'Social media is ripping society apart'

@"SFVikingFan" said:

@"AGRforever" said:

@"SFVikingFan" said: I have been thinking about this a lot recently.  As great as the Internet is, I honestly think it's also one of the worst things to happen to society in a long, long time.  Between sites like Facebook allowing foreign countries to purchase ads and create fake sites to influence our democracy, to the spread of completely asinine conspiracy theories (Sandy Hook parents being harassed as actors after having their children murdered) and dangerous misinformation (vaccines, etc.), to the spread of ideologies that promote terror, a lot of time I think the internet does more harm than good.

Sadly, it's the craziest/least intelligent of my facebook friends who are the ones who are constantly posting and sharing the political junk and misinformation all over my newsfeed.  God forbid they take 30 seconds and investigate to see if what they are posting is factual or not.

bla bla. the russians are coming!!!!  our democracy is in shambles!!!  im sure your least intelligent “friends” fall outside your political belief spectrum?

maybe just maybe both sides have been feeding us shit for years and are all part of the same washington machine that keeps us all screwed. 

just remember...that left wing and right wing are on the same damn bird. 

I didn't say a word about left-wing or right-wing, but nice assumptions.  I'm registered independent for a reason; there are plenty of people on both sides who I can't stand.

Again, my post had nothing to do with politics, but your reply (at least the first line) helped prove the point of this thread.  I would tend to agree with your latter point.

People seem to accept as true "news" that comes from a friend or someone they know. They do not care where the person learned of this "news." But they tend to believe it more than news reported by real news organizations. (Sorry, I do not buy into all the conspiracy theories that the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, LA Times, Chicago Tribune, Detroit Free Press, etc., have been systematically feeding us shit for the past 100 years.) And Facebook evidently is a great vehicle for spreading nonsense that passes as real news. That's not good. 
I do not post on FB. It is not a matter of principal. I go on FB and see FB friends' posts of vacations, kids' scholastic achievements, job promotions, anniversary dinners, etc. And I think, who cares? That stuff is important to the person and his/her closest family and friends. That is, the very people who already knew about it without having to read it on facebook. Some people evidently like to live their lives far more publicly than I do. To each their own. It's just not for me.

I have found that most people inside the I 495 loop are liars and idiots:

You dont want to know about my bowel movements?   Because I took a massive Erin Rodgers yesterday. 

I signed up for facebook for a class reunion.  I never use it.  I can't stand social media and I refuse to use it.  

As someone else said, what we're seeing is the symptom- not the sickness.  In my opinion, the "sickness" is relativism has taken hold as an accepted personal philosophy for many people; in other words, "the ends justify the means".  Everything is permissible- as long as it benefits me.  That's what makes it OK to tear other people down- with lies- and feel good about it: because it is for the greater good (and, therefore, justifiably "moral").

@"pumpf" said: As someone else said, what we're seeing is the symptom- not the sickness.  In my opinion, the "sickness" is relativism has taken hold as an accepted personal philosophy for many people; in other words, "the ends justify the means".  Everything is permissible- as long as it benefits me.  That's what makes it OK to tear other people down- with lies- and feel good about it: because it is for the greater good (and, therefore, justifiably "moral").

....what social media does mostly is give anonymity. Or at the very least, not face to face discussion (Facebook) and the ability to communicate your every whim to all of cyber space. A forum. So your possible latent racism, homophobia, harsh criticism or other cynicism gets to be displayed unlike it would have been otherwise. Drunk posting. The instantaneous gut reaction to something that you might regret after 5 minutes of reflection. All of the above. There's no repercussion for treating people poorly or without respect as their would sitting next to someone. 

The same toxic feelings/emotions have always existed, they've just never had these kinds of platforms before. 

@"StickyBun" said:

@"pumpf" said: As someone else said, what we're seeing is the symptom- not the sickness.  In my opinion, the "sickness" is relativism has taken hold as an accepted personal philosophy for many people; in other words, "the ends justify the means".  Everything is permissible- as long as it benefits me.  That's what makes it OK to tear other people down- with lies- and feel good about it: because it is for the greater good (and, therefore, justifiably "moral").

