Is Social Media Too Powerful?
+16
Da Mayor
Watch Out Pylon!
steveschneider
Floyd Robertson
Turtleneck
DWags
Nordic
SawGreen
CORNER BLITZ
Code_Warrior
Travis of the Cosmos
Robert J Sakimano
Cameron
tGreenWay
Other Teams Pursuing That
Rocinante
20 posters
Page 1 of 3
Page 1 of 3 • 1, 2, 3
Is Social Media Too Powerful?
Some interesting questions starting to be discussed. Facebook has been taken to task repeatedly in the last couple years and doesn't seem to have a handle on how much influence their platform has on not just reporting ("We're not a media company") but shaping global events.
Long Wired piece in Facebook's coming of age struggle.
Former head of Britain's version of the NSA says social media companies think they sit above democracy
Do these companies need to be better regulated? How would we do that? Is it a violation of the First Amendment to limit social media speech of Americans even if that speech may be echoing the propaganda of a foreign government?
NY Times on how Russians infiltrated American's psyches
Time: Russian troll factory stories from the indictment are true
Can any of us honestly assert that all people of any political persuasion really make their own decisions all the time? I mean we wouldn't have the term "sheeple" if we really thought that, right? And if we admit that people can be influenced to make bad choices through social media manipulation (even if that manipulation is only encouraging already held biases), shouldn't we do something about that?
I think the questions brought up through the investigation into Russian meddling transcend partisan politics. Both Left and Right wing people were influenced. I think we should be able to have a straightforward conversation on whether we want more regulated social media, some other form of content policing, or nothing at all, and what social media will look like in the future.
Do you think we can have that conversation, guys?
Long Wired piece in Facebook's coming of age struggle.
Former head of Britain's version of the NSA says social media companies think they sit above democracy
Do these companies need to be better regulated? How would we do that? Is it a violation of the First Amendment to limit social media speech of Americans even if that speech may be echoing the propaganda of a foreign government?
NY Times on how Russians infiltrated American's psyches
Time: Russian troll factory stories from the indictment are true
Can any of us honestly assert that all people of any political persuasion really make their own decisions all the time? I mean we wouldn't have the term "sheeple" if we really thought that, right? And if we admit that people can be influenced to make bad choices through social media manipulation (even if that manipulation is only encouraging already held biases), shouldn't we do something about that?
I think the questions brought up through the investigation into Russian meddling transcend partisan politics. Both Left and Right wing people were influenced. I think we should be able to have a straightforward conversation on whether we want more regulated social media, some other form of content policing, or nothing at all, and what social media will look like in the future.
Do you think we can have that conversation, guys?
Rocinante- Geronte
- Posts : 20582
Join date : 2014-04-21
Location : East Lansing, MI
Re: Is Social Media Too Powerful?
Yes.
We need new age trustbusters.
Break up Facebook, Amazon, Alphabet, tSwill.
We need new age trustbusters.
Break up Facebook, Amazon, Alphabet, tSwill.
Guest- Guest
Re: Is Social Media Too Powerful?
Yeah, and it starts with parents getting their children off technology rather than shoving it in their face so they shut up.
Other Teams Pursuing That- Geronte
- Posts : 36472
Join date : 2014-04-18
Re: Is Social Media Too Powerful?
LooseGoose wrote:Yes.
We need new age trustbusters.
Break up Facebook, Amazon, Alphabet, tSwill.
I don't know if you're serious, but it's a valid, option... though how something like that works since social media platforms are user-driven would be challenging. I don't know that we really even have a definition for what these companies are. How do you regulate something you haven't even defined?
Rocinante- Geronte
- Posts : 20582
Join date : 2014-04-21
Location : East Lansing, MI
Re: Is Social Media Too Powerful?
LooseGoose wrote:Yes.
We need new age trustbusters.
Break up Facebook, Amazon, Alphabet, tSwill.
