Social Media: the good, the bad, the wierd

[Overhazard]

I have been weaning myself off of Reddit for a while now. I didn't like the person reddit was turning me into. It was making me angry, cynical, depressed, nihilistic, and sad. Reddit is overrun by teens and twenty somethings that don't have a good scope of themselves and the world around them because they're terminally online. They've convinced themselves that they're going to die alone and destitute if they haven't gotten married and started a family by the time they turn 30, even though also reddit has a deep seated, pathological, frothing at the mouth, hatred for children.

Double goes for twitter. I don't even know why people stick around considering that twitter has the same conversations every week. Usually about dating and gender stuff unless a politician says something stupid.

"What about $200 dates?" "Who's gonna pay for dinner?" "Should I wear this revealing dress to my boyfriend's mother's house?" "If I fix my boyfriend a plate for thanksgiving dinner, does that make me a weak submissive tradwife?"

"Men are toxic/stupid/evil for liking X thing here's why!" "Women are shallow and stupid for liking X thing, here's why!" "If Batman used his money he could wipe out crime in Gotham, billionares are bad!" "Evil Superman is more interesting than regular Superman!"

Not to mention the empty contrarianism. People who make their whole persona about hating popular things and say that people who like those things are immature and dumb, mocking people for their interests does not make them want to try new things, but twitter hates nuance and thrives on negativity. I'm halfway tempted to write an article or something about it.

[Username taken]

I have been weaning myself off of Reddit for a while now. I didn't like the person reddit was turning me into. It was making me angry, cynical, depressed, nihilistic, and sad. Reddit is overrun by teens and twenty somethings that don't have a good scope of themselves and the world around them because they're terminally online. They've convinced themselves that they're going to die alone and destitute if they haven't gotten married and started a family by the time they turn 30, even though also reddit has a deep seated, pathological, frothing at the mouth, hatred for children.

Double goes for twitter. I don't even know why people stick around considering that twitter has the same conversations every week. Usually about dating and gender stuff unless a politician says something stupid.

"What about $200 dates?" "Who's gonna pay for dinner?" "Should I wear this revealing dress to my boyfriend's mother's house?" "If I fix my boyfriend a plate for thanksgiving dinner, does that make me a weak submissive tradwife?"

"Men are toxic/stupid/evil for liking X thing here's why!" "Women are shallow and stupid for liking X thing, here's why!" "If Batman used his money he could wipe out crime in Gotham, billionares are bad!" "Evil Superman is more interesting than regular Superman!"

Not to mention the empty contrarianism. People who make their whole persona about hating popular things and say that people who like those things are immature and dumb, mocking people for their interests does not make them want to try new things, but twitter hates nuance and thrives on negativity. I'm halfway tempted to write an article or something about it.

Exactly this.

I've disabled my Twitter and Instagram. I rarely go to Instagram and Facebook anymore.

Social media started off as a great thing, it was a way to connect with long-lost friends and all. Now, it's turned into something really, really ugly, and most commentary you read there is almost entirely negative. It's all like that because of the algorithm which actively promotes really terrible and incendiary content. Seriously, how many absolutely stupid Andrew Tate videos with stupid music in the background does one need to see in a day? How many "what would you do if a guy did X to you videos"? I don't know if it's real but I actually saw a guy angrily castigate a mixed-race couple because the lady was corrupting the white race or something! It's really problematic, low-effort nonsense that's at the forefront of social media today.

What's troubling though is how some parents have completely abandoned their responsibility and allowed social media to raise their kids. I have a son in the 2nd grade and his friend is already on TikTok which is just terrible IMO. I've explained to him that he won't be allowed on social media until he's much, much older but if we are having kids who are still very much in their formative years signing up to social media (in its current state) then the younger generation is in for some hard days ahead.

[Dalak]

I'm not supporting the conservatives at all and their hypocrisy is well noted. I think Cancel Culture - or whatever we want to call it - was wrong then and it's wrong now, widely speaking

Actually many people can get caught up in things they don't support by giving into outrage over issues they don't know enough about thanks to social media, and thus wind up supporting the issue they are outraged about paradoxically or repeating and reinforcing the definitions that those they don't support want repeated and reinforced. From there it's a matter of recognizing it and stopping the unintended support.

Boycott campaigns are sometimes the only response ordinary people have to issues where there is no attention paid to traditional protests and no consequences to be had other than hitting their bottom line. However "Cancel Culture" only truly impacts those without power & money already as no matter what efforts are made to educate and deplatform hateful ideas spread by hateful people they keep getting spread and supported and thus remain uncancelled.

