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, 2024 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, 2024 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.

[Sephiroth]

15 hours ago, Dulwich dweller said:

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.

well - if we were to take this forum as an example then, certainly back in the day, the opposite was true. Monthly forum drinks were held and grew exponentially for a year or two. I personally met dozens of people I'm still in contact with despite many of us being blown away by the wind. 

Even people who I clashed violently with - there was one writer (sadly passed away a few years back) who was so aggressive I arranged to meet them at the EDT one on one - and she was lovely.

 

[Dulwich dweller]

6 hours ago, Sephiroth said:

well - if we were to take this forum as an example then, certainly back in the day, the opposite was true. Monthly forum drinks were held and grew exponentially for a year or two. I personally met dozens of people I'm still in contact with despite many of us being blown away by the wind. 

Even people who I clashed violently with - there was one writer (sadly passed away a few years back) who was so aggressive I arranged to meet them at the EDT one on one - and she was lovely.

 

I was thinking more Facebook, Twitter rather than a local community forum.

[Sue]

It's easy on Facebook to snooze or block people,  or leave groups you don't want to see again.

And ads. 

I do it all the time.

[Dulwich dweller]

I snoozed facebook and twitter. Two birds one stone 😎

[SpringTime]

Dropped happily off Facebook in 2016 when I realised how mad it had made me. And how it had divided friends, families and colleagues. This was around the Brexit referendum. A stupid binary decision thrown at tens of millions of people, but by just a tiny few of our so called servants, and influenced by corruption, arrogance and with no back up plan, either way. 

I had to get off Facebook when I realised it was tearing me and my family to pieces. 

Facebook feeds were killing the loves between me and friends. That's the truth. 

That Zuckerberg bucket has claimed that Facebook builds bridges connecting people and ideas. But don't forget he lives in a house surrounded by giant walls. There are no bridges there. Just division.

In literal terms 'social media' is quite simply another lie. It's the most antisocial thing we've experienced since war and war crimes, racism, misogyny, rape and murder, homophobia, paedophilia, genocide, theft, brain washing, hateful propaganda, divisive religious systems, cruelty to animals....whatever.

-Social media is a cancerous yet contagious celebration of narcissistic traits.-

<>

Youth will wake up though. We always do. I believe in the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. We believe in waking up. 

Drop the phones, the TV, drop the gaming and the Telegram and the Tiktok. Won't cost you a penny. 

We can escape this madness.

By waking up - and actually talking to one another.

And listening. 

X

Edited October 2, 2024 by SpringTime
Everything

[ianr]

On 25/09/2024 at 19:34, Sue said:

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.

[...]

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

I agree about the separate section.  The old Beeb Messageboard  for The Archers had one called The Bull, for loungelike chat, and another, The Bull Upstairs, for games: https://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbarchers.  That model's endured  satisfactorily for years in one of the remaining Mustardlands:  http://www.paranormal.org.uk/mustardland/index.php.

 

[KalamityKel]

I don't necessarily agree with another different section.

I mean, there are plenty of threads I don't choose to read simply as they're not a topic of interest to me so what's the difference here?

Creating a "games" section doesn't mean conversation will improve in the Lounge more than anywhere else and segregating further would likely push users to those areas instead of experiencing the forum as a whole. 🤷‍♀️

[Sue]

But on the app at least, if you go "home", you are shown  the newest post on each section of the forum.

And what seems like 99% of the time, in the lounge, it's the word game "thingy".

How does that make anyone "experience the forum as a whole"?

If I was new to the forum and  didn't know what the lounge was, it certainly wouldn't make me inclined to investigate further.

And even if I was into word games on local forums, I'm not sure I would look further into one called a "thingy".

I expect someone thought it was funny at the time.

12 hours ago, SpringTime said:

Dropped happily off Facebook in 2016 when I realised how mad it had made me. And how it had divided friends, families and colleagues. This was around the Brexit referendum. A stupid binary decision thrown at tens of millions of people, but by just a tiny few of our so called servants, and influenced by corruption, arrogance and with no back up plan, either way. 

I had to get off Facebook when I realised it was tearing me and my family to pieces. 

Facebook feeds were killing the loves between me and friends. That's the truth. 

That Zuckerberg bucket has claimed that Facebook builds bridges connecting people and ideas. But don't forget he lives in a house surrounded by giant walls. There are no bridges there. Just division.

In literal terms 'social media' is quite simply another lie. It's the most antisocial thing we've experienced since war and war crimes, racism, misogyny, rape and murder, homophobia, paedophilia, genocide, theft, brain washing, hateful propaganda, divisive religious systems, cruelty to animals....whatever.

-Social media is a cancerous yet contagious celebration of narcissistic traits.-

<>

Youth will wake up though. We always do. I believe in the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. We believe in waking up. 

Drop the phones, the TV, drop the gaming and the Telegram and the Tiktok. Won't cost you a penny. 

We can escape this madness.

By waking up - and actually talking to one another.

And listening. 

X

Talking to people/family  in real life about things like Brexit and Gaza is in my experience much worse than Facebook.

Assuming there is disagreement, which in my family's case there is on both issues, at least you can block them on Facebook 🤣