We can start with tSwill.
tGreenWay- Geronte
- Swill Pick 'em 2022 Regular Season Champion
- Posts : 55391
Join date : 2014-04-18
Location : East Lansing
Re: Is Social Media Too Powerful?
Here's a nice little article.
https://www.theage.com.au/world/technolibertarians-a-weak-link-in-democracys-defence-against-authoritarians-20170804-gxp8er.html
https://www.theage.com.au/world/technolibertarians-a-weak-link-in-democracys-defence-against-authoritarians-20170804-gxp8er.html
Silicon Valley's thinking in this area is shaped by techno-libertarianism, a faith in a utopia though technology and a disdain for the political and economic realities of actual governance.
Liberal democracies must be able to defend themselves online. Too much of the tech community dismisses, or even mocks, the fundamental political reality confronting the governments that guarantee and protect their rights.
Rocinante- Geronte
- Posts : 20582
Join date : 2014-04-21
Location : East Lansing, MI
Re: Is Social Media Too Powerful?
Dead serious.
Especially Amazon, Facebook and Alphabet.
They all know way too much, they should be broken up like Standard Oil or the Bells were.
Especially Amazon, Facebook and Alphabet.
They all know way too much, they should be broken up like Standard Oil or the Bells were.
Guest- Guest
Re: Is Social Media Too Powerful?
I haven't read any of the links in this thread yet, but yes, social media is a net negative for humanity. I don't know what can/should be done about it. Anonymity seems like part of the problem, yet I'm constantly astounded by the things people will sign their real names to, so I don't really know the answer.
But fuck facebook and their algorithms. Fuck twitter too, once they ditched straight chronological, they lost the plot. Probably sucked before then, too, but less.
But fuck facebook and their algorithms. Fuck twitter too, once they ditched straight chronological, they lost the plot. Probably sucked before then, too, but less.
Cameron- Geronte
- Posts : 10798
Join date : 2014-04-16
Age : 35
Location : Michigan
Re: Is Social Media Too Powerful?
I'm so out of the loop, I've never even heard of alphabet.LooseGoose wrote:Dead serious.
Especially Amazon, Facebook and Alphabet.
They all know way too much, they should be broken up like Standard Oil or the Bells were.
Robert J Sakimano- Geronte
- Posts : 49247
Join date : 2014-04-15
Re: Is Social Media Too Powerful?
Robert J Sakimano wrote:I'm so out of the loop, I've never even heard of alphabet.LooseGoose wrote:Dead serious.
Especially Amazon, Facebook and Alphabet.
They all know way too much, they should be broken up like Standard Oil or the Bells were.
Alphabet = Google's corporate name.
Guest- Guest
Re: Is Social Media Too Powerful?
No.
It needs to be better understood and managed however. Everyone in this thread so far sounds like the guy 100 years ago that said “the car is the most dangerous thing ever and will never take off! The horse will always be the way we transport.” It’s not wrong to say that there are problems, but similar to how people needed to get drivers licenses and seat belts needed to be invented- there are improvements that must be made
Also the specifics of the improvements are probably left to smarter people than I. And also even if I knew I wouldn’t tell you for free I’d sell the idea to zuckerberg for a lot of money.
It needs to be better understood and managed however. Everyone in this thread so far sounds like the guy 100 years ago that said “the car is the most dangerous thing ever and will never take off! The horse will always be the way we transport.” It’s not wrong to say that there are problems, but similar to how people needed to get drivers licenses and seat belts needed to be invented- there are improvements that must be made
Also the specifics of the improvements are probably left to smarter people than I. And also even if I knew I wouldn’t tell you for free I’d sell the idea to zuckerberg for a lot of money.
Travis of the Cosmos- Geronte
- Posts : 31208
Join date : 2014-04-15
Age : 39
Location : Please cease horny posting
Re: Is Social Media Too Powerful?
Travis of the Cosmos wrote:No.
