It's difficult to argue with anything put forward in this recent 18-minute TED talk by Scott Galloway.

Just this week, the St Johns County Board of Commissioners disapproved a 288 unit affordable housing project in Florida's highest-median income county. The reason?

Traffic.

Listen to this TED Talk and hear the same thing.

It's the same reason they refuse higher-density zoning.

On the other hand, Florida has enacted a social media ban for children under 14. I support it, but I don't know how it's going to be enforced. I also agree with those that say it ought to be up to age 16.

Frankly, I'd be fine with banning all ad-supported social media. If you want to be "social" online, pay a monthly cover charge. No "free" social media. Comments on web sites? Pay to post. No ads.

Maybe if we just banned advertising online, we could solve a number of society's problems. Advertising limited to "broadcast" media like print, radio and television. No targeting. No direct mail or email. No spam anywhere.

How would our experience of the internet change without ads and ad-supported platforms? Free speech issue? Is commercial speech unregulated? It isn't.

Anyway, it's not going to happen. I've digressed.

And my sentiment analysis is at -.7!

Sorry to be such a downer.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 05:47 Thursday, 9 May 2024