Has Social Media Failed ?

[Spartacus]

Question. Has the social media experiment failed ? 

Most of the time it is not social.

Most of the time it is not media in the traditional sense. 

Children can feel peer pressure because of it. (as can adults.) 

Does it enrich or blight our lives ? 

Discuss. 

[KidKruger]

I’m not sure there was ever a collective aspiration for SM, Sparts. Some kind of ideal may have been sold but those controlling it may have a different view on what it will do for them. Undoubtedly much damage can be done on both the individual and collective level. And has been. Sometimes I wonder if enough damage has been done to justify quite Draconian restrictions, particularly on those trying to propagate mindsets.

[malumbu]

Not sure what you mean by experiment.  Its just another evolution of mass and one to one communications from drumming, to beacons/smoke signals, semaphore, telegraph and so on.  All came with massive improvements to life but no doubt downsides.  Did you hear about the argument between ships on the same side during the Napoleonic Wars as they got their semaphore flats in a twist?

Now etiquette is another thing and it appears that 95% of Whatsapp users don't understand this.  I posted a guide to common sense on Whatsapp on a thread here a couple of years ago eg don't have private conversations on a group chat, but there was no discussion.

I find the Whatson Section, for sale and recommendations very useful.  There appear to be far too many angry people on some of the other threads.  This Forum seemed to have peaked in constructive discussion a few years ago, judged by the massive decline in wider chats on the Lounge.

Edited that I have a wide definition of social media as per OED: websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking [eg this site, WhatsApp]

In respect to the nonsense, lies, propganda, hate crime etc I expect we had this ever since humans learned to communicate, eg 1930s Germany or from Wiki: primitive forms of propaganda have been a human activity as far back as reliable recorded evidence exists. The Behistun Inscription (c. 515 BC) detailing the rise of Darius I to the Persian throne is viewed by most historians as an early example of propaganda.

Of course it doesn't make things right and a headache for centrist governments and politicians globally.

Edited September 15 by malumbu

[Huguenot]

The EDF is social media, and it seems to have met its goals of connecting and engaging the local community.

The 'media' part isn't a reference to the BBC, it refers to 'a substance that something grows in, lives in or moves through' as a plural of 'medium'.

In the sense that the 'something' is people, then it does the job.

Whe it comes to the BBC, the 'something' is information.

For the most part the contribution has been positive.

However, the downsides are driven by anonymity, and have allowed the worst of human nature to surface.

[JohnL]

Twitter - I know some may like it being X but it is a cesspool these days.

[Sue]

On 15/09/2024 at 13:40, malumbu said:

Not sure what you mean by experiment.  Its just another evolution of mass and one to one communications from drumming, to beacons/smoke signals, semaphore, telegraph and so on.  All came with massive improvements to life but no doubt downsides.  Did you hear about the argument between ships on the same side during the Napoleonic Wars as they got their semaphore flats in a twist?

Now etiquette is another thing and it appears that 95% of Whatsapp users don't understand this.  I posted a guide to common sense on Whatsapp on a thread here a couple of years ago eg don't have private conversations on a group chat, but there was no discussion.

I find the Whatson Section, for sale and recommendations very useful.  There appear to be far too many angry people on some of the other threads.  This Forum seemed to have peaked in constructive discussion a few years ago, judged by the massive decline in wider chats on the Lounge.

I think the decline in lounge chats has happened since the new forum format.

Stuff like "five letter word game thingy" (🙄) is almost always shown if you look to see what new posts are in the lounge, and whilst that's probably great fun if you are actually playing it, it doesn't really raise your hopes that there might be something of interest in the lounge.

I think these things should be in some kind of separate section. I can see that might complicate things, but at least then people who weren't constantly playing the game might be able to see other threads more easily.

Re angry people, it was ever  thus. Some of the more unpleasant people of the past seem to have gone, from this forum at least. Some of them occasionally pop up elsewhere, unfortunately.

As for social media in general, I find it very useful on the whole,  to keep in touch with friends who live a long way away, and to find out about events etc I might otherwise not have known about. And just to keep abreast of what's going on in general.

A lot easier than letters and the town crier and the grapevine.

ETA: Just looked at the lounge threads and I think it's the starred threads which should be in a separate section, perhaps? 

Edited September 25 by Sue

[Sephiroth]

Huguenot posts for first time in 3 years  - things done changed around here

I'm always suspicious of the argument that "social media" is to blame for anything - I would normally argue it's the "social" - ie people part of it which is the problem. Those green ink posters on trees people now get to gather and vent

 

That being said - what Musk has done to twitter is genuinely problematic

 

[abanemare]

I view general social media like any drop-in centre.  Okay if you're desperate but you are going to encounter an above-average proportion of misfits, by definition.  I've stopped going on Facebook for that reason.  Dedicated boards like this one might be a different matter

[Dulwich dweller]

Small parts of it are okay but on the whole i think it's a cesspit and platform for absolute nobodies that you'd avoid at all costs in real life.