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.

Originally Posted by SGR

This this and this. Plus the Cambridge Analytica scandal is what convinced me to delete my Facebook around 2016 or 2017. The algorithm is very unethical, by my standards at least. Facebook continues to violate the trust of its users and they're, as you pointed out in different ways, definitely not an agent of benevolence of positivity in the world. It's about nothing but $$$.

It's absolutely ridiculous that so many young teenagers are all over these apps these days. I swear, parents these days gives their kids a cellphone before they've gone through puberty. Used responsibly, these platforms/apps like most things probably aren't all that bad. It all comes down to how they're used. But many young teenagers today definitely don't have a healthy relationship with these things.

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.

Originally Posted by The Batlord

Blaming it on parents is dumb as ****. People are how people are and unless you're proposing we use eugenics or social conditioning to fix how people interact with social media then blaming it on parents is actively ignoring the issue of the companies in charge of this media cause you don't want to deal with a much more basic problem of capitalism and it's unfettered control of our lives.

Originally Posted by Guybrush

Tbh I don't know exactly why social media and/or algorithms aren't more heavily regulated in terms of what they're allowed to do or not.

I thought maybe it's because many or most legislators are simply clueless about how to tackle the issue, but I don't know.

At least it gives me a little comfort to know that facebook/meta stocks' value recently plunged. Seems user growth has stagnated for fb.

Originally Posted by SGR

It's not that difficult to stop your children from getting on those apps or sites, within your household. A lot of parents just don't take those sort of precautions or measures.

Even if you deal with the issues you're talking about, parents are still the first line of defense for their children - in this case, parents would have to prevent their children from watching communist porn, where hammers and sickles are going up some bougie chick's ass.

Originally Posted by Guybrush

Tbh I don't know exactly why social media and/or algorithms aren't more heavily regulated in terms of what they're allowed to do or not.

I thought maybe it's because many or most legislators are simply clueless about how to tackle the issue, but I don't know. It looks to me like it should be less about party politics and more about keeping society from going ape****.

At least it gives me a little comfort to know that facebook/meta stocks' value recently plunged. Seems user growth has stagnated for fb.

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.

Originally Posted by The Batlord

The simple truth is that the human race does not function in such a way as to limit exposure to media. It simply doesn't and no amount of handwringing will change 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.

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.