Social media - love it or hate it

[Anonymous]

As long as I’m allowed to keep mailing lists and group chat apps, I’m good — I mostly use social media for these two functions just with easier picture sharing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As long as I’m allowed to keep mailing lists and group chat apps, I’m good — I mostly use social media for these two functions just with easier picture sharing.

Good to abolish it that is

[Anonymous]

I hate social media and I hate how society has ironically become anti social despite constant “access” to people this way.

Everything has declined since the proliferation of smart phones. Driving, communication, community, language, education, you name it. You can’t even talk to a person at most major companies anymore.

I’d love to have a glimpse 200 years into the future and see how things de/evolve very long term and what the consensus becomes regarding the current early days of this technology.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hate social media and I hate how society has ironically become anti social despite constant “access” to people this way.

Everything has declined since the proliferation of smart phones. Driving, communication, community, language, education, you name it. You can’t even talk to a person at most major companies anymore.

I’d love to have a glimpse 200 years into the future and see how things de/evolve very long term and what the consensus becomes regarding the current early days of this technology.

Curious what date you see the apex of humanity as? I’m assuming you don’t want to go back to 1924 but you seem pretty down on 2024 and the future too. I hate social media but I’m not sure I think everything has gotten worse in the last 20 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate social media and I hate how society has ironically become anti social despite constant “access” to people this way.

Everything has declined since the proliferation of smart phones. Driving, communication, community, language, education, you name it. You can’t even talk to a person at most major companies anymore.

I’d love to have a glimpse 200 years into the future and see how things de/evolve very long term and what the consensus becomes regarding the current early days of this technology.

Curious what date you see the apex of humanity as? I’m assuming you don’t want to go back to 1924 but you seem pretty down on 2024 and the future too. I hate social media but I’m not sure I think everything has gotten worse in the last 20 years.

DP. I agree that everything PP cited—driving, communication, community, language, education—has gotten worse since smartphones/social media became ubiquitous.

[Anonymous]

I hate social media for children and I hate social media as a vehicle for narcissists to brag and promote fake portrayals of themselves. OTOH, it's good in some ways for adults to keep in touch with each other, talk about common interests, and find interesting people you would not otherwise ever know.

[Anonymous]

It is horribly toxic and people don’t even realize it.

We would be better off without social media.

[Anonymous]

aside from doing my financial business, social media/internet is nothing but lies and convincing kids to do sinful things.

We as parents need to watch out for the kids. They have no idea how deadly the internet really is.

WEB OF LIES
I ain't just a crime show.

[Anonymous]

41 states are suing Instagram/ Meta over how harmful and addictive Social really is:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2023/10/24/meta-states-lawsuit-facebook-instagram-children/71300954007/


41 out of 50 states.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry:
We need to change certain aspect of social media, not throw it out.

It isn't social media that needs to change. Social media only reflects people. Change people and change social media. So it is parenting and friendships that need to be looked at.

Social media exploits the aspects of human behavior, and human impulses, in order to get users and engagement. You are not going to change the way people fundamentally are.

Example: the "like" function on social media was created specifically to exploit the way people get a little dopamine hit when they receive some form of personal validation. Social media companies figured this out early on and realized it would be a good way to get people to engage on their platforms more, stay for longer, and connect to more people. All of which serves the interest of social media companies, which is to gather as much data about users as possible.

You are NEVER going to somehow master this impulse in humans. It's innate. It's stronger in some people than in others, and there are individuals who can train themselves not to see likes as a form of validation, or to recognize it as an empty form of validation, but that's pretty rare. So if this aspect of social media negative impacts people (and it does, look at the research on teenage girls and Instagram, in particular) then the only way to remove that negative impact is to remove that aspect of social media.

The social media companies themselves know this, btw. Instagram actually played around with altering the like function specifically to try and address the negative impact it has on people, by making likes private (only the user could see both who liked a photo and how many people liked it) which would have a direct positive impact on teen girls and others who wind up measuring their social status and self-worth by comparing likes or looking to see who liked what. But this was around the time that Instagram lost it's independent leadership (it was owned by Meta already but for a time operated separately from Facebook) and these shifts were scrapped when Facebook took over, for what I think should be obvious reasons.

It would honestly not be that hard to create social media platforms that promoted connectivity without exploiting human insecurities and tendencies in a way that harmed people. But it would be less profitable, at least using the current profit model. Like you could have social media that discouraged scrolling and spending long periods of time on it, or where cyberstalking was basically impossible or at least harder to do. It is not in the companies' interest, even though it would be in ours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry:
We need to change certain aspect of social media, not throw it out.

It isn't social media that needs to change. Social media only reflects people. Change people and change social media. So it is parenting and friendships that need to be looked at.

Social media exploits the aspects of human behavior, and human impulses, in order to get users and engagement. You are not going to change the way people fundamentally are.

Example: the "like" function on social media was created specifically to exploit the way people get a little dopamine hit when they receive some form of personal validation. Social media companies figured this out early on and realized it would be a good way to get people to engage on their platforms more, stay for longer, and connect to more people. All of which serves the interest of social media companies, which is to gather as much data about users as possible.

You are NEVER going to somehow master this impulse in humans. It's innate. It's stronger in some people than in others, and there are individuals who can train themselves not to see likes as a form of validation, or to recognize it as an empty form of validation, but that's pretty rare. So if this aspect of social media negative impacts people (and it does, look at the research on teenage girls and Instagram, in particular) then the only way to remove that negative impact is to remove that aspect of social media.

The social media companies themselves know this, btw. Instagram actually played around with altering the like function specifically to try and address the negative impact it has on people, by making likes private (only the user could see both who liked a photo and how many people liked it) which would have a direct positive impact on teen girls and others who wind up measuring their social status and self-worth by comparing likes or looking to see who liked what. But this was around the time that Instagram lost it's independent leadership (it was owned by Meta already but for a time operated separately from Facebook) and these shifts were scrapped when Facebook took over, for what I think should be obvious reasons.

It would honestly not be that hard to create social media platforms that promoted connectivity without exploiting human insecurities and tendencies in a way that harmed people. But it would be less profitable, at least using the current profit model. Like you could have social media that discouraged scrolling and spending long periods of time on it, or where cyberstalking was basically impossible or at least harder to do. It is not in the companies' interest, even though it would be in ours.

Yes, and hence:

- 41 out of 50 states have filed lawsuits against Meta to stop Meta’s intentionally-addictive, and known-harmful social media offered to adults and children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: If you could abolish social media, would you?

I would. I enjoy parts of it but the cons outweigh the pros. I fully believe social media is a huge reason for the mental health crisis both kids and adults are experiencing.

If not fully abolished I would remove anonymity and the ability to like or heart.

I'd abolish it in a heartbeat. I think it's the single worst thing that has happened to humankind.
I'd consider abolishing the whole Internet.

[Anonymous]

I would also abolish it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: If you could abolish social media, would you?

I would. I enjoy parts of it but the cons outweigh the pros. I fully believe social media is a huge reason for the mental health crisis both kids and adults are experiencing.

If not fully abolished I would remove anonymity and the ability to like or heart.

I'd abolish it in a heartbeat. I think it's the single worst thing that has happened to humankind.
I'd consider abolishing the whole Internet.

+100

The internet was awesome and free at first. The capture of the internet by the wealthy is clear evidence that the average person has no chance outside of luck to live without corporate manipulation.

[Anonymous]

I’d get rid of the whole damn internet