Originally Posted by Guybrush

I deactivated my fb account a little while back after the Frances Haugen whistleblower case.

Of course I already knew social media with fb in particular helps the spread of misinformation which is undermining democracy, our intelligence and kinda tearing the world apart, but the fb papers also showed how fb to a very large extent knows all this and are happy with the revenue it generates. They know content on fb is used to supercharge conflicts like in Myanmar or violence against minorities. They know Instagram puts various negative pressures on young people that in turn increases the risk of things like suicide or eating disorders.

People engage more with content that make them angry or that they unhealthily obsess about, so using algorithms that serve people that kind of content is what fb (or meta) does.

Here, there was recently a study that showed teenagers are less happy now than they were 10 years ago. I'm sure social media plays a large part in that.

Originally Posted by J.R.R. Tolkien

There is only one bright spot and that is the growing habit of disgruntled men of dynamiting factories and power-stations; I hope that, encouraged now as ‘patriotism’, may remain a habit! But it won’t do any good, if it is not universal.