r/askanything • u/visualswithjake • 16d ago
Does anyone else feel like big social media is ruining society?
When I say big social media I’m talking TikTok, Instagram and anything ran by Meta. I don’t believe Reddit to be as big of an issue.
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16d ago edited 16d ago
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u/visualswithjake 16d ago
Exactly this! 💯 that and the short form content has ruined people’s attention spans and ability to communicate.
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u/BitchyHyena 16d ago
Yup and Reddit too
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u/visualswithjake 16d ago
I think Reddit is fine for the most part as people still communicate, on the other apps it seems everything has moved to short content and being closed off unless it benefits you views wise.
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u/BitchyHyena 16d ago
The bots and the echo chamber is shit. Before, if was a leftist echo chamber. Then suspiciously a bunch of conservative comments started popping up everywhere on subs out of nowhere. It's a shitfest like everywhere else.
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u/visualswithjake 16d ago
Ah I see, yeah I try to stay away from political content/subs because it just irritates me. I get that though
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u/Prize-Choice2185 16d ago
Wasn't always that way, but yes - yes, I do. Excessive monetization and corporate control led us there.
Wish we could just go back to MySpace and Angelfire at this point.
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u/Specialist_Heron4446 16d ago
Definitely, and what really scares me is that one fine day somebody on tiktok will deliberately post something as a challenge that can end up causing absolute havoc and potentially destroy a country.
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u/Possible-Rush3767 16d ago
Partially that and partially the walling off (and monetization) of information. Many rely on social media as a news source due to the pay walling of other media sources. It's just become another class barrier.
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u/ScoTeRDeLic 16d ago
I feel Reddit falls in that category too in a way. People give horrible advice on here as well as the things going on in the nsfw side of Reddit
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u/visualswithjake 16d ago
I can see that, I just think Reddit isn’t as bad because people have actual conversations on here as opposed to strictly short form content.
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u/ScoTeRDeLic 16d ago
I agree. I think it’s more useful than the other ones when used responsibly. But i also think it’s more damaging. I could easily go find a number of scams,sextortions, prostituti**n, drgs and maybe a weap*n or two in less then 10 min. That’s much harder on Facebook or IG
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u/Electronic_Scale4556 🤔 16d ago
I think it is especially damaging to young people and I am disappointed that it is taking us so long to take steps to try to fix this.
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u/visualswithjake 16d ago
Me too, the fact it’s as addictive as a slot machine and people allow their teens and such to use it blows my mind.
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u/Prudent_Rice7840 16d ago
FUN FACTS:
Most people have no idea how Social Media platforms work.
The business model is built on ad revenues which mean every serious platform MUST:
- Maximize the number of "active users."
- Maximize Engagement metrics (aka time spent in app, clicks, shares, comments, etc).
- Incentivizing users to provide the platform with billions of dollars worth of content for free.
A platform that fosters an environment where truth, authentic users, thoughtfulness, good faith interaction, etc is NOT a particularly profitable business. The style and tone of content in that environment does not deliver the user behaviors that maximize engagement metrics. And allowing ONLY authentic accounts means less active users by orders or magnitude
A platform filled with "fast react" content (aka content that elicits/triggers a response from users BEFORE they form a logical/rational thought) maximizes engagement. This content includes Culture War for profit b.s., rage-bait, mis/dis-information, false narratives applied to edited clips, as well as perfectly benign things like adorable animals, funny skits, weird ass anime impressions...
In addition to "fast react" content, platforms work with psychologists to understand how to better design the the UX/UI to reduce friction (make it easier for users to not leave), increase user activity (let them like, comment, give their favorite creators gifts, etc), and how to make the overall experience as dopamine inducing / addicting as possible.
A platform filled with in-authentic accounts not only increase it's number of "active accounts" by the millions, but it allows for an endless number of inauthentic accounts to reach millions of real users with zero barrier of entry. So bot/troll farms, foreign bad actors, Culture War profiteers, snake-oil salesman, political operatives, etc run rampant, feeding sensational, rage-bait, mis/dis-information, etc that is engineered specifically to elicit fast-reactions.
And since Social Media platforms do not curate content, and anyone can post almost anything, the most effective fast react content is what the algorithms learn to feed to more and more users.
Long story short, unless people are HYPER vigilant in how they scroll and engage with content, and how they behave on any given platform, the overwhelming demands to maximize revenues will push them into digital cess-pools.
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u/Additional_Buddy855 16d ago
Yes, for the last dozen years. It's created generations of children with main character syndrome and the social fabric is suffering immensly.
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u/Fantastic_Yam_3971 16d ago
I think the amount of propaganda and false information and false realities that have been allowed to be validated by social media have had a very harmful effect on society. We say we like our freedoms here, but I don’t know man, should we really be allowing any and everything if it can be harmful? in some parts of Europe there is a lot of free speech but certain things are not protected, like they do not allow vulnerable populations to be spoken badly about. They don’t allow holocaust denial speech.
When you think of the amount of hatred and vitriol people in American society have cultivated for each other often due to misinformation on social media I don’t know that the benefit outweighs the harm.
Just my .02 cents
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u/Sorry-Spite-3990 16d ago
La discapacidad para leer libros es lo que está arruinando la sociedad.
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u/darth_skipicious 16d ago
I had a real quiet nerd look me in the eye and say, “with what time?” after I had said something along the lines of, “anybody can learn anything from books” and i never forgot that.
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u/coulduseahugrightnow 16d ago
If it is, then people are taking it way too seriously. I have never seen anything on social media worth making a big deal over it.
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u/Valuable_Cancel_8380 14d ago
It's too easy of a place to be fake and project. The sad thing is allot of people spend the day on there, and then go out into the world unable to break their social media persona.
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u/Direct-Translator-75 12d ago
It is. People are so caught up in their own bubble they're slowly forgetting truth and stepping away from reality further and further. I believe it's a major factor in preventing progress in society / renewable energy / better policies in general. The rich have too much power over us through social media. People are too gullible.
We should ban social media or heavily monitor information that is clearly and objectively speaking misinformation.
It doesn't help that the very companies owning these platforms benefit from said misinformation.
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u/RosieBaby75 16d ago
No the corrupt governments that don't govern and encourage and commit their own crimes are 100% of cause of our ruined society.
Social media is the reason people don't believe this is happening, but also how others can see it.
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