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Social Media is a Net Negative to the World

cactusflinthead

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Junior Miller

Junior Miller 1,502

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21 hours ago, Prepuce of Doom said:

In my personal opinion and experience, the Internet peaked at the time when there was a niche message board for whatever people were into, but before the rise of giant, aggregated social media conglomerates like MyFace, SpaceBook, Twitter, etc. 

This is true. There's a line of demarcation starting around 2010 when things started going off the rails in many facets of democratic societies around the globe and I think most of that has to do with the rise of Facebook and Twitter. Just 11 years ago we hit a major economic crisis in the US and the hatred, angst, anxiety, and division wasn't anywhere near where it is today where we've been in a decade long bull market. 

Stories like Bamachick where her family is being stressed in a major way because one or more members are being brainwashed by right wing social media propaganda is becoming extremely common. Rates of teenage depression, suicide, and mutilation have risen steadily since 2010 especially amongst females who tend to bully each other less in physical ways like boys do but more in social exclusion that is magnified greatly by social media platforms. 

Bottom line is humans in 2019 are not equipped to properly handle the responsibility that comes with this type of communication power. Message boards have existed since the late 90s and there weren't really any noticeable ill effects on society until Facebook and Twitter came along and combined with smartphones coming to prominence in 2009 - 2010. That combination I believe is more dangerous to our society now than drugs, alcoholism, or pretty much any other negative factor we face. I think it's the foundation root ssue that exacerbates a ton of the other problems that we have and makes them a whole lot worse. I wouldn't mind seeing Facebook and Twitter and anything like that banned until we can figure out how to put proper governors on them to where this type of garbage doesn't happen. 

What we're finding out is that 100% free speech comes at a major major cost to the civility of a society where technology allows for a level of communication that is beyond anything we've experienced before. 

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cactusflinthead

cactusflinthead 27,626

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11 hours ago, High Plains Drifter said:

Sure.

But the OP was "Net negative". Meaning more bad than good. Some good stuff, lots more bad stuff= Net negative.

 

Destroying democracy and enabling white supremacists vs looking at pics of grandkids and bitching about _odd _rlando.

 

 

You know I love you guys (with a few exceptions) but if melting the facetron and twitter and 4 chan servers meant also melting surly's servers, I'd take that deal.

That's the trade. This all started as a flimsy premise on the little ticket. 

Twitterville is nothing compared to all the vileness that exists. 

But, a net negative overall?

Not sure. 

Most of the research is from the mental health angle. They don't take into account the economic or political results. 

Is a teenager that was subjected to advertising that prompted smoking in the 30s better off? Our grandmothers had to break out the wallet of pictures to brag instead of posting it on her wall. But, they were no less envious of their peers. 

The idiots will always be with us. They wrote barely legible screeds and sent them to Hank Aaron. By the bushel basket. Kaep can block haters. Which is worse? Not that they are equivalent in stature, but who else in recent history of sports has been the subject of such political vitriol? 

Anyhow here's a nickel's worth of looking around. 

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20180104-is-social-media-bad-for-you-the-evidence-and-the-unknowns

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Jhawkmvp

Jhawkmvp 1,514

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Poll from AP/Norc/USAFacts says social media is the most popular source of daily government information:

Quote

Many Americans say they rely on government websites, as well as news sources and social media, to get information. In total, 54% say they get information about the government from social media at least once a day, 52% say that about local TV news, 50% from national TV news networks and 47% from cable news. About 6 in 10 also say they have used government websites to look up information.

And yet, poll found widespread skepticism about these sources — majorities say they have little to no confidence in information they get about the government from social media, the president, members of Congress and businesses.

Other highlights:

Quote

A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and USAFacts finds that regardless of political belief, many Americans say they have a hard time figuring out if information is true. Nearly two-thirds of Americans say they often come across one-sided information and about 6 in 10 say they regularly see conflicting reports about the same set of facts from different sources.

...

Democrats are more likely to say they rely on scientists and academics, while Republicans are more likely to trust what they hear from President Donald Trump.

...

Republicans are more likely than Democrats to put a great deal of trust in the president’s statements, 40% to 5%. Overall, a majority of Americans (61%) have little to no trust in information about the government when it comes from Trump,

Corra said he distrusts academics as too “liberal" and he's not alone in that regard among Republicans. More Democrats than Republicans say they consider something to be factual if it’s been verified by scientists — 72% versus 40% — as well as academics — 57% versus 30%.