It needs to be better understood and managed however. Everyone in this thread so far sounds like the guy 100 years ago that said “the car is the most dangerous thing ever and will never take off! The horse will always be the way we transport.” It’s not wrong to say that there are problems, but similar to how people needed to get drivers licenses and seat belts needed to be invented- there are improvements that must be made
Also the specifics of the improvements are probably left to smarter people than I. And also even if I knew I wouldn’t tell you for free I’d sell the idea to zuckerberg for a lot of money.
Your corporate overlords will be pleased.
Guest- Guest
Re: Is Social Media Too Powerful?
It’s common sense really for someone who isn’t stuck in the 1950s.LooseGoose wrote:Travis of the Cosmos wrote:No.
It needs to be better understood and managed however. Everyone in this thread so far sounds like the guy 100 years ago that said “the car is the most dangerous thing ever and will never take off! The horse will always be the way we transport.” It’s not wrong to say that there are problems, but similar to how people needed to get drivers licenses and seat belts needed to be invented- there are improvements that must be made
Also the specifics of the improvements are probably left to smarter people than I. And also even if I knew I wouldn’t tell you for free I’d sell the idea to zuckerberg for a lot of money.
Your corporate overlords will be pleased.
Yeah. It’s a new technology. Yeah. There’s hiccups. Yeah. There’s lots of benefits. Yeah. We need to figure out how to reap those benefits and minimize the hiccups. We’ve literally went through this process thousands of times in history.
Travis of the Cosmos- Geronte
- Posts : 31208
Join date : 2014-04-15
Age : 39
Location : Please cease horny posting
Re: Is Social Media Too Powerful?
okay. Gotcha - thanks.LooseGoose wrote:Robert J Sakimano wrote: I'm so out of the loop, I've never even heard of alphabet.
Alphabet = Google's corporate name.
Robert J Sakimano- Geronte
- Posts : 49247
Join date : 2014-04-15
Re: Is Social Media Too Powerful?
I don't know. I'm not in the break them up camp, I'm in the find alternatives camp. Outside of message boards and comment sections, I have no social media exposure - never been on Facebook, Twitter, instagram, snap chat, linked in, hell, I wasn't even on My Space.
Despite that, I started getting too into the political arguments. It got ridiculous. I was creating these long elaborate posts that were for sure going to win the argument with whatever poster I was debating with, and then after realizing that I just killed an hour of my life formulating some bullet proof point and I would ask myself what the fuck I was doing and why was this stupid debate so important to me. Then I would realize that it wasn't really important at all, so I'd delete what I typed and let it go. Wash, rinse, repeat. I can'tcount the number of times I did that. Eventually I just had to stop posting.
So, I don't know if the problem is so much social media as it is people who take it way too seriously. Then again, maybe I'm just projecting my issues onto other people. However, I think there's merit to the idea that the problem is people feel their contribution to social media is more important than it really is. How to fix that, I've no idea. For me, I just had to quit posting for a very long time.
Despite that, I started getting too into the political arguments. It got ridiculous. I was creating these long elaborate posts that were for sure going to win the argument with whatever poster I was debating with, and then after realizing that I just killed an hour of my life formulating some bullet proof point and I would ask myself what the fuck I was doing and why was this stupid debate so important to me. Then I would realize that it wasn't really important at all, so I'd delete what I typed and let it go. Wash, rinse, repeat. I can'tcount the number of times I did that. Eventually I just had to stop posting.
So, I don't know if the problem is so much social media as it is people who take it way too seriously. Then again, maybe I'm just projecting my issues onto other people. However, I think there's merit to the idea that the problem is people feel their contribution to social media is more important than it really is. How to fix that, I've no idea. For me, I just had to quit posting for a very long time.
Code_Warrior- Geronte
- Posts : 2257
Join date : 2014-05-25
Re: Is Social Media Too Powerful?
Travis of the Cosmos wrote:It’s common sense really for someone who isn’t stuck in the 1950s.LooseGoose wrote:
Your corporate overlords will be pleased.
Yeah. It’s a new technology. Yeah. There’s hiccups. Yeah. There’s lots of benefits. Yeah. We need to figure out how to reap those benefits and minimize the hiccups. We’ve literally went through this process thousands of times in history.
