To think that we need as a world to carefully consider where we get our news/information and understand dangers of social media for news

[Duggeehugs82]

I apologise in advance for spelling or grammar as im dyslexic
Ive been reading a few threads on conspiracy theories and ive read about how Prevalent they are during this pandemic and its got me thinking that with social meida particularly fb and its algorithms, to put particular adverts and articles to keep us reading their sites.
And with cambridge analytica hows what it can do in regards to American elections in 2016, we should be all learning about where we get our news/information from and becoming more critically thinking , looking at agenda of companies and people. And just be concerned about how much of a mess this can cause to society, If we just carry on without carefullu considering it effects.

Of course

I agree totally that we need to consider where we get our news and information from and how things are portrayed. Regarding social media, there are useful elements to it as well as all the bad.

The sad fact in Britain is that traditional media is failing. It's controlled by a limited number of people, with a limited number of outlets supplying even more limited information. There's little in the way of local news, what hits the national news is often more interesting than the actual content. It has been turned entirely into a business with no interest in its role, the role news was developed for, as information about and for society, and the way it is produced reflects that. Most news for main media is derived from the same central sources with little in the way of journalistic variety or investigations.

Yes. The trouble is that you can't argue with stupid, and some gullible people will believe any old rubbish, no matter where it's come from.

Yeah I agree it is an issue, and I'm not sure what the answer is.

The other scary thing is when these dodgy elements of social media (conspiracy theories, non-evidence based belief systems, virtue signalling etc) feed back and start to influence the mainstream media, politics and other organisations.

I kind of feel that if "East is West" suddenly trended on Twitter, and anyone disputing this got shouted down, we would soon see mainstream news outlets and political parties starting to declare that East is West, with few brave enough to disagree.

The thing is, social media platforms know what we like to read so push more of it on to us. So people who read broadsheet newspapers and a range of articles get sent links to pieces that may interest them and are likely to fit with their existing world view.

Meanwhile, those who get their news from facebook and instagram and are intrigued by conspiracy theories receive push notifications about conspiracies and feel like they are in their own special club and everyone else doesn't know what they know.

We should probably all read something we disagree with every day.

I have just watched the social dilemma on Netflix, it explains clearly how social media uses algorithms to manipulate your view so when u read Facebook for example u r given article and posts to specifically keep you on their company, so manipulation is their business model, its fascinating and equally terrifying and the main problem is not everyone knows that these companies are even doing it so it manipulating u without u even knowing.

@boredwiththeoldname

Yes. The trouble is that you can't argue with stupid, and some gullible people will believe any old rubbish, no matter where it's come from.

So to this point, these people from outside r thick and gullible but to be honest they have just been manipulated through their social media accounts by computer systems (AL) to keep them intrested. So the change could be gradual and before theu know it they are down a rabbit hole and 1 dont know they were manipulated into it and 2 how to get out or even want to.

I know it's old fashioned but I look at either the BBC or Times news sites. It's like buying anything, you need a reputable supplier.

You wouldn't buy a drive from someone who showed up with a pile of 'spare' tarmac and you wouldn't buy a meal from a burger van with a '0' hygiene rating. So why believe news from an unregulated social media site?

Regulation might be boring but it's there for a reason.