 

 

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Al Bundy's Napoleon Hand

Al Bundy's Napoleon Hand 13,622

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(Probably drunk) former co-worker decides he wants to comment on one of my 5 week old Beto posts on FB. Rages on free healthcare for immigrants, abortion, think there was a "do you have faith" question mixed in there. Gets embarrassed, deletes all posts. So now there's me responding to and quoting no one on a 5 week old post of mine. So I got that going for me....

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Helobious

Helobious 9,794

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I don't have facebook because I'm not 50 years old. Everyone I know that's my age or younger either doesn't have it or doesn't use it much. Twitter, instagram, and snapchat are the big 3 for young folks. I just have instagram and snapchat, the 2 best ones IMO because they're the 2 where opinions get shared the least. Also, tons of babes. Will be interesting to see how things change if instagram fully moves forward with their idea of hiding likes. The idea being that people will just post things to share a social experience instead of competing for likes. 

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Onboard 2.0

Onboard 2.0 9,083

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15 hours ago, Biff Tannen said:

 

Counter counter point: 

There's enough free pron out there that we don't need the social media version of boobs also.  *ducks

True, No need having the wife pissed at you for the boob pics or porn snippets in your social media feed.  Had to tell a guy to take me off his messenger group cause he kept sending porn out to everyone on his friends list.  I don't hide what I look at on social media from my wife, and don't want to have to start.

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Hornius Emeritus

Hornius Emeritus 12,794

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This is sort of interesting. My Twitter feed has been growing on average by about 130 followers per day (3500 over the last 28 days)  However, this morning, I realized that I had roughly 200 fewer followers than I did yesterday morning at the same time.  I couldn't figure out why.  Then I realized that Twitter must have gone on a bot removal spree and that some of those who had followed Traces of Texas must have been bots. As far as I can tell, they were all MAGA bots.

I have seen no such reductions on Facebook.  That may be because the number of followers that I have is so large that I lose 80-90 followers per day just from people who close their Facebook accounts, so if I did lose a large number in one fell stroke I might not notice it.

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StruggleBus

StruggleBus 3,922

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On 11/13/2019 at 10:17 PM, F250 said:

My teenager dropped that line on me several times last week.

I told him "Gen-X not boomer!" to which he replied, "Ok, Boomer."

Finally I texted him, "Do you want to know how I impregnated your mom with you?"

I haven't heard "Ok, Boomer" since.

 

“I stuck it in her ass and somehow you’re here, son”

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Longhorn_Fan68

Longhorn_Fan68 34,100

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I dunno, sometimes social media sheds light on things MSM would never cover, or in this case, amplify things that the MSM has put out. This might be one example. I mean, $55k (or whatever the amount was) is chump change, but Toyota donating to the scum that voted to decertify the election has caused them WAY more harm than good. Funny thing is, watch MAGATs go out and buy Toyotas to own the libs. But also, BUY MURICAN! Or some shit.

 

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atomheartbevo

atomheartbevo 90,606

Posted
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9 hours ago, Mrs Whiggins said:

Up is down. Down is up.

 

I hate dealing with YouTube, but we need a lot more context about the videos in question. I've helped friends deal with YouTube issues in the past, and have had a YouTube channel for years ( low traffic, but enough to where I've had my issues), and these types of things were never as simple as they sounded.  They've also been making a lot of changes.

I recently had an acquaintance nearly lose his channel that went back years, with hundreds of videos of him (probably over a thousand), because some fucking reaction dipshit in another country did a reaction video for one of said acquaintance's videos, then claimed the video through the automated DMCA's tools (even though the acquaintance's video had him visibly in it and was years older than the reaction video).  YouTube was going to take this guy's YouTube channel away from him completely, because of one claim by some dipshit in another country.

And that case is ironic as hell, because YouTube has been cracking down on certain reaction videos. In short, YouTube is shit when it comes to this stuff.

RWW could have been running longer clips from right-wing people/groups who would then turn around and (legitimately) claim DMCA issues (you can get away with shorter clips under fair-use).  RWW could have been running videos that violated the guidelines.  There's so many things, and following some of the RWW people on twitter, they could have simply picked the wrong hill to die upon.