....what social media does mostly is give anonymity. Or at the very least, not face to face discussion (Facebook) and the ability to communicate your every whim to all of cyber space. A forum. So your possible latent racism, homophobia, harsh criticism or other cynicism gets to be displayed unlike it would have been otherwise. Drunk posting. The instantaneous gut reaction to something that you might regret after 5 minutes of reflection. All of the above. There's no repercussion for treating people poorly or without respect as their would sitting next to someone. 

The same toxic feelings/emotions have always existed, they've just never had these kinds of platforms before. 

@"JimmyinSD" said:

@"StickyBun" said:

@"pumpf" said: As someone else said, what we're seeing is the symptom- not the sickness.  In my opinion, the "sickness" is relativism has taken hold as an accepted personal philosophy for many people; in other words, "the ends justify the means".  Everything is permissible- as long as it benefits me.  That's what makes it OK to tear other people down- with lies- and feel good about it: because it is for the greater good (and, therefore, justifiably "moral").

....what social media does mostly is give anonymity. Or at the very least, not face to face discussion (Facebook) and the ability to communicate your every whim to all of cyber space. A forum. So your possible latent racism, homophobia, harsh criticism or other cynicism gets to be displayed unlike it would have been otherwise. Drunk posting. The instantaneous gut reaction to something that you might regret after 5 minutes of reflection. All of the above. There's no repercussion for treating people poorly or without respect as their would sitting next to someone. 

The same toxic feelings/emotions have always existed, they've just never had these kinds of platforms before. 

Yes and no,  I think people now have strong opinions (rarely well informed ones) on matters that in the past they would maybe not even have been exposed to. (Both good and bad...mostly bad)

@"StickyBun" said:

@"JimmyinSD" said:

@"StickyBun" said:

@"pumpf" said: As someone else said, what we're seeing is the symptom- not the sickness.  In my opinion, the "sickness" is relativism has taken hold as an accepted personal philosophy for many people; in other words, "the ends justify the means".  Everything is permissible- as long as it benefits me.  That's what makes it OK to tear other people down- with lies- and feel good about it: because it is for the greater good (and, therefore, justifiably "moral").

....what social media does mostly is give anonymity. Or at the very least, not face to face discussion (Facebook) and the ability to communicate your every whim to all of cyber space. A forum. So your possible latent racism, homophobia, harsh criticism or other cynicism gets to be displayed unlike it would have been otherwise. Drunk posting. The instantaneous gut reaction to something that you might regret after 5 minutes of reflection. All of the above. There's no repercussion for treating people poorly or without respect as their would sitting next to someone. 

The same toxic feelings/emotions have always existed, they've just never had these kinds of platforms before. 

Yes and no,  I think people now have strong opinions (rarely well informed ones) on matters that in the past they would maybe not even have been exposed to. (Both good and bad...mostly bad)

Yep. My Mom takes what she reads on Facebook as the truth and its such horribly false information. Fear mongering. Manipulative. 

Facebook is nothing but practice for your kids dropping you off at the nursing home, is what I found.  Dad, dad, dad, you gotta get facebook, it’s so cool!   Over and over and over.... well I did... and bam they quit using it.  Now I’m stuck with a bunch of “strangers” who think I want to know all about their lives.  Sure I have some friends on there as well, but mostly it’s crap and extremely entrusive crap too.  Meanwhile my kids swing by maybe once every month, mostly to tell me to get Tweeter, Snapgram or Instachat...   =)

@"greediron" said: IMO, social media is a symptom, not the cause.  It may have a hand in the behavior and certainly feeds the beast, but the selfish, look at me generation was already there waiting for it.  It isn't the "this generation... blah blah blah, get off my lawn" either.  There are some serious issues with a majority of the youth.  Horrible behavior, so much lacking. 

I hear what you're saying. Teens can be absolutely horrible to each other, and social media gives them a venue to be the worst they can be. Online bullying and the false reality social media presents, especially Facebook, can be really destructive for teens.

I will say this, though: In my experience, young people (and by "young people" I mean anyone roughly under 35) seem to approach with much more cynicism than older folks. They seem to at least acknowledge the false reality, whereas older folks, folks who grew up trying to keep up with the Joneses, use Facebook to show just how well they've done in that effort. And when it comes to social, cultural and political topics, younger people tend to verify the truth of something before posting it. Some of the most ridiculous things I've seen on social media are by older people--parents, aunts, uncles, mothers in law, etc. Batshit crazy conspiracy theories, urban myths, nonsense MEMEs. I often find it's the kids who respond "hey, grandma, you might want to check Snopes.com."