So your answer is no social media companies don’t need to be regulated more but they need to be “managed better”? What does that look like do you think?
Rocinante- Geronte
- Posts : 20582
Join date : 2014-04-21
Location : East Lansing, MI
Re: Is Social Media Too Powerful?
I answered a question I made up in my head that sounded more like “are they inherently bad” than all that. Like I said, I don’t know how to fix the problems but that doesn’t mean I think they are bad.Rocinante wrote:Travis of the Cosmos wrote:
It’s common sense really for someone who isn’t stuck in the 1950s.
Yeah. It’s a new technology. Yeah. There’s hiccups. Yeah. There’s lots of benefits. Yeah. We need to figure out how to reap those benefits and minimize the hiccups. We’ve literally went through this process thousands of times in history.
So your answer is no social media companies don’t need to be regulated more but they need to be “managed better”? What does that look like do you think?
Travis of the Cosmos- Geronte
- Posts : 31208
Join date : 2014-04-15
Age : 39
Location : Please cease horny posting
Re: Is Social Media Too Powerful?
The interesting thing about saying that people “take social media way too seriously” and hey should stop is that I think we may be finding out that people can’t stop. It’s just how we are. Some of us anyway. Enough to cause problems.
Rocinante- Geronte
- Posts : 20582
Join date : 2014-04-21
Location : East Lansing, MI
Re: Is Social Media Too Powerful?
Other Teams Pursuing That wrote:Yeah, and it starts with parents getting their children off technology rather than shoving it in their face so they shut up.
I feel like since the beginning of time parents have been looking for things to shut their kids up... It's just now there's something that actually works and that may be a problem
CORNER BLITZ- Geronte
- Posts : 8682
Join date : 2014-04-27
Re: Is Social Media Too Powerful?
Travis of the Cosmos wrote:I answered a question I made up in my head that sounded more like “are they inherently bad” than all that. Like I said, I don’t know how to fix the problems but that doesn’t mean I think they are bad.Rocinante wrote:
So your answer is no social media companies don’t need to be regulated more but they need to be “managed better”? What does that look like do you think?
thanks for clearing that up. I also wouldn’t say they’re bad.
Rocinante- Geronte
- Posts : 20582
Join date : 2014-04-21
Location : East Lansing, MI
Re: Is Social Media Too Powerful?
Yeah, you might be right about that. If so, then things may have to get a lot worse before people begin to police themselves and learn some discipline around their social media use. Policing myself is what I had to do, not saying that's what others need to do.Rocinante wrote:The interesting thing about saying that people “take social media way too seriously” and hey should stop is that I think we may be finding out that people can’t stop. It’s just how we are. Some of us anyway. Enough to cause problems.
Code_Warrior- Geronte
- Posts : 2257
Join date : 2014-05-25
Re: Is Social Media Too Powerful?
SAIP
https://www.yourmodernfamily.com/scary-truth-whats-hurting-kids/
https://www.yourmodernfamily.com/scary-truth-whats-hurting-kids/
SawGreen- Geronte
- Posts : 2519
Join date : 2014-04-21
Re: Is Social Media Too Powerful?
LooseGoose wrote:Dead serious.
Especially Amazon, Facebook and Alphabet.
They all know way too much, they should be broken up like Standard Oil or the Bells were.
You can pry my Amazon app from my cold dead hands
Nordic- Geronte
- Posts : 19953
Join date : 2014-05-08
Re: Is Social Media Too Powerful?
Nordic wrote:LooseGoose wrote:Dead serious.
Especially Amazon, Facebook and Alphabet.
They all know way too much, they should be broken up like Standard Oil or the Bells were.
You can pry my Amazon app from my cold dead hands
Is there an app for that?
DWags- Geronte
- Posts : 49775
Join date : 2014-04-21
Age : 62
Location : Right here
Re: Is Social Media Too Powerful?
