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I resigned from Twitter

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Re: I resigned from Twitter

#411

Post by notreallyserio »

salehenrahman wrote: post #361
dnautics wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to feel that way, but I aggressively moderated who I follow in a purge, and being selective about who I add as follows. It feels like it's easier to marie-kondo people I don't care for anymore in twitter since there's little-to-no-expectation that I know anyone on twitter, and for me, anyways, twitter is a much more pleasant experience than any other social network has been.

Same, but I go a step beyond. Any tweet I see that I don't like (usually someone using a tone that gives me a terrible vibe from them), I block the author of the tweet. Now almost all tweets that I see have a positive vibe. Edit: I also adhere to an old adage that goes "follow slowly; block fast".

I do this too. I don't block people based on their politics because I don't want to be in a bubble, but I do block people that make bad faith arguments. Unfortunately, that means I end up in a bit of a bubble because so many folks of a particular political persuasion love to make bad faith arguments.

Re: I resigned from Twitter

#412

Post by danenania »

skytreader wrote: post #251
phreack wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a lifesaver in countries with rampant inflation where they forbid you to buy currencies from other countries. Literally in some cases.

So, it's easy to find a list of the countries with the highest inflation rates, but which of those countries actually forbid individuals from acquiring foreign currency? I assume you have a verifiable example? Not to mention, for an everyman living in one of these countries, how feasible is it to actually participate in crypto to the point where it is useful in day-to-day living ? How much upfront investment will it…

Argentina has very high inflation and restricts foreign currency purchase:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-08-13/argentina...

Re: I resigned from Twitter

#413

Post by striking »

dnautics wrote: post #230
danschumann wrote: post #219

Twitter made me feel: some combination of violated, indignant, numb, inferior, empty, powerless, disappointed, embarassed, furious, annoyed, and infuriated.

I used to feel that way, but I aggressively moderated who I follow in a purge, and being selective about who I add as follows. It feels like it's easier to marie-kondo people I don't care for anymore in twitter since there's little-to-no-expectation that I know anyone on twitter, and for me, anyways, twitter is a much more pleasant experience than any other social network has been.

For anyone else looking to do the same, consider using https://tokimeki-unfollow.glitch.me/

Re: I resigned from Twitter

#414

Post by smolder »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #321
busterarm wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Social media can be fixed by legislating it out of existence. It doesn't even need a watchdog agency like the environment does.

Remove Section 230 protections for profit driven social networks, carve out exemptions for public goods and other sites operated without a profit intent (Wikipedia, the Internet Archive, Hacker News, etc) and the problem solves itself (the cost to police/moderate the platform rises above a point where the revenue returned is no longer sufficient to make the endeavor worthwhile). Social media is toxic due to the socia…

I could get behind some more restrictions on websites of a certain size, but putting any burden on brand-new web site owners beyond urgently dealing with problematic content is too much of a burden. It just acts as a moat for powerful incumbents, and they have far too deep moats as it is.

Re: I resigned from Twitter

#415

Post by rtkwe »

c7DJTLrn wrote: post #383
spion wrote: post #352

Twitter and other social media are probably the biggest problem of our time. By providing simple rules of information flow: small amount of content, retweet, followers) and rewards (likes), they've created the most efficient engines for finding and spreading novelty at the expense of everything else. There are no incentives to improve accuracy, increase thoughtfulness, paint nuance. Fact checking gets lost in the win…

I wonder how much your mind would have to distort reality for you to believe you're providing the world with a good service when you're at the helm of Twitter or Facebook.

There's a fair amount of motivation to find a reason to believe it's a "the good out weighs the bad" situation. For starters they're making incredible amounts of money and then there's the desire to not think you're doing something bad.

Re: I resigned from Twitter

#416

Post by electrondood »

sAbakumoff wrote: post #381
spion wrote: post #352

Twitter and other social media are probably the biggest problem of our time. By providing simple rules of information flow: small amount of content, retweet, followers) and rewards (likes), they've created the most efficient engines for finding and spreading novelty at the expense of everything else. There are no incentives to improve accuracy, increase thoughtfulness, paint nuance. Fact checking gets lost in the win…

Yeah, feeling of novelty causes a dopamine spike, but shortly afterwards the level is back and we feel like they need more new stuff. Mindless purposeless scrolling may last hours and hours. Twitter is bad, but Tik Tok is the worst. Remove all this stuff from your phone and read HN instead. Here you at least should focus on sophisticated comments like yours!

