(LONG RANT)-A public service announcement. I know it might be obvious since I am posting in Privacy. Most of you might know this already. But I have to rant. Just in case if this helps anybody. You can test this for yourself. Click on any, usually political posts, you will see nonstop arguing, then you will start getting more and more posts like that. Same thing with TikTok and Reddit for sure. The sites want you to engage more so you stay on there. Especially now in these crazy political times. I have grown very disgusted with this and have deleted every app I can think of that does it. It is also very bad for your mental health. Now, who knows what data they are trying to get from those sites too. And some sites require your phone number or some kind of stupid verification process. This will get worse, you might have to add your ID just to enter in more websites online eventually. It is happening already with age restricted adult sites and with Discord. But honestly, you should already be watching what your kids are doing anyway. There will always be parental control tools. Now, the social media apps sure don’t help your child’s mental health either. They could be talking to anybody on them, a very disturbing thought. With them also posting photos and videos. I would never let my child do that on any website. Too many creeps out there. Obviously, when they are an adult that is a different story. But, children being on sites like these is very harmful to their minds. Even kids apps, they can click on AI slop that might say the ABC’s wrong or something like that. They have to be watched when you give them some random iPad. This whole rant might sound nuts, but I had to say it.
I realized this back during COVID. I had always known FB and their parent Meta were shit companies, but they were pushing engagement algorithms that lead to death threats because I would say innocuous things like stay safe and use a mask if you need to.
After my third interaction with someone in my past who had been radicalized by their garbage propaganda I said enough was enough and deleted my account.
My family still uses it and I still warn them not to, but I will never use their service for anything personal again.
Family, usually older people have no idea what is going on. They think the ai video slop is real. Also, the slop will get worse and very hard to distinguish between real ones. Then they try to add photos of you or your kid on Facebook.
I hate when people post pictures of their kids now. It is so cringe knowing that AI is capturing their faces and building profiles on them.
I agree with you completely. Somebody told me about schools too, and I didn’t even realize that their faces are all on the surveillance there. But, I don’t know how far that goes on the ai side. It is good that there is security in the schools so it is a double edge sword thing.
To be honest, I came here to get away from the toxicity of algorithm driven social media, reddit etc., but I find myself as angered here as anywhere else. While the algorithms play their role in generating anger, I’m finding more and more that people are as much of the problem as anything else.
Yes it’s great that I can tailor my feed to exactly what I want, and that works fine, but it seems they are riddled with disgruntled, pissed off, angry, paranoid people that don’t seem to be happy with anything before them, and seem intent on annoying everyone around them.
It was a breath of fresh air at first. Subscribe to X, Y and Z, only receive updates on X, Y and Z, but it was quickly ruined by the people, not the algorithm.
It’s getting increasingly difficult to exist online now without this toxicity, and we can’t keep blaming the algorithms.
Anyway, maybe I was a bit naive about what to expect, but its disappointing. We are running out if enjoyable spaces to exist in online and thats a shame.
Who would have thought? Capitalism and billionaires have made a lot of people angry…
Unfortunately unless it’s the algorithm itself publishing the toxicity (which it isn’t), getting rid of the algorithm will not help much.
I completely agree with you but wouldn’t it be less impactful if we were less online? I think quality is a thing, yes, control your feed etc. But quantity is just as important, if not more. If you’re constantly online you will naturally be more exposed to this sort of toxicity.
Edit: what I mean is that we don’t have to be as radical and completely get rid of social media. We need to spend less time on it. And Lemmy is perfect for that. No infinite scrolling, curated feed…
Totally agree. I have been away from all social media for years, with the final two, LinkedIn and Reddit nuked last year. I spent a full year being as helpful as I possibly could on Reddit, in specific subs, went out of the way to help people etc., but fuck me the toxicity in that place was unreal.
I spend very little time on my phone now, with Voyager the only app I use that connects me to communities, i.e. this one, but its still hard to get away from the heavy stuff. I don’t know where people have the time and energy to be so obstructive and challenging. If they put a fraction of that energy into helping people, it would change the world!
Being on the phone less has been great, but its just a pity that the only place I do go is a bit of a challenge at times. There’s so many good people here, its hard for them to keep their heads above the surface at times.
Maybe I need to curate even further!
I get it, sometimes it’s overwhelming. No matter how much we curate we’ll always encounter the toxicity. There’s no way to 100% avoid it… Heck even in real life you’ll come across this type of people. At the end of the day it’s a matter of how much we are willing to deal with it. Maybe ignore them? I don’t know… I was always told to not feed the trolls so I try to apply this rule everywhere.
I personally still use other types of social media, including Reddit for example, and the difference with here is night and day.
Honestly I’m jealous of you, I can’t bring myself to quit them. I always end up re creating an account and my screen time is shameful…
A few years ago I was friends with a cohort of soon-to-be Psychologists, and it was a well known fact that your options for easy employment* were either to get a job as a therapist for a major health corp and make little money and have to deal with the terrible admin, or make 2-3x working for a tech company but having to incur the karmic debt of trying to give Jolly West and James Mitchell a run for their money in the Lawful Evil competition.
*Private practice, teaching, and/or research have their own hurdles that are typically too high a barrier for entry for new grads
The problem here is the same but without the algorithm. The most active groups are political and news related. The posts that rise are all going to be political and pushed upward by the communities.
Those communities themselves are made up already extreme elements in one way or another that either got kicked off other algorithm managed communities or left those communities themselves.
And that says nothing of the gamifying of the whole online culture. People chase upvotes, the last comment, and just ‘winning’ discussion instead of teaching and talking. I’m no better. I try to be, but the impulse is pavolvian and takes constant effort to fight.
Social media has become this terrible mix of the casino, the strip club, and the opium den.
It hits all the worst parts of our brain and makes us weaker as a people.
It sucks.