This is interesting and kind of what I’m talking about with the “it’s just how we are” comment. And goose, I fully acknowledge that it happened on the left too.
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/374792-woman-behind-pro-trump-facebook-page-denies-being-influenced-by
Florine Gruen Goldfarb is the greatest name ever.
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/374792-woman-behind-pro-trump-facebook-page-denies-being-influenced-by
Florine Gruen Goldfarb is the greatest name ever.
Rocinante- Geronte
- Posts : 20582
Join date : 2014-04-21
Location : East Lansing, MI
Re: Is Social Media Too Powerful?
RE: Amazon - just got linked to this.
The Dangers of Amazon’s Dominance
The Dangers of Amazon’s Dominance
Concern about Amazonian dominance is valid. In retail, Amazon accounts for 53 percent of all e-commerce sales growth and cannot be matched by rivals given its robotized fulfillment centers and immediate deliveries. This has been devastating already. Twice as many stores closed in 2017, or 8,600, as the year before. Department store jobs have plummeted from 1.782 million in June 2001 to 1.27 million by November 2017. Projections suggest that between 2016 and 2026 the average annual growth of jobs across the economy will increase by 7 percent annually, but retail will increase by only 2 percent.
Of course, success and efficiency are not crimes, nor is bigness, unless it prevents anyone else from competing. Unfortunately, Amazon is on its way to becoming the next Standard Oil, which gained a stranglehold on the oil industry and related sectors so severe that capitalism itself was threatened and the company had to be busted up into competing companies in 1911.
Atop this all is concern about the fact that Amazon has inordinate market power to set the terms by which goods are bought and sold in the United States digitally, and which products will be on offer. This cartel, or oligopoly power, is why investors have bid up the value of Amazon stock beyond normal levels. Silicon Valley venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya described Amazon in Forbes last year as “a multi-trillion-dollar monopoly hiding in plain sight.”
Another less publicized danger concerns the company’s growing control over the underlying infrastructure of the economy itself: From its digital platform which dominates commerce, to its growing 44 percent control over cloud computing capacity used by everyone from the Central Intelligence Agency to Netflix, to the building of its own army of planes, trucks and drones, which all competitors will be forced to hire.
Such aggressive “vertical integration” is precisely why Standard Oil had to be busted up. Like Amazon, Standard Oil controlled all its marketplaces and forced all its competitors out of business or to become captive buyers and sellers of its goods and services.
Guest- Guest
Re: Is Social Media Too Powerful?
Twitter may be purging bots today. I think SM platforms are legitimately scared that at some point the gubment gonna come in and regulate.
https://gizmodo.com/conservative-twitter-users-lose-thousands-of-followers-1823185428
https://gizmodo.com/conservative-twitter-users-lose-thousands-of-followers-1823185428
Rocinante- Geronte
- Posts : 20582
Join date : 2014-04-21
Location : East Lansing, MI
Re: Is Social Media Too Powerful?
I'm not going to lie though. Living where I live, Amazon is my go to for almost everything.
Rocinante- Geronte
- Posts : 20582
Join date : 2014-04-21
Location : East Lansing, MI
Re: Is Social Media Too Powerful?
Rocinante wrote:I'm not going to lie though. Living where I live, Amazon is my go to for almost everything.
lol, me too. I probably average 2 deliveries a week between diapers/wipes for my daughter and other various trinkets - groceries, gifts, etc and I use their music service because why not?
Guest- Guest
Re: Is Social Media Too Powerful?
This is a good rundown of Facebook's changing algorithm that Cam eluded to and how it was so easily exploitable by a hostile foreign power. Their arrogant absolute trust in their program and motives blinded them to the fact that it was a ready-made tool for a small, informed force to bend American public opinion and will toward a specific end, even though Facebook had been advertising their platform as a influential tool for campaigns.
NYTimes The Daily Podcast
NYTimes The Daily Podcast
Rocinante- Geronte
- Posts : 20582
Join date : 2014-04-21
Location : East Lansing, MI
Re: Is Social Media Too Powerful?
tSwill’s Twitter page is weak.