TikTok is terrifying. It is designed to be nicotine for your attention span, achieving engagement at any cost. Now they've added keyboard shortcuts.

The effects of social media on our collective attention span legitimately scare me. Our attention spans are shrinking with each generation, and the effect has gone parabolic in the last 15 years. Look at old movies, and notice the longer length of cuts compared to movies today. Now look at the infinite feed on TikTok.

What happens when the minority of the population that actually does their civic duty of informed voting can no longer pay attention to important issues?

What happens when people can't think about any topic beyond a sound bite or meme?

What happens when no one has more than 1000ms of patience to question whether they're looking at a deepfake?

Climate change? Holding politicians accountable for corruption or abuses of power?

I think we need to take a good look at where we're headed.

Re: I resigned from Twitter

#417

Post by criddell »

brightball wrote: post #373
spion wrote: post #352

Twitter and other social media are probably the biggest problem of our time. By providing simple rules of information flow: small amount of content, retweet, followers) and rewards (likes), they've created the most efficient engines for finding and spreading novelty at the expense of everything else. There are no incentives to improve accuracy, increase thoughtfulness, paint nuance. Fact checking gets lost in the win…

Where it all went sideways was when mainstream news started showing tweets on air. EDIT: I need to add clarification. I don't mean when breaking news gets onto mainstream channels. No question that happens. What I mean is the use of a single tweet with maybe 1 or 2 likes here or there to reflect public sentiment on different issues. All any news station had to do was fish through the pile of tweets about any given to…

Are they just giving audiences what they want?

Re: I resigned from Twitter

#418

Post by lazyeye »

spion wrote: post #352

Twitter and other social media are probably the biggest problem of our time. By providing simple rules of information flow: small amount of content, retweet, followers) and rewards (likes), they've created the most efficient engines for finding and spreading novelty at the expense of everything else. There are no incentives to improve accuracy, increase thoughtfulness, paint nuance. Fact checking gets lost in the win…

Its the asbestos or thalidomide of our time..software is eating the world.

Re: I resigned from Twitter

#419

Post by cletus »

spion wrote: post #352

Twitter and other social media are probably the biggest problem of our time. By providing simple rules of information flow: small amount of content, retweet, followers) and rewards (likes), they've created the most efficient engines for finding and spreading novelty at the expense of everything else. There are no incentives to improve accuracy, increase thoughtfulness, paint nuance. Fact checking gets lost in the win…

The real problem here is people, not the platforms or the products. How do I know this? Because the problems have existed far longer than any of the platforms.

Maybe people here are too young to remember how toxic, argumentative, irrational and judgmental everything else was that came previously: forums, mailing lists, Usenet, you name it.

Sure products can influence user behaviour but they can't totally change it. And if none of them (as you assert) "improve accuracy, increase thoughtfulness, paint nuance" ask yourself why: is it because all the platform providers are wrong? Or simply that's what users want?

Personally I've never liked Twitter. Of all the platforms I find it dominated by people who like the sounds of their own voices. I've described it as a "write only" platform. Even calling it "social media" seems like a stretch as there are no relationships, just people you follow and a news feed.

Re: I resigned from Twitter

#420

Post by wonderwonder »

spion wrote: post #352

Twitter and other social media are probably the biggest problem of our time. By providing simple rules of information flow: small amount of content, retweet, followers) and rewards (likes), they've created the most efficient engines for finding and spreading novelty at the expense of everything else. There are no incentives to improve accuracy, increase thoughtfulness, paint nuance. Fact checking gets lost in the win…

I think they are a symptom, not the root. The root started before them with the advent of pay per click advertising. Everything else has spiraled from that. I truly believe that the massive divisiveness of the last 2 decades can be traced to this. Social media echo chambers, youtube rabbit holes, click baity headlines, all of it is because of pay per click advertising. The ML algorithms we have now have become so effective that the problem is only getting exponentially worse. Your news is fed to you with the sole purpose of making you click so they earn $.
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