- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.world
I can’t abide an unnecessary question hed.
When I scroll through social media, I often leave demoralized, with the sense that the entire world is on fire and people are inflamed with hatred towards one another. Yet, when I step outside into the streets of New York City to grab a coffee or meet a friend for lunch, it feels downright tranquil. The contrast between the online world and my daily reality has only gotten more jarring.
Since my own work is focused on topics such as intergroup conflict, misinformation, technology and climate change, I’m aware of the many challenges facing humanity. Yet, it seems striking that people online seem to be just as furious about the finale of The White Lotus or the latest scandal involving a YouTuber. Everything is either the best thing ever or the absolute worst, no matter how trivial. Is that really what most of us are feeling? No, as it turns out. Our latest research suggests that what we’re seeing online is a warped image created by a very small group of highly active users.
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What I do like to see is a continued discussion on how to take back the internet in its current form. The cesspool of online bots and malicious corporate social spaces can be managed or avoided entirely with healthy practices, and yet you never see articles with step-by-step guidelines on how to do this. Instead, articles like this point out a few problems then give up.
Stop using social media entirely or find safe alternatives. Do not engage in online arguments. Control your viewing of political content and tailor your access towards specific trusted sources. Avoid any apps that use scrolling content feeds. Stop using your phone in bed. Lessen your phone use and restrict it to primarily phone calls and texts only.
Platforms could easily redesign their algorithms to stop promoting the most outrageous voices and prioritise more representative or nuanced content.
Corporations are not going to take actions that would benefit your health if it harms their engagement metrics. Bavel missed the mark on how the public should be actively fighting against late-stage capitalism.
the sense that the entire world is on fire
Leaving aside the massive literal heatwave and multi-state wildfires and global-warming-accelerated flooding happening just this month and all… we’re literally seeing a campaign of race-based kidnappings and trafficking by the government, the deployment of active duty military personnel in the streets, and a DOJ arguing that the President is not bound by law or court orders.
If you don’t think the world is on at very least metaphorical fire, I don’t know what to tell you, Guardian author. “I can get my coffee in peace without thinking about that stuff” is not some brag.
“I can get my coffee in peace without thinking about that stuff” is not some brag.
bragging about their privilege
Let me tell you how excited I am that we’re getting yet more slow-moving heavy rains.
In a recent series of experiments, we paid people a few dollars to unfollow the most divisive political accounts on X. After a month, they reported feeling 23% less animosity towards other political groups. In fact, their experience was so positive that nearly half the people declined to refollow those hostile accounts after the study was over. And those who maintain their healthier newsfeed reported less animosity a full 11 months after the study.
Found this bit interesting
After a month, they reported feeling 23% less animosity towards other political groups.
This sounds like a call to be willfully ignorant of the serious political shit going down around them. That’s how you get the average idiot who doesn’t understand why voting for a guy like Trump is a bad idea.
You should be fucking angry and have more animosity towards other political groups, or you aren’t paying attention. Nazis should be called out.
Yeah it’s kind of like the psychological advice to let go of things you can’t control. That’s fine when it’s your annoying boss (within limits) but not fine when it’s mass kidnappings.
No, not in context. They are talking about disimformation like, “using YOUR tax dollars, funded bioweapon research, including Covid-19” from Musk. They say:
A mere 0.1% of users share 80% of fake news. Twelve accounts – known as the “disinformation dozen” – created most of the vaccine misinformation on Facebook during the pandemic. These few hyperactive users produced enough content to create the false perceptions that many people were vaccine hesitant.
So if you cut out the the most divisive political accounts, you will not miss ANY actual news, but are likely to miss a huge pile of disinformation.
Mis/disinformation is not the same as “divisive political content”. Political content can be both true, and divisive (e.g. Trump being a pedophile). Conversely, something that is accepted by the majority may still be misinformation, while not be divisive.
Truthfulness determines whether something is misinformation. How much something matches a group’s beliefs determines whether it is divisive: if everyone agreed that the world was flat, that would not be divisive to state, but it would be misinformation.
Conflating them entrenches the perception that the most widely-held, non-“divisive” viewpoint must not be misinformation.
Go check out Truth Social if you want to see what a space where only “non-divisive” (to them) but near-total misinformation looks like.
Wait can I get paid too? I don’t follow any politicians on social media. Sign me up!
Spoon found in kitchen. More from Tom at 7
SM is designed to react to clicks and content that riles people up and consequently creates more clicks. Consciously disengaging from the shit gibbons will make every ones life better but it goes against the base ‘more clicks = more ad revenue’
I delete all my social media periodically for similar reasons.
Even communities of people who are really level headed and supportive, like academics and engineers. Eventually there is groupthink, tribalism, and generally people who I am over (and I’m sure it’s mutual)
This is such an incredibly important message for us to understand. Thank you for bringing it to our attention. I can only hope that more and more people learn this.
- At least on Lemmy, this is definitely what I’ve observed. If you look at any thread that’s full of sturm und drang, it’s usually a tiny handful of accounts that are creating all of it (and then roping other people into their hostility, like a little chain reaction, like Chernobyl.) If you look at the impact, it just looks like everyone’s an asshole, but if you look at the root of the trouble, you realize most people are fine and a tiny minority are noisy and hostile and they can just get everyone else spun up.
- I agree, if you’re in NYC right at this moment in history and you can’t see a bigger picture of things worth getting heated up about than White Lotus, you should talk with people in your community more.
It’s like product reviews. The people leaving a review are either angry about the product or are so pleased they feel a need to tell the world about it. Most people, on the other hand, just use the product, have a perfectly average opinion of it, and don’t feel a need to tell the world. What makes things seem awful or great is you don’t usually know what percentage of the overall customer base they represent. Fifty bad reviews can be a red flag or noise depending on how many customers there are.
You’re welcome.
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