Comment by gaius
8 years ago
mean literally generates hate, as in, put a bunch of people with diverse perspectives on Twitter and by the end of the day they hate each other more than when they started
This is entirely by design. The emotions that generate engagement with social media are outrage, jealousy, gloating, fomo, loneliness. Even if the people running it didn’t consciously decide (tho’ I bet they knew) the algorithms would have figured it out. The entire concept of social media is toxic. And all to show you more ads.
>> The entire concept of social media is toxic. And all to show you more ads.
Social media funded by venture capital, maybe. Most Mastodon instances big enough to need outside funding run on a few Patreon or Liberapay contributions. The main one gets enough for the developer to work on it full time.
Social media doesn't have to be the way Facebook and Twitter convinced people it has to be.
Well said. Social networks don't have to have an exploitative business model; Facebook and Twitter aren't the only possible models.
It seems that the previous, open, free social platforms are dead or agonizing -- from Usenet newsgroups to blogs, RSS readers, and even mailing lists. 90+% of my immediate family and relatives only communicate via Facebook. All of my past colleagues only communicate via LinkedIn. None of them have personal websites or blogs.
So, what are the successful, alternative models that I can use today with like-minded people, family, or friends?
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The mistake made here is assuming the issue is social networks and not people.
Media has gotten increasingly vile with every new iteration of attention absorption.
People and human brains are the issue.
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I think you’re being too generous. Even if the creators didn’t know what you’re describing going in, and as you say they almost certainly did, they’ve had plenty of time to learn. Yet, they’ve optimized for conflict, for clicks and maximum engagement. All as you say, to sell more Coke and shaving cream.
The most frustrating part is the tendency of these companies to frame their callous and destructive business model in terms of Orwellian positivity. Everyone who is making a new app to record and share the sounds of your pet taking a shit is “changing the world.”
> This is entirely by design
No it's not and it's frankly insulting and factually baseless to suggest Twitter is deliberately sowing discord in order to sell more ads. Ever thought comments like yours are part of the problem too ?
The fact is that Twitter and Facebook are reflections of who we are as people. We are the ones who chose to encourage celebrity culture by engaging with it. Which of course in turn has a whole raft of negative side effects. We encourage loneliness and intolerance by our xenophobia, racism etc. We are merely taking what happens in the schoolyard into the digital realm.
Just think though. Are Twitter and Facebook to blame when we walk past the homeless and do nothing ? When we never listened to sexual abuse victims of people like Weinstein and Trump ? How about our politicians behaviour ?
No it's not and it's frankly insulting and factually baseless to suggest Twitter is deliberately sowing discord in order to sell more ads
Two words: algorithmic timeline