Social media is a plague on the world

[StandFirm]

I've had it with those unregulated platforms which turn us into lonely, identikit appearance-obsessed, sad conspiracy theorists. They turn political debate into riots, democracy into mob rule. The irony of saying this on a public forum is not lost on me but the news this morning of Zuckerberg ending fact-checking on Facebook, the recent delirious outbursts on X by Musk and his ridiculous meddling into world politics have led me to delete accounts I had on those platforms. I still use WhatsApp as it's just a messaging service but the rest has gone. Anyone else feels the same?

I'm not naive and I totally understand that it's become an essential part of the media industry. I'm not judging people who use it for professional purposes and it's increasingly impossible to avoid using promotion on social media if you want a successful business. However, I mean that the quality of social and political debate has been severely degraded because there's no oversight or accountability. So, I should clarify that I have deleted all personal accounts and that MN is the only platform I am still using to participate in any debate (long time user, different names)

@StandFirm
it is and should be banned for under 18 and strictly controlled.

this can be done so don’t believe people who say it can’t

Because you disagree with an opinion?

🤣🤣

We can’t even keep 12 year olds from buying vapes these days so how exactly are you planning on banning and ‘strictly controlling’ all social media?

Due to the recent abundance of snow and ice over the last few days our local Facebook pages have recently been full of people with 4WD vehicles offering to take hospital staff to work, people thanking others for clearing snow and other kindnesses. The local pages really show how much of a lovely community I live in.

It can and is being used for good as well as evil.

Zuckerberg has stated that the fact checkers were a problem because they were too politically biased which destroyed more trust than they created.

About 12 hours ago The Telegraph published an online article about 5 occasions Facebook fact checkers got things wrong. I can't read it because it's behind a paywall but I was aware of a number of occasions when the fact checkers have been influenced by an agenda.

Just before the 2020 US election I asked about the Hunter Biden laptop story on one of the many MN threads about Trump and everyone lost their shit and said it was Russian disinformation. I'd seen it discussed by alternative media for weeks. The SM companies were instructed by US three letter agencies to say it was Russian disinformation and the those who think they are informed lapped it up. When you describe other people as conspiracy theorists I just think you are a gullible fool.

There is always Blue Sky if you need a safe space from different opinions.

But at least there is some sort of a framework in place and content on the BBC is not comparable to what's allowed to thrive on the platforms I've mentioned where extreme views are truly rampant and heralded as free speech.

@CouldItBeAnyMoreObvious That's sort of my point. In the 1930s when my granny was 9 her brother would come home and literally drop a box of ciggies on the table for the kids. They were like sweets. It was years before the dangers were known and widely publicised, but the cigarette companies knew and worked very hard to keep it quiet. I feel there are parallels with social media today in that many parents don't recognise the danger and tech giants know but are trying to keep a lid on it.

I have sympathies with the OP. For me, it's less about the sharing of different views. I think that's great and wholeheartedly support free speech, no matter the view. However, social media amplifies the power of seemingly minor viewpoints that in turn skews the public discourse. It helps spread outright lies and 'truthiness' which, again, skews the public discourse. And it facilitates the gathering together of people and ideas, accelerating both positive and negative behaviours. It also gives kids and adults opportunities to interact with each other online where their worlds would have seldom collided and that's to the detriment of children's safety.

There's also the very real and proven issue of malevolent actors actively trying to influence and undermine the social cohesion and security of other nations. China and Russia do this. (I wonder if we do it too?)

I'm not sure the next step is adding legislation for the platforms. If users were required to not be anonymous and actively show their identity online, I'd imagine a lot of the bullshit would disappear immediately. It's easy to be radical and act poorly when no one knows who you are and it doesn't jeopardise one's job, reputation, lifestyle. If individuals could be held accountable then that would help.

Of course social media shouldn’t be neutral.

If you are right leaning use Twitter and if you are left leaning use Sky Blue.

If you were Kamala you watched CNN and if you were Trump you watched Fox.

If you believe your child can only ever be a child you read The Times - if you believe they can identify as a cat you read The Guardian.

Dont act like there aren’t options.

I described all of us as conspiracy theorists, because if there is no benchmark for facts, all we are left with is conspiracies.

Another point: I think those platforms have consistently undermined our collective ability to think analytically and to truly read what people write rather than respond to what we think they mean. Again, all of us are guilty of that at one point or other and it doesn't favour a balanced debate.

I have to go but I'll check back in on the thread later.

Dinosaur.

But MN Dinosaurs are cool and win the internet.

Quite the opposite. I like a good, fact-based debate.

Social media as a tool is fantastic, but just like the internet, the problem is people misusing it.

It would be impossible for social media to be politically neutral, it would be overcensorous to try to make it so.

I would support regulation to ban under 18's from it due to predatory practices and social contagion effects, though without parental support I'm not sure how that could be enforced (perhaps require a passport number to access?)

I agree. I'm on WhatsApp. Thai's it.

The psychological manipulation behind a lot of social media in terms of what the algorithm lets you see can damage people. Especially young women.

Is it the platforms undermining people's critical thinking skills or patents, schools, responsible press, other bodies that aren't teaching and reinforcing them?

I think it's the latter. It's our responsibility. Personal responsibility- or the lack of - is something that's deeply undermining our society. If we individually reinforced the values, behaviours, etc that we want in our society the groundswell would go some way to a) protect us, b) create the society we want it to be and c) could encourage government to act to do the same. 'Outsourcing' our protection and the support of society to businesses whose job is to make money by serving customers (us) won't work.

I get what you mean.

Twitter is now impossible to have any sort of meaningful discussion on. The replies are just full of bot farms or right wing trolls hunting for any sort of response the sheer number of them is staggering. There is no middle ground or nuance anymore it's a cesspit.

I like it.

I really miss the MySpace days. It was fun then, not so much now. I rarely engage, just browse, but I could easily live without SM (apart from MN of course!), and I keep well away from X

It's in the same category as, Reddit, Digital Spy, Tattle, Pistonheads, etc, which are forums, surely.

Thanks for the interesting thread OP; we aren't great users in our house, but I think your point about undermining our own capabilities and capacity to reason and judge is a really good one.

Yes. Australia aren't banning it for under 16s for no reason.

I’ve seen these types of views expressed a lot lately and all I will say is that those expressing them didn’t seem to care about the dangers of SM when the discourse was going their way, ie extremely left leaning with the activists in charge deciding who to ban and what could be posted…

It very much depends on what you use it for. I only use facebook for interest groups and don't look at my general feed at all. My instagram is full of art accounts so not much else is filtering through.

Spot on