[Overhazard]

Exactly this.

I've disabled my Twitter and Instagram. I rarely go to Instagram and Facebook anymore.

Social media started off as a great thing, it was a way to connect with long-lost friends and all. Now, it's turned into something really, really ugly, and most commentary you read there is almost entirely negative. It's all like that because of the algorithm which actively promotes really terrible and incendiary content. Seriously, how many absolutely stupid Andrew Tate videos with stupid music in the background does one need to see in a day? How many "what would you do if a guy did X to you videos"? I don't know if it's real but I actually saw a guy angrily castigate a mixed-race couple because the lady was corrupting the white race or something! It's really problematic, low-effort nonsense that's at the forefront of social media today.

What's troubling though is how some parents have completely abandoned their responsibility and allowed social media to raise their kids. I have a son in the 2nd grade and his friend is already on TikTok which is just terrible IMO. I've explained to him that he won't be allowed on social media until he's much, much older but if we are having kids who are still very much in their formative years signing up to social media (in its current state) then the younger generation is in for some hard days ahead.

Social Media dating discourse is FUBAR with a capital F. I'm convinced that no one creating or consuming this content is actually interested in relationships or being happy, but rather "getting one over" on another gender because of perceived slights. There's also the overselling of therapy and the overuse of therapy language to pathologize people, they only think they know what they're talking about because they're in therapy themselves, read a few psych books, watched a few two hour youtube videos or some combination of the three.

Forget to pick up milk on the way home from work? Narcissist.

Buy a girl flowers after a first date? Love Bomber.

A 25M dating a 23F? Groomer.
This is just too much.

[The Gold Stream]

i use twitter and facebook and theyre great, good memes and i like staying up to date with game releases on twitter

for facebook i mostly use it for simpsons meme groups

[CaptainEurope]

So it seems once again, Elon announced something that was not ready to roll out: Actually verified people still have their blue check marks a day after they were supposed to lose them.

He did, however, announce in a now-deleted tweet that they would punish those who would publicly tweet about not subscribing to "Twitter Blue" by taking away their checkmark immediately, and they have done that to the New York Times.

Not a serious business.

[CaptainEurope]

As has been mentioned on the News thread, if a tweet includes a link to a substack post, it can no longer be liked, shared etc.

Substack is an important source of income for many journalists with the struggles of print media. This is affecting both good people and bad people, and it has nothing to do with "free speech absolutism."

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Combined with the revelation that Twitter's algorithm is actively boosting the tweets of 3 dozen accounts, from Gleen Greenwald to Catturd2, it's becoming easier and easier to make the case that twitter is no longer a platform, but an editorialized publication.


Which would make Elon legally responsible for its content. Every single tweet.

[Tami]

I miss the way Twitter was before Musk took over. As soon n as he did I hightailed it out of there, taking all my backup twitter info with me. Now I am watching it from afar, waiting to see what happens. I know a lot of people still use it, but I don't think it will survive until and unless Musk is ousted somehow.

[seismic-2]

Isn't this forum in fact a social media site? I would categorize blogs and even older digital technologies such as chat rooms as instances of social media.

[Tami]

Isn't this forum in fact a social media site? I would categorize blogs and even older digital technologies such as chat rooms as instances of social media.

Not sure about blogs, that is a grey area. Chats are more closed and private so I wouldn't classify them the same way. But sites like Reddit, Discord, as well as other open forums count as Social Media. Basically, any site that is generally open to the public and is designed for public discourse online might meet the criteria of Social Media.

[The Gold Stream]

i didnt think discord counted but if it is i will add it to the good list, it has decent quality voicechat and convenient screensharing options in the chat

[seismic-2]

Basically, any site that is generally open to the public and is designed for public discourse online might meet the criteria of Social Media.

OK, then E-mail Listservs are social media, and so is the granddaddy of them all, Usenet. More particularly, we are on a social media site right here and now, discussing social media. I believe it's important for us to remember that social media are "us", not "them".

[CaptainEurope]

This is pretty much what twitter has become.

Screenshot 2023-04-09 081546.jpg

[CaptainEurope]

Elon Musk is not well. Can you imagine being in management at Tesla or Space-Ex, or owning a lot of shares for those companies?

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[Catlady in training]

Watching Elon Musk from afar has become like watching Ye. You just feel it won't end well and hope that someone will talk sense to them soon.