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 didn't understand this either till someone pointed out it has channels. No idea what those have on them.

but I guess that's why people call it social media?

i only use it for messages and neighbours groups. But I was also baffled that people got news alerts sent to their phones. It's bad enough there are 24 hour news channels!

Is sanity returning? I'd say the past couple of day's madness triggered by one man's whims contradicts that POV.

I think it’s awful for dc, I grew up without social media but young people now know no different & there is so much fake news. How does a young person recognise that particularly earn you throw in algorithms.

This, some people are utterly obsessed with putting everything they do facebook. Nothing is private anymore. The children didn't even give their consent and it starts the minute they are born.

Don’t buy your child a phone, other than one they can make calls and send texts on. What else do they need it for? You only have to look around in cafes, theatres, bus stops to see adults not talking to each other, glued to their screens, it’s pathetic how we’ve turned into phone and tech zombies, slaves to social media and in the process creating billionaires of (predominantly) men who behave as though they are the messiah.

Rather hypocritical to be posting on MN then!

Do you think this discussion should only happen by letter? Technology and the Internet is here. The OP has started a conversation about it on Mnet.

You want to boo-yah and call her a hypocrite for doing so? Catch yerself on.

We're trying to have a sensible, grown up discussion here.