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Captainant

Captainant 28,477

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13 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

I hate dealing with YouTube, but we need a lot more context about the videos in question. I've helped friends deal with YouTube issues in the past, and have had a YouTube channel for years ( low traffic, but enough to where I've had my issues), and these types of things were never as simple as they sounded.  They've also been making a lot of changes.

I recently had an acquaintance nearly lose his channel that went back years, with hundreds of videos of him (probably over a thousand), because some fucking reaction dipshit in another country did a reaction video for one of said acquaintance's videos, then claimed the video through the automated DMCA's tools (even though the acquaintance's video had him visibly in it and was years older than the reaction video).  YouTube was going to take this guy's YouTube channel away from him completely, because of one claim by some dipshit in another country.

And that case is ironic as hell, because YouTube has been cracking down on certain reaction videos. In short, YouTube is shit when it comes to this stuff.

RWW could have been running longer clips from right-wing people/groups who would then turn around and (legitimately) claim DMCA issues (you can get away with shorter clips under fair-use).  RWW could have been running videos that violated the guidelines.  There's so many things, and following some of the RWW people on twitter, they could have simply picked the wrong hill to die upon.

update: NBC News: YouTube reinstates channel devoted to exposing conservative extremism

it's just classic YouTube being YouTube. Automated controls take out channel that did nothing wrong, YT ignores it until it becomes bad press, YT fixes it.

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atomheartbevo

atomheartbevo 90,606

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2 minutes ago, Captainant said:

update: NBC News: YouTube reinstates channel devoted to exposing conservative extremism

it's just classic YouTube being YouTube. Automated controls take out channel that did nothing wrong, YT ignores it until it becomes bad press, YT fixes it.

That was exactly what happened to the acquaintance of mine - he got similar emails, and he didn't get to talk to an actual YT employee until a shit-ton of his viewers bitched and raised a social media fuss.

The changes/algorithms they've implemented recently caused a lot of problems for a lot of people.  In addition to the person I mentioned above, one of the old-school sci-fi channels I follow had a theme song they used in every video (over 300 videos), that they had explicit permission to use, and the automated software from a record company nailed them last month, and YT told them to take the music out of every video or lose all videos and their channel. They could not get an actual person at YT to review their case until they raised social media hell.

If you follow a lot of YT channels, and you see some moving to Patron/elsewhere, this is exactly why.   I keep expecting folks like Rick Beato and Ian at Forgotten Weapons to take their videos elsewhere, because they've had a lot of problems with YT.

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Captainant

Captainant 28,477

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50 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

I keep expecting folks like Rick Beato and Ian at Forgotten Weapons to take their videos elsewhere

Lmao Ian has been talking about fullautotv for ages. It's weird though, demo ranch doesn't seem to have the same sorts of problems, despite being a more rowdy gun channel

YouTube is a victim of googles shitty lifecycle maintenance of features in their products

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Nolacycling

Nolacycling 893

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Something I feel the internet is good for is finding its way into places that don't have open, free speech and then exposes the populace to the world. Sure, there's Karen videos and cats doing shit, but those don't exist in many places. Anything that encourages a little burkha-wearer to explore places where they have a choice to wear one is good.

It's sort of a Radio Free America thing.

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Goredho

Goredho 17,640

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Social media is just a mechanism allowing people to share their thoughts far and wide under some guise of anonymity.  Ergo, it’s we who are the net negative to the world.

*takes a massive bong hit*
 

That’ll be $9.95.

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atomheartbevo

atomheartbevo 90,606

Posted
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50 minutes ago, Captainant said:

Lmao Ian has been talking about fullautotv for ages. It's weird though, demo ranch doesn't seem to have the same sorts of problems, despite being a more rowdy gun channel

YouTube is a victim of googles shitty lifecycle maintenance of features in their products

He put up a YT video two days ago, and it already has 400,000 views.  That's why he's sticking with YT for the time being.  That, and his videos have almost 900 million views on there.  The InRange stuff he helped start can get kooky when they get people who are not camera-friendly on there (and it wouldn't surprise me if InRange is under the other guy's name, so that if FW got nailed, IR would continue, and vice versa).  My impression is that he's doing quite well with Patron and in-video ads (that YT doesn't get a cut of), and his shows are another platform for selling his books.

