It’s the social equivalent of high fructose corn syrup. It’s clearly not as good as real socialization, and when the companies start adding things that benefit their goals, it’s clearly making it worse for you. But for most people, it’s a cheap way to scratch the itch for social interaction, and it’s right there, no need to go all the way to a place or make plans, so people take it and get by but at the sacrifice of their mental health just as eating a pile of HFCS based foods will fill you up for now but sacrifice your physical health.
I wouldn’t say social media is inherently bad. Engagement driven social media is bad. Unfortunately, that’s pretty much all mainstream social media anymore.
Facebook wasn’t terrible before they shifted their algorithm to drive engagement; and by extension, conflict. It turned to shit really quick after that.
Post algorithm has been a shit fest where engagement and the promotion of certain political views is very dangerous.
Pre algorithm, it created an interesting place between friend and stranger where you could maintain contact with people whom you never would before.
it made people quite anti-social, plus it draws them into things like political echo chambers. and incelism,etc. coupled with AI, it affects students math and reading/writing skills.
Its mostly negative. And in a heavy negative way
On a personal impact, I do believe I am much more anti-social as I would have otherwise been. I get paranoid that people around me hate or judge me since that’s what I had read people online doing. In a societal level, there is commentary on the increased fear of judgement in my generation
I’m convinced social media is population thought control.
I don’t know how scientific the “scientific American” newspaper is, but there’s evidence https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-foreign-governments-sway-voters-with-online-manipulation/
Huh, interesting.
We need scientific, critical thinking.
We always did.
But now it is a matter of survival.
It doesn’t matter how much you feel it in your bones or how much faith you have. Those things don’t mean shit and should impress nobody.
What matters is the evidence
It impacts them extremely negatively.
It was good when the “social” component was actually its purpose, and you used it to connect with your family and friends and see what they’ve been up to. Then it went to shit when algorithms took over, every other post on your feed isn’t from people/pages you followed, and keeping your eyes and attenion on the app as long as possible to maximize ad exposure became the goal.
It has ruined communication. First texting abbreviations, then emojis as replacements for words, now it’s just like a post. Most platforms have removed the ability to dislike, because people dislike things in real life.
Reducing in-person interactions and connections. Some person right now thinks they have 300 friends because all of their Facebook “chums” added them because they were in the same class or grade in high school. But most are doing it because they themselves feel the need to have as many friends as possible, so it looks good on their page.
The concept of following people on Twitter or Instagram is laughable. All these followers, but none of these people are leaders. The irony writes itself
It has ruined communication.
I like this and want to add something I think will be significant as generations pass. The fact that it encourages or at least seems to normalize incorrect spelling and grammar. I see 'break/brake" being used incorrectly so many times I have started to question it when I am using it now. When things are published normally, there is someone checking for grammatical errors and such. With social media so much text is being “published” with no checking whatsoever and I have a feeling that it is going to start affecting people in ways we haven’t thought of. It also is a little telling in my opinion of how abhorrent our current education system is.
The education system like you said is at fault for that one. The teachers are born in the year 2003 sometimes. Think about that. Lol they can’t teach thoroughly because they were the same ones on average who had bad education themselves.
I’m an autodidact, if I only had knowledge from my school system I’d be dumb AF (I use abbreviation as well), however I also comprehend things and can think freely. Something lacking by individuals dwelling in the realm of social media constantly.
You just wait until you see what this A.I. is about to do in the next 3 years to people’s mind. I’m having people already commenting on my post asking if something is A.I. because it looks unique. Sigh they already are losing the ability of perception, they will bond interpersonally with the A.I. and subsitute that with in person friends.
I can see the damage from kilometers away
Yup. The fact that people are checking out on learning and relying on ai to answer for them is going to be a disaster with huge implications down the road. School and the act of being taught isn’t an inconvenience kids, it has a purpose, and relying on technology to do your work is a bad idea.
I think it varies per platform. LinkedIn fosters a disgusting ass-kissing “work comes first” culture. Facebook turned people into one-upping d-bags with highly curated feeds to showcase their constant “winning at life” bullshit. X/Twitter was a left bubble then a right bubble. Reddit is enshittified beyond recognition. It all sucks, just in different ways.
But perhaps the common factors are a sense of isolation and a disconnection from reality.
… and a tendency, even on Fedi, of surrounding oneself in an information bubble
I still the info bubble thing to be bullshit. People hung out in places they liked in meatspace and lived in information bubbles before the internet. Its called a group of friends. If somone was well read they would have a nuanced view and most people depended on having a few noteworthy people to ask about complicated things. Open to everything on the internet means rooting around in a pile of shit at this point and the more you cut the shit away the easier it will be to find the rare gem.
yes but now the majority of social interaction for the majority of people is… online
thats my point. they should do just like they did in meatspace when online. No one hung with a jerk who came into a discussion with insults or such. Blocking is like avoiding someone annoying and following is like regularly haning out with friends and subscribing is like a place you regularly went to.
I don’t get why anyone is even posting on linkedin. its purpose is to have a circle of people I have actually worked with or done business with and I like getting and giving recommendations especially when I or someone leaves the company.
Same. I never post anything on there. I have replied a few times to a few former coworkers who have messaged me on there, that’s it. If the convo goes anywhere we move it elsewhere.
the messaging is nice for job searching. sorta nice to initially communicate on their before polluting your email.
I feel like all social networks no longer represent or are recognizable from the original point of social networks which was communication. Now they’re algorithm based engagement avenues for ads and market research and data gathering.
I don’t really think social media actually makes people more social in real life and federated platforms are pretty much the same. I also remember reading once that many tech execs don’t let their kids use social media or phones.
Also here’s a few interesting related things I’ve seen:
To the social part, it’s a corporate stand-in for actually interacting and being in your community. While it can still very much be used for that, instead of living our lives mostly within our communities, we talk to the entire world. Without boundaries, I don’t inherently think that’s a good thing.
To the execs part: Social media is currently made to be as addictive as possible. It’s heroine for average ppl killing time, and dangerously pulls you out of reality/blurs the bounds. The Internet is in many ways an amazing place, but there’s a reason tech execs keep their youths away from it: it’s bad for living life.
Sorry to be all doom and gloom, I think about this a lot lol
I’m 95% sure it’s why the US political system is so bias and the vibe on my latest post was lit, and I couldn’t help but flex about my rizz honestly, no cap.