Social media is still in it’s infancy.  It’s just not a mature technology yet, and
people haven’t figured out how to fit it into their lives yet.

 

The transparency portion of social media is a critical
portion of democracy going forward.  As
we move forward, it is essential that the corrupt not be allowed to control the
narrative via the media that they control. 
While they do astroturf and spam social media, it’s much harder for them
to control the narrative.  At best they can
make everything confusing with disinformation making it hard for people to hone
in on the truth.

 

It’s a bullshit proposition to suggest that social media is
more likely to screw up society than mainstream media.  With mainstream media, most people have been
assuming that what they’ve been told is real and truthful, but not really
analyzing their information sources for truthfulness.  Now we’re just at a point where we realize
they haven’t been truthful or at best selectively truthful, and we’re learning
how to deal with the fact that we can’t assume things people say are
automatically true.

@"MaroonBells" said:

@"greediron" said: IMO, social media is a symptom, not the cause.  It may have a hand in the behavior and certainly feeds the beast, but the selfish, look at me generation was already there waiting for it.  It isn't the "this generation... blah blah blah, get off my lawn" either.  There are some serious issues with a majority of the youth.  Horrible behavior, so much lacking. 

I hear what you're saying. Teens can be absolutely horrible to each other, and social media gives them a venue to be the worst they can be. Online bullying and the false reality social media presents, especially Facebook, can be really destructive for teens.

I will say this, though: In my experience, young people (and by "young people" I mean anyone roughly under 35) seem to approach with much more cynicism than older folks. They seem to at least acknowledge the false reality, whereas older folks, folks who grew up trying to keep up with the Joneses, use Facebook to show just how well they've done in that effort. And when it comes to social, cultural and political topics, younger people tend to verify the truth of something before posting it. Some of the most ridiculous things I've seen on social media are by older people--parents, aunts, uncles, mothers in law, etc. Batshit crazy conspiracy theories, urban myths, nonsense MEMEs. I often find it's the kids who respond "hey, grandma, you might want to check Snopes.com."

LOL you can’t make this shit up. Bunch of old people bitching about social media on one of the oldest forms of social media out there. 

Cracks me up man. Literally the same gripes about anonymity, echo chambers, inane arguments, false info being diseminated, and everything else is exactly the same thing that happens here (or on other forums) and the bitching pissing and moaning is the same too! 

pure comedy. 

@"Mike Olson" said: LOL you can’t make this shit up. Bunch of old people bitching about social media on one of the oldest forms of social media out there. 

Cracks me up man. Literally the same gripes about anonymity, echo chambers, inane arguments, false info being diseminated, and everything else is exactly the same thing that happens here (or on other forums) and the bitching pissing and moaning is the same too! 

pure comedy. 

still waiting for you to code in some truth meter/fact checking to rate the posts... ;)

These dinosaurs are a different beast than the social media my kids do.  

One girl can body shame another in front of the whole school in minutes with one tweet.  No anonymity. 

@"Mike Olson" said: LOL you can’t make this shit up. Bunch of old people bitching about social media on one of the oldest forms of social media out there. 

Cracks me up man. Literally the same gripes about anonymity, echo chambers, inane arguments, false info being diseminated, and everything else is exactly the same thing that happens here (or on other forums) and the bitching pissing and moaning is the same too! 

pure comedy. 

Slight difference between the old forums and chatrooms of yesterday versus facebook, twitter, instagram, snapchat, etc. today.

@"Mike Olson" said: LOL you can’t make this shit up. Bunch of old people bitching about social media on one of the oldest forms of social media out there. 

Cracks me up man. Literally the same gripes about anonymity, echo chambers, inane arguments, false info being diseminated, and everything else is exactly the same thing that happens here (or on other forums) and the bitching pissing and moaning is the same too! 

pure comedy. 

? Did you even read the article?

Maybe this is true but there are still plenty of people who do not use social media at all and probably a good percentage that do use it, hardly use it at all.

I'm not too worried about it.

But I am old and grumpy.