Why anyone remains on Twitter or any of the Meta products is a mystery to me. Obviously if you have a business or are a journalist like Parker I guess you have to, but I have been off Twitter since the day he bought it and FB/Insta since Zuckerberg was on stage at the inauguration, and I’ve literally NEVER regretted my decisions. BlueSky, Mastodon, and Substack are all the ‘interactivity’ I need!
That Facebook and revenue-hungry X have become purveyors of skeevy content (AI-generated porn and CSAM also works) as they hemorrhaged users who are not closet nazis or Nextdoor klanners is not a particularly surprising outcome. It would seem the algorithm for curated division is easier to craft than that for unity; or maybe it's just that there's more money to be had in hatred.
The disgusting nature of algorithmic feeds became clear to me years ago, and I left Facebook as a result. I'm only on Blue Sky now, and I only read curated feeds and the "popular with friends" feed, which has been reasonable enough. On Twitter, I did something similar. Mostly I look for smart people who write smart stuff and post interesting links.
I mostly reply with supporting comments or things I hope are amusing. I do a lot of blocking, often telling jerks to "enjoy the company of other garbage I've blocked.".
The good thing about this is that ii don't do rage posts. Much. I freely admit I've typed out a whole lot of them, though, and made myself delete almost all of them before sending.
I think you are exactly right that you can't persuade anyone on social media, and you can only inform a few people.
I always enjoy your insights. The other day I wanted to reply to someone on Bluesky, typed a reply then deleted it. I too went down the wnba world on Threads, I appreciated all your work there. it took days for my feed to recover
Facebook is bearable for me only because a) I have a browser extension that kills ads and a bunch of annoying FB features and b) that's where my close friends and family are -- and I only read my friends feed rather than general content.
Threads is bearable because pretty much the only stuff I see is queer-friendly, left-leaning stuff... and cats... and then I have an Ohio column (because that's where I live). I use "block" heavily.
In both cases, I keep away from the raw algorithm feed!
I'm only on facebook at the moment, not because I like it, but because it's the main way my family keeps in touch, and a couple of my niche interests built their websites through facebook. My feed is an absolute mess no matter how many times I try to hide ads or block garbage sites. Most notable to me are the number of right-wing accounts that I know I've blocked but wind up on my feed anyway, usually weeks later probably hoping I forgot I blocked it, but occasionally the very next day. The most egregious example is an account claiming to be Matt Gaetz. I blocked it on Thursday, and saw more posts from that page on Friday.
I really can't help but leave the occasional snarky comment or to attempt to provide correct information. I saw a post about a study regarding how climate change is having a more significant impact on Oceania island nations, resulting in an increase in child marriages. The right-wing account took this to mean that woke scientists were blaming climate change for all child marriages and making excuses for pedophiles. I was hoping that some people would understand the importance of identifying reasons why an existing system of abuse might be getting worse, and that such a study does not mean child abusers should not be brought to justice. What followed was probably the most replies I've ever received on a comment, and certainly the most number of times I've been called a child trafficker.
Exactly why I left "X" when Elon bought it. Twitter had been a cesspool of hate and anger and unwinnable arguments beforehand....I cannot imagine just how much worse it is now.
I got sucked into too many arguments about abortion, guns, etc. It is easy to say "don't feed the trolls" but oh so hard not to. Sometimes it was fun to dunk on the stupidity...but then the pile-on starts. There is no winning. I didn't change any minds, just as none of their angry posts changed mine.
It's been years since I was on Facebook, nearly 15 years. What I remember, dimly, was my "feed" being posts from people I knew, my friends, and I didn't see everything everybody posted, that would be overwhelming, so there must have been some algorithm that was selecting. I think I saw more from people I had a history of responding to. I honestly don't remember ever seeing a post from somebody I didn't know. Was that "feature" - content posted by total strangers - added later?
Anyway, it's not hard to imagine social media that really is just a way for you to keep in touch with people you know and not Random Shit From Total Strangers. Sorry that's not of any interest to the billionaires who decide these things.
