To think social media has had a hugely negative influence on the world…..

Yes yanbu.

I'm one of the fossils who stlll uses Facebook a lot. It keeps me in touch with friends all over the world. Or it did. Lately my feed always seems to be full of random shit that I have no interest in. Zuckerberg is evil. and don't get me started on Musk.

This.

It's a cesspit.

I agree. Left social media a few years ago and very glad I did. Now I just need to give up the internet as I’m not a fan of that either! I appreciate the irony of my post.

@Battical I agree, but adults have free choice to engage or not and it's easier to see some positives.
For children I think the impact is horrendous. They are quickly addicted to their phones, teenagers stay up half the night on Tiktok or whatever and are fit for nothing in school so massively underachieving, peer pressure and online bullying is off the scale and it's like an insidious virus thar impacts every aspect of their lived. I can see little that actually enhances their lives and the challenges for schools and parents are huge.
So yes, on balance, more negative than positive in my book. As I sit on social media posting on MN.....

Ugh I was just thinking this. I had a few blissful days without going on social media (needed a break from the mindless scrolling)
Just sat and had a scroll through and my algorithm must be all about neuro diversity. Pretty much every post is a video with a list of "symptoms" that pretty much everyone will have (to some degree) and then telling them that's typical of enter whichever neuro diversity best fits there is NO WONDER the wait for diagnosis is mega long... Especially amongst adults.

I've always thought I have ADHD traits but just read a post saying apparently being super organised and always on time is also ADHD!!! (I am almost physically incapable of being on time for anything!! ) surely being super organised is just....a good thing?? There will be someone reading that who books in to see a doc...

It is definitely feeding in to paranoia.. and reading all the comments too."omg this is me" "omg my kid does this"...
Argh just let us live our lives!!!!! We are all doing just fine I'm sure..

Also I do NOT need to see what 5 star holiday enter name of minor celebrity is on.... Nope I'll never be able to afford it in a billion years... Yep I enjoy my cheap caravan holidays just fine thanks....

Don't get me started on the makeup tutorials.... Nope you're not going to look like that impossibly beautiful 18 year old who has had cosmetic surgery if you follow that video on how to apply "contouring" ....get back to doing the ironing!!!

I think the algorithm influencing is the biggest problem. Not everyone does use it for 'good' things and then it becomes an echo chamber.

Someone I know looks at a lot of political stuff and some of the videos on tiktok are awful. There was one linked to all of the migrant hotel drama of a group of protesters publicising where migrants are living and intimidating them outside their homes.

Whatever your political views it is wrong to frighten people like that and videos that put people at risk in their homes need to be removed.

There's also lots of AI generated rubbish that people sometimes don't recognise as AI.

social media itself was fine, it was when it was made possible to monetise it - that shit hit the fan.
if it go could back to the early 2000s when it wasnt possible a lot of people would be happier, but of course it never will. I deleted my social media and im happier for it a lot of people I know have.
People are also addicted to social media & that doesnt help.

I’ve just watched the Netflix program about Gabby Petito - and it sums up what you’re saying totally.

I don’t do Instagram or TikTok and very rarely do YouTube but I would miss FB.

Yes I agree, hate and lies are like plagues that spread on social media, whilst the truth is less exciting and gets lost.

I totally agree with you OP.

Social media has caused massive problems in schools with young people (you only have to watch Educating Yorkshire for a glimpse into this). I enjoyed the early days of social media when it really was just connecting with old friends, but my feed is now constantly bombarded with sponsored ads and reels and stupid ‘influencers’ trying to push things on me.

Honestly, if I had the power, I’d have FB, instagram, Tik tok etc shut down for good.

Social Media, like anything else, is just a tool.

People have made it what it is.

People are the problem.

It is the misuse of social media what is the problem.
Today, we can be connected to family and friends all the way across the world and keep up with what they had for dinner. We can see the point of view of a standard citizen on what happened in x part of the world, instead of only reading the newspapers. We can see wonderful parts of the world without leaving a massive carbon footprint. We can cook alongside a native almost any recipe known to mankind. We can see unlimited hours of cute and funny cat videos.
We need to choose what we watched and use it to complement our real life, not instead of. And nope for young children.
I have never used the translating headphones, but that is another barrier that may have come down possibly. @

And yet you are on it.

I think there are positives and negatives, just like with traditional media.

I think the press have done immense harm to the UK in my lifetime, far more harm than good.

Good analogy, so true

Absolutely this. I have teen DCs who has shown me kids from school on tiktok - self harming, emotional meltdown, threat of suicide, dancing in their pants, making money by talking to old men.

Yes as an adult I see the benefit but my life was perfectly fine without it years ago.

No people who dont use their own brains is what ia ruining the world they need everyone else to do their thinking for them it appears

It's like cars and weapons useful, essential even, but terrible in the wrong hands.

I agree with the title of your thread OP

But I voted Yabu because of the first line on your post. One cannot undo what has already been discovered or found, if we could then nuclear weapons wouldn’t exist.

I do think though that the Internet in general has given humans both an incredible power and also a massive hindrance too. The negative effects of SM are a good example of the latter.

Anything that sells you something is monetising your emotions.

Yeah, I agree. I think one of the biggest issues is that, for people trying to monetise the use of social media, the only aim is to get attention. It doesn't matter if it's good or bad, you just need people to engage with your content. So for the most part, saying or doing something controversial, hateful or just wrong will get more attention than something that's just 'nice'. On the fairly harmless end of the scale are things like people mispronouncing things, getting some information wrong, putting something random in shot - anything that is likely to get commented on. But on the more extreme end there are the people stiring up hate - with racist, sexist, homophonic views. And those will generate even more attention as some will agree and share content while others argue back.

I think it is very hard to change your algorithm once it is set.

It’s lovely for the posters who enjoy their curated algorithms. You are not the problem. People who use social media as their primary source of “news”, never fact check anything and then vote accordingly are.

Oh and recruit volunteers.

YABU.

Facebook helped me

• find community,
• learn the local language,
• find things to do. It's very accessible in that respect.
• participated in webinars on all sorts.
• given me all sorts of travel tips.
• offered deals that are actually useful to me.
• enabled me to keep in touch with so many people
• sell stuff
• buy stuff

If your feed is dull that's because your friends are. Change your algorithm.