writing something or doing something that may be callous or offensive in some way, but not killed someone – this should not be the end of their lives … This is very strange, especially for the progressive left, who often believe in the reform of criminal justice, which is something I support – the idea that former prisoners should be able to they live normal lives and they should be able to find work again and you don’t have to ask them about their prison status – you can be forgiven. Which I totally agree with, but then someone who said something maybe racist when they were 15 and you found a tweet should never be hired again? That doesn’t make sense to me. “
Robbie Soav in the media:
“Indeed, the villain in my book is actually her main medium New York Times more specifically … You can go back in time and any invention, especially in the space of communication, you can find them absolutely panicked by this … But it makes sense from an industry point of view, as many of these technologies were adopted by New York Times, from newspapers, as a competitor. “
Robbie Soave in Silicon Valley:
“Silicon Valley culture has become somewhat hostile to innovation and has forced people to leave [California]. My aim is to say this, let us not repeat this on a national level. The anti-technology rhetoric coming from everyone in Congress is so total. They refer to social media as Big Tobacco right now – we’ve heard that over and over again. But Big Tobacco has killed millions of people, and even the most serious allegations against Instagram, no one thinks it has killed hundreds of people. So that’s a funny comparison. This kind of hesitant anti-technological sentiment, coming from politicians and legislators, does not serve our country well, does not serve our society well and does not serve innovation well. “
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