Why anyone remains on Twitter or any of the Meta products is a mystery to me. Obviously if you have a business or are a journalist like Parker I guess you have to, but I have been off Twitter since the day he bought it and FB/Insta since Zuckerberg was on stage at the inauguration, and I’ve literally NEVER regretted my decisions. BlueSky, Mastodon, and Substack are all the ‘interactivity’ I need!
I quit using Facebook years ago because of its infuriating control over what it would show me. "More of the same": not interesting to me.
That Facebook and revenue-hungry X have become purveyors of skeevy content (AI-generated porn and CSAM also works) as they hemorrhaged users who are not closet nazis or Nextdoor klanners is not a particularly surprising outcome. It would seem the algorithm for curated division is easier to craft than that for unity; or maybe it's just that there's more money to be had in hatred.
The disgusting nature of algorithmic feeds became clear to me years ago, and I left Facebook as a result. I'm only on Blue Sky now, and I only read curated feeds and the "popular with friends" feed, which has been reasonable enough. On Twitter, I did something similar. Mostly I look for smart people who write smart stuff and post interesting links.
I mostly reply with supporting comments or things I hope are amusing. I do a lot of blocking, often telling jerks to "enjoy the company of other garbage I've blocked.".
The good thing about this is that ii don't do rage posts. Much. I freely admit I've typed out a whole lot of them, though, and made myself delete almost all of them before sending.
I think you are exactly right that you can't persuade anyone on social media, and you can only inform a few people.
I always enjoy your insights. The other day I wanted to reply to someone on Bluesky, typed a reply then deleted it. I too went down the wnba world on Threads, I appreciated all your work there. it took days for my feed to recover
Facebook is bearable for me only because a) I have a browser extension that kills ads and a bunch of annoying FB features and b) that's where my close friends and family are -- and I only read my friends feed rather than general content.
Threads is bearable because pretty much the only stuff I see is queer-friendly, left-leaning stuff... and cats... and then I have an Ohio column (because that's where I live). I use "block" heavily.
In both cases, I keep away from the raw algorithm feed!
I'm only on facebook at the moment, not because I like it, but because it's the main way my family keeps in touch, and a couple of my niche interests built their websites through facebook. My feed is an absolute mess no matter how many times I try to hide ads or block garbage sites. Most notable to me are the number of right-wing accounts that I know I've blocked but wind up on my feed anyway, usually weeks later probably hoping I forgot I blocked it, but occasionally the very next day. The most egregious example is an account claiming to be Matt Gaetz. I blocked it on Thursday, and saw more posts from that page on Friday.
I really can't help but leave the occasional snarky comment or to attempt to provide correct information. I saw a post about a study regarding how climate change is having a more significant impact on Oceania island nations, resulting in an increase in child marriages. The right-wing account took this to mean that woke scientists were blaming climate change for all child marriages and making excuses for pedophiles. I was hoping that some people would understand the importance of identifying reasons why an existing system of abuse might be getting worse, and that such a study does not mean child abusers should not be brought to justice. What followed was probably the most replies I've ever received on a comment, and certainly the most number of times I've been called a child trafficker.
Exactly why I left "X" when Elon bought it. Twitter had been a cesspool of hate and anger and unwinnable arguments beforehand....I cannot imagine just how much worse it is now.
I got sucked into too many arguments about abortion, guns, etc. It is easy to say "don't feed the trolls" but oh so hard not to. Sometimes it was fun to dunk on the stupidity...but then the pile-on starts. There is no winning. I didn't change any minds, just as none of their angry posts changed mine.
It's been years since I was on Facebook, nearly 15 years. What I remember, dimly, was my "feed" being posts from people I knew, my friends, and I didn't see everything everybody posted, that would be overwhelming, so there must have been some algorithm that was selecting. I think I saw more from people I had a history of responding to. I honestly don't remember ever seeing a post from somebody I didn't know. Was that "feature" - content posted by total strangers - added later?
Anyway, it's not hard to imagine social media that really is just a way for you to keep in touch with people you know and not Random Shit From Total Strangers. Sorry that's not of any interest to the billionaires who decide these things.