"companies would have to limit users to 30 minutes of use per day by default. Users would be allowed to choose their own time limits for daily and weekly use, but companies would have to reset that time limit to half an hour every single month, as well as providing 'conspicuous pop-up' displays at least once every 30 minutes showing how much time you have spent using a service in the past day, across all devices."

Ah good. I was hoping that legislators could find a way to make the internet far more annoying. They should ask the DMV and TSA for additional suggestions.

Maybe, just maybe we should hold users more responsible. If you're spending all day on Facebook, Twitter, etc. It's not a dark pattern that's keeping you there, it's your lack of self-discipline that keeping you glued to these sites/apps.

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.

As much as I normally hate it when people cry about "nanny state" laws, I really feel this is a nanny state law.

And it won't do anything. The people that are addicted to social media are just going to keep clicking "Next page" over and over. If anything, it'll make it worse, because each click is a skinner box on whether or not you'll see something fun and exciting.