He actually keeps things neutral politically unlike a lot of other guntubers, is an actual mechanical engineer who does a lot of research and knows what he's talking about, and seems like he'd be a perfect fit for things like YT, but I think the problems he's had relate to some of the historical war-related firearms he's featured, and they get swept up in the algorithms.  It could be as simple as when voices are converted to text for CC, and some algorithm picked up X amount of key words within one video.

That could have easily happened to the RWW folks as well - in the process of documenting something, they get flagged because the computers think they are pushing it or something.

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Judge Roybeanbag

Judge Roybeanbag 11,860

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7 minutes ago, crash_davis said:

I'll just leave this here. People are fucking idiots. 

https://www.reddit.com/r/Cringetopia/

I've actually come to like and respect you a lot over the past 6 months.  Not in a biblical sense, and not that your really should even care, but I'll be damned if you don't make a lot of sense these days.

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RDCanecutter

RDCanecutter 26,863

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Social media is great if you use it to broadcast but never receive. Don't have push notifications on any device that you carry. Just ignore shit. Unless they want to buy something you have for sale. In that case, the algorithms start prioritizing people who might buy stuff. I know for a fact that some of my old friends are dumb as dirt and probably Qtards, but I never read their stuff and I don't think it even appears in my feed anymore.

Which is moot, because I almost never check my feed.

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crash_davis

crash_davis 23,468

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social media amplified one of man's worst traits: insecurity and with it the need for validation.

it's' a vicious circle. the people whom i know post like mad on social media are insecure as hell. when their posts do not get the numbers of likes they are expecting, they get sad and more insecure. then they feel the need to post another video so that maybe this time they can get that validation. it's like their self worth has become a repeated test to validate their self worth. in zen speak, the harder they try to hold it, the more it slips from their hands.

we are seeing mental illness and cries for help disguised in tictoks and tweets.

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Longhorn_Fan68

Longhorn_Fan68 34,100

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I think it's worth noting that the people have trouble with SM are ones that were alive before its inception. The newer generations do not seem to be as gullible and susceptible to misinformation as people older than them. So really, this is a problem with Gen X and back. Seems like it might not be such problem in a decade or two. That does assume there is even a society to participate in 20 years down the road.

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Brisketexan

Brisketexan 106,849

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I think it's worth noting that the people have trouble with SM are ones that were alive before its inception. The newer generations do not seem to be as gullible and susceptible to misinformation as people older than them. So really, this is a problem with Gen X and back. Seems like it might not be such problem in a decade or two. That does assume there is even a society to participate in 20 years down the road.

Definitely some of this. When it comes to SM, the younger folks have a much stronger bullshit detector for SM bullshit.
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UpperWestside

UpperWestside 6,268

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We need a class taught in high school, a REQUIRED CLASS mind you, on social media. There are already classes available in college for this. Social media is a force that has mostly caused a decline in the psyche of the average person which is suboptimal to say the least. 

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Anastasis

Anastasis 23,711

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16 minutes ago, UpperWestside said:

We need a class taught in high school, a REQUIRED CLASS mind you, on social media. There are already classes available in college for this. Social media is a force that has mostly caused a decline in the psyche of the average person which is suboptimal to say the least. 

Would love to watch the reaction on the kids face while some 50 year old teaches them about social media. 
 

This is one of those ideas that you nod you head at instinctively and then the implementation is totally non productive if not counterproductive. 

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UpperWestside

UpperWestside 6,268

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Just now, Anastasis said:

Would love to watch the reaction on the kids face while some 50 year old teaches them about social media. 
 

This is one of those ideas that you nod you head at instinctively and then the implementation is totally non productive if not counterproductive. 

Yeah it would need to be taught by someone younger. Not that it has not also had a detrimental effect on the young as well as the olds. Younger social media users are having their view of reality skewed by living a life based on likes of pictures and posts. No one segment of the population on social media has been spared by the effects it has unleashed on our population.

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Goredho

Goredho 17,640

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51 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

Would love to watch the reaction on the kids face while some 50 year old teaches them about social media. 
 

This is one of those ideas that you nod you head at instinctively and then the implementation is totally non productive if not counterproductive. 

If Nancy Reagan can end teen drug experimentation with “JUST SAY NO”, why not this?

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