Turtleneck- Geronte
- Posts : 42442
Join date : 2014-04-22
Re: Is Social Media Too Powerful?
Who are you?
Turtleneck wrote:tSwill’s Twitter page is weak.
Rocinante- Geronte
- Posts : 20582
Join date : 2014-04-21
Location : East Lansing, MI
Re: Is Social Media Too Powerful?
Rocinante wrote:Who are you?Turtleneck wrote:tSwill’s Twitter page is weak.
A Russian bot.
Turtleneck- Geronte
- Posts : 42442
Join date : 2014-04-22
Re: Is Social Media Too Powerful?
https://www.theringer.com/tech/2018/2/27/17056320/snapchat-redesign-chronological-internet-twitter-instagram-facebook
Cameron- Geronte
- Posts : 10798
Join date : 2014-04-16
Age : 35
Location : Michigan
Re: Is Social Media Too Powerful?
Cameron wrote:https://www.theringer.com/tech/2018/2/27/17056320/snapchat-redesign-chronological-internet-twitter-instagram-facebook
This is exactly the dystopian future that Zeynep Tufekci has been warning about. We're now controlled by corporations and their algorithms and nothing controls them to behave ethically/morally.
Floyd Robertson- Geronte
- Posts : 28976
Join date : 2014-04-15
Location : Rolling Hills Alcoholic Rehabilitation Center: Where They Don't Beat You or Anything
Re: Is Social Media Too Powerful?
https://www.theringer.com/tech/2018/3/8/17093982/twitter-bot-proble
Cameron- Geronte
- Posts : 10798
Join date : 2014-04-16
Age : 35
Location : Michigan
Re: Is Social Media Too Powerful?
The Swill 100% algorithm and bot free!
steveschneider- Spartiate
- Posts : 34221
Join date : 2014-05-02
Re: Is Social Media Too Powerful?
YouTube, the Great Radicalizer
Floyd Robertson- Geronte
- Posts : 28976
Join date : 2014-04-15
Location : Rolling Hills Alcoholic Rehabilitation Center: Where They Don't Beat You or Anything
Re: Is Social Media Too Powerful?
Floyd Robertson wrote:YouTube, the Great Radicalizer
I don't like Youtube's algorithm. I enjoy variety, and Youtube constantly recommends the same shit to me. I've watched tons of different things on there, but probably 80% of my recommendations are Joe Rogan videos at this point.
Cameron- Geronte
- Posts : 10798
Join date : 2014-04-16
Age : 35
Location : Michigan
Re: Is Social Media Too Powerful?
Floyd Robertson wrote:Cameron wrote:https://www.theringer.com/tech/2018/2/27/17056320/snapchat-redesign-chronological-internet-twitter-instagram-facebook
This is exactly the dystopian future that Zeynep Tufekci has been warning about. We're now controlled by corporations and their algorithms and nothing controls them to behave ethically/morally.
Thanks for this. It's one of those pretty obvious things, but it brought home a few new items. Even unintended, the large social media players are contributing to a breakdown of social structure.
I have been making a more than conscious effort to avoid the temptation of hype.
SawGreen- Geronte
- Posts : 2519
Join date : 2014-04-21
Page 1 of 3 • 1, 2, 3
Similar topics
» Who? Who is in charge of tSwill social media campaign?
» Athletes with the most social media hate...... I don't get how one of the people are on it.
» 2 things I've noticed about social media that are becoming ridiculous
» Do you know people that care about their social media image WAY too much?
» There’s a piping hot rumor about DWags flying around on social media
» Athletes with the most social media hate...... I don't get how one of the people are on it.
» 2 things I've noticed about social media that are becoming ridiculous
» Do you know people that care about their social media image WAY too much?
» There’s a piping hot rumor about DWags flying around on social media
Page 1 of 3
Permissions in this forum:
You cannot reply to topics in this forum