Ah, social media. I’ve seen many posts, stories, and articles regarding social media addiction. It is one of the most widespread and well-known things in the 21st century. Since the begging of the century, social media has taken society to a whole new level. Some argue that it has a positive outcome. Others said it’s like a widespread wildfire and that our generation would become addicted. Despite all of this, this bill is on a whole new level, and I’m going to tell you why.

What is the Bill?

This bill suggests that parents could outright sue social media companies for up to $25,000 per violation because they are “harming children.” The bill is called Assembly Bill 2408, and they plan to implement it to children under 18 to prevent addiction. Interestingly, this won’t apply to streaming services, e-mail or text messaging.

Who came up with the Bill?

The Bill was suggested by the California State Assembly on Monday, May 13, 2022, and it was regarding social media concerns. It was recently announced so it doesn’t have too many voices and opinions that support or backlash against it. Note that this only applies to California, not the whole United States.

How did it arise and what does it mean to be addicted?

This is the definition of addiction stated by the California State Assembly:

“A preoccupation or obsession with, or withdrawal or difficulty to cease or reduce use of, a social media platform despite the user’s desire to cease or reduce that use (which) causes or contributes to physical, mental, emotional, developmental, or material harms to the user.”

They’re basically implying that social media could cause problems to one’s health and that they don’t have any leverage or control over it.

Just think about this for a second.

Bill co-author Jordan Cunningham (R-San Luis Obispo County), a member of the California State Assembly exercised that “The era of unfettered social experimentation on children is over and we will protect kids.” Supposedly, they mentioned that the bill must become law, no matter what.

The court also stated addiction rates among kids and teens, and how it’s getting out of control. Because of this, the California State Assembly decided to commit an unusual decision to allow parents to sue companies for children’s addiction.

Will this Bill work/alleviate social media concerns?

I understand the concept and intention of this bill, but I have no belief that this is going to become effective. In my opinion, this bill would just complicate things because there are so many imperfections and factors that determine “social media addiction.” It could be time spent, how it affects their brain, how it affects their life, etc. Plus, there are countless articles and blogs out there that can help alleviate the situation.

In other words, this bill won’t alleviate social media concerns because it would just hurt companies, cause confusion, and exploitation would occur. For example, a low-income parent could sue a company because they want the money. Many parents could sue companies just for the cash. In fact, it could increase social media usage so parents to sue companies more than anticipated. This is known as the cobra effect, and it’s proved that solutions to this actually make the problem worse.

Is this bill feasible and realistic?

This situation reminds me of one that happened at the beginning of the decade. It’s about YouTube and its terms of service. Near the end of 2019, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) sued YouTube for violating users’ privacy. Do you know what it was? Collecting data. Yep, COPPA argued that YouTube was collecting data through its algorithm and demanded millions of dollars in compensation. The situation was widespread, and many people argued against them. This bill is just like that one. It strives to hurt businesses and corporations in exchange for protecting children online. It just isn’t going to work out because of one main reason: exceptions.

There is another thing I would like to mention: that this also applies to adults’.

Studies have shown that adults are equally as addicted and stuck to their screens as kids, and there is no denying that.

Thus, this bill isn’t realistic because of its vagueness, and another solution must be found.

Will this bill hurt social media companies?

Yes, definitely. This bill will certainly hurt social media companies, even though they didn’t intend it. A company paying $25,000 in compensation is just absurd. No company, no matter their net worth, should be sued this much. As this doesn’t even mention the court and attorney fees. Who’s going to pay that? And how would the argument be committed? The company would have to prevent evidence backing up its claim, and they may not have that. Plus, the person suing the company would also have to go through a difficult process. The evidence would be complicated and there would be a lot of exceptions and regulations.

On the other hand, I will agree that social media companies try to harness the utmost attention as they can, by providing you with target ads, videos, and posts. But that doesn’t mean they are responsible for today’s addiction. It’s not the company that needs to change, it’s us.

So what are my thoughts/my ideas for a proposed solution?

In my opinion, this bill is completely unrealistic and problematic. As I discussed earlier, I understand what technology is doing to our society and generating. I truly do. But technology is a privilege, not a right. Our parents had the right to give us technology and for us to access social media. We learned and interpret things online. And while some people support it, others disagree. And I truly understand. But this is not the way to do it. It just isn’t.

So what are my ideas to resolve this issue?

I believe that we should teach children and our generations the dangers and consequences of technology before letting them scour social media. We should be discussing and promoting ways to utilize technology safely and effectively. Plus, the court system is very vague and isn’t very clear on what could be reported.

In conclusion, I felt very weirded out after reading this bill regarding social media usage. Instead of going through this confusion, teaching our kids and today’s generation is the best way to use social media to it’s greatest potential. Social media has net positives: we just need to use it correctly.

Works Cited

This is my second assignment in using Adobe Animate, and this time out task was to create a animation of our name! The short sequence would include our first name with the letters moving around, supposedly “bringing them to life.”

This project was a lot of fun, and I got a clearer insight and understanding of the mechanics and functions of the app.

Here as a mp4 file of my animation.

Here is another animation I made, just trying out different formats and animations sequences.

Thank you for reading and try giving Adobe Animate a try if you find this interesting!

This is an interesting assignment because I was asked to make a logo for a client. I have never done this before, so it was both challenging and exciting at the same time. I also got to know about Adobe Illustrator and how it’s used and its purpose. With that out of the way, here is a logo I made for my client.

Below is a PDF of my final logo.

My Logo

As I worked on this project, not only did I learn how to create a logo, but also how to use Adobe Illustrator. 

 My Client’s Requests

I created three logos, and I decided to explain my final product and how it fulfills my client’s expectations and suggestions. Among all my designs, this logo was the most interesting to me.

My “client” had a few suggestions and interests they’d like in their logo. Firstly, the logo was supposed to be in a shape with their initials on it. The logo would represent one of his hobbies and interests which were: hockey, skiing, running, going outside, science, sports, and science. Based on this, I decided to make a logo about snowboarding.

So How Did I Make My Logo?

Making a logo might seem difficult, but it’s not that hard once you get the hang of it. Obviously, people who are more artistic and open-minded about arts might have a head start, but it’s simple when following these steps.

First, think of the purpose of the logo? Who/what is it for? Second, sketch out your logo. You can scour the web to find designs you’d like. Consider the layout and design of your logo. After sketching, upload the image into Adobe Illustrator and click on image trace. Choose a setting you’d like, then expand and ungroup the parts. Play around with them by adjusting the thickness and adding colours and strokes. 

By adding various adjustments and altering certain parts, you can drastically change the outcome and bring the logo to life. Try out different settings and see which one works best for you.

Ending Thoughts

This project was actually quite enjoyable and different among other assignments, and even though I’m not an artist, I enjoyed using Adobe Illustrator to create designs. I would definitely recommend this project to anyone who is intereset in design, or would just like to try something new.