Current Events > Two decades of social media were enough to colapse society

(+) Yeah! (+)

(I'm taking account of Facebook launching in 2004 though it started getting popular around the late 2000s)

Eh, blaming social media seems as daft as blaming video games and rock music
Social media only reflects society.

It's more about how misinformation was totally boiled down to a formula and weaponized. Social media has helped that along, but I feel like it's something that's been in play for ages with Fox News and the like.

UnfairRepresent posted...

Eh, blaming social media seems as daft as blaming video games and rock music
Social media only reflects society.

Now say that about AI

UnfairRepresent posted...

Social media only reflects society.

Yeah, but it allowed new ways of socializing that we didn't have before. Gone is the fiber of distance and time in physical media; there is only the fructose concoction of digital lightspeed.

VeggetaX posted...

Now say that about AI

Eh, blaming AI seems as daft as blaming video games and rock music
AI only reflects society.

Most of the global population wasn't ready to suddenly have unfettered high-speed internet access with no prior existing media/tech/political literacy. I sound like a broken record when I say this but it's the fucking truth and on a daily basis we see the consequences of it.

tha first phn connections were introduced in late 1800s

that was a kind of social network/media ;(<.~}- is all I sayin

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


not really no

how do you think the LGBT community was treated before social media

pretty much the same as now only we had a smaller support network

social media just showed the rot that was always there to the entire planet

I'm sure this is a well-thought-out idea and not just some idle thought that you figured you needed to share with CE.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


oh i wont deny that just saying this idea social media is to blame is missing the forest for the trees

social media has also done good int he world exposing injustices

the problem is letting evil gain control of the tool

two, three years of having a lunatic run the most prevalent social media platform, more like

paired with enshittification draining most alternatives

I wouldn't solely blame social media.. But i would more blame the lack of any regulation or controls for misinformation and anything to control bots and sock puppets further spreading it

dotsdfe posted...

It's more about how misinformation was totally boiled down to a formula and weaponized. Social media has helped that along, but I feel like it's something that's been in play for ages with Fox News and the like.

Yup. Social media just allowed foreign actors(Russia, China, etc) to speed the process along.

I blame Reagan.

UnfairRepresent posted...

Eh, blaming social media seems as daft as blaming video games and rock music
Social media only reflects society.

That's a really naive take when examined a little more closely. Social media has allowed people to silo into their echo chambers more than ever before, allowed misinformation to flourish, and allowed the post-truth era to manifest.

Social Media just exposes the ugliness of society were doomed to begin

But it sure was 'awesome' and 'hilarious', right? Especially when someone was 'telling it like it is'.

Honestly I disagree, I believe that without social media we'd be living in a dystopia right now where truth is literally impossible to find out (and I also believe that the age verification laws sweeping the "Five Eyes" nations right now are an attempt to retake control by various vested interests).

We live in the information age and a lot of the same powers misusing social media to brainwash people were the same people who prior to the information age owned and controlled all forms of media. You think the MSM and its biased reporting is bad now? Imagine a world where people couldn't share what's actually happening. Imagine where those outlets were the sole purveyors of information, essentially able to create truth without any refutation possible.

Take climate change for instance. Any and all information about that isn't being reported by the mainstream outlets. It's only through far more niche (verified though) sites and social media aggregates that the information has even a chance to escape into the public.

Or closer to immediacy look at Trump's 'statement' about the shooting yesterday and how the video is very very likely to have been either pure AI or tampered with AI (meaning the entire thing cannot be trusted).

We are so dangerously close to a post-truth world, but the lack of ability for people to communicate would only make that much worse, it allows the concentration of information to be held solely by the likes of Rupert Murdoch, Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Trump's administration, ect.

Put another way all of the worlds issues are like a boiling pot of water with a lid put on. Without social media that pot simply keeps heating until it explodes, whereas social media at least offers the opportunity (sometimes taken, often not) to maybe not let that happen or at least not be taken by complete surprise by it happening.

TBH I'm not even convinced social media has accelerated what might have been an inevitable fall. I think the fall of civilization has some pretty fixed dates (specific thresholds for the environment happening causing the proverbial dominoes to start falling), at most it's just making the last few decades a little more chaotic.

Don't participate in social media outside of here, and I guess technically YouTube but I primarily just listen to music there, but I can't say I've seen terribly much of a positive impact as an outsider. Never set foot even on places like reddit, Twitter, Instagram, whatever.

Truth constantly muddied, and even when it's revealed in what should be an indisputable way there's still endless screaming into the void about it. Most people I have known for long enough certainly don't seem any happier from social media than they were before. People flocked to places where corporate influence could be exerted on what they see and how they see it.

Dunno, outside of being awesome for the advertisement industry, can't say I've noticed it being a good thing anywhere else. I guess it sped up the delivery of news, but it also made it way easier to twist the narrative into whatever you want it to be, too.

M1Astray posted...

Honestly I disagree, I believe that without social media we'd be living in a dystopia right now where truth is literally impossible to find out (and I also believe that the age verification laws sweeping the "Five Eyes" nations right now are an attempt to retake control by various vested interests).

I gotta agree with this. I don't think it's wrong to say that it has become more difficult to get the actual truth of the situation online than it was a few years ago but you have to keep in mind even that whole concept itself is relatively new as far as history goes and just the fact that you can tell you're receiving sketchy information in the first place is a sign you've got a good supply of real information too.

Like just for example think of the last few pieces of misinformation you heard. How did you know they were misinformation, and not just the truth?

I don't see how we'd be in a dystopia now when we weren't in one pre-internet. On the broad scale of American history, we've trended towards human rights and acceptance, and most of that was not with internet.