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I resigned from Twitter

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Re: I resigned from Twitter

#461

Post by [deleted] »

brewdad wrote: post #452
alpha_squared wrote: post #422

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mainstream news used to have a near-monopoly on access to events and crime scenes. The advent of smartphones with ever-improving cameras gives the average citizen, who's there in the moment, first access. Twitter just happened to be the medium with lowest barrier to sharing that, but it would've happened regardless. As stations couldn't keep up with the "breaking" part of news, it just made sense (unfortunately) to a…

I don't think eyewitness video is the biggest problem. When @LGBrandon8534932 gets their tweets posted on the evening news and it's treated the same as a statement from Dr Fauci . THAT'S a problem. Hyperbole. But not by much.

[deleted]

Re: I resigned from Twitter

#462

Post by that_guy_iain »

danschumann wrote: post #219

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

What I did was stop following tech people and started following comedy people. It really made Twitter a much more fun place.

Re: I resigned from Twitter

#463

Post by cjblomqvist »

ineedasername wrote: post #221
bluefirebrand wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Careful, you're dangerously close to realizing that Executives at companies provide vanishingly little day to day value to companies. I'd bet in most companies the CEO is basically just a buffer between the board and the rest of the company, and essentially a fall guy position so the board can avoid accountability.

Well to be fair, good management should be practically invisible. It shouldn't be much of a factor in your day to day work. They should be overseeing larger trends, gently nudging things to stay on course, talking with others to coordinate, etc. I have reasonably decent leadership where I work, and the only times I have much contact outside of my direct reporting line is when something has gone (or might go) seriousl…

Maybe at some companies, but I think Steve Jobs might beg to differ!

Re: I resigned from Twitter

#464

Post by will4274 »

badRNG wrote: post #200
throwaway2077 wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

remarkably, those who bash him are the same people twitter has done everything to bend over backwards for. same on reddit, facebook, twitch, etc. people on the opposite side of the privileged class are barely allowed to exist on those platforms - only if they police their speech very carefully to avoid breaking a myriad of vague and unwritten rules, and even then they're still subject to being unpersoned for some per…

> people on the opposite side of the privileged class are barely allowed to exist on those platforms - only if they police their speech very carefully to avoid breaking a myriad of vague and unwritten rules, and even then they're still subject to being unpersoned for some perceived offense committed off-platform. I'm having trouble understanding what any of this means

Parent is saying that these platforms cater to left leaning reactionaries ("social justice warriors"), and that people on the opposite side (conservatives) are far more restricted, but most of the criticism comes from those same left leaning reactionaries about the sites not further restricting the already-restricted side.

Re: I resigned from Twitter

#467

Post by mbg721 »

samtheprogram wrote: post #356
mbg721 wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The mainstream media are trying to recapture the attention-monopoly they had in the 60s-70s, and are largely succeeding. They don't want to compete with Twitter; they want to buy it.

Any particular reason you excluded the 80s (or even the 90s) from the attention-monopoly time period?

Only that I think the 80s were a little past the sweet-spot of network television; cable was starting to become widespread.

Re: I resigned from Twitter

#468

Post by unethical_ban »

syshum wrote: post #244
afavour wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read it differently than "shaping public opinion". The reality is that social media (and Twitter especially) is toxic. That underlying toxicity comes from humans of course, but recommendation algorithms accelerate and highlight it because it leads to high "engagement", and thus more money. These sites already "guide" conversation, just using metrics that can end up being harmful. A social media CEO that's intereste…

The problem here is that "toxic" is subjective, what I find toxic and disagreeable may not be the same thing you find toxic and disagreeable. Take for example hot button issue of Gun ownership, I believe it an essential right and extension of self defense, others view any talk about guns as toxic that should be banned. Who's worldview should win? Mine, your's, Twitters? IMO platforms like twitter should not be making…

It's their tool, so they get to build it to their liking, until law is created requiring them to do otherwise. The question in the meantime is, "what is moral?" and "do we as an entity (twitter) enforce our morality at all, and to what extent?"

For example, millions of people believe the lie, the fabrication that the 2020 presidential election result was fraudulent. If there are organizations on your platform amplifying messages that are fraudulent or intentionally misleading in nature, should Twitter take action?

The new CEO seems to think the answer is "yes".

IMO people should be able to curate their own feeds, but Twitter has the full right (and perhaps the moral obligation) to flag content that is bullshit as bullshit. The danger, of course, is that the kinds of people who fall for conspiracy propaganda from fascists on the right will then think, if their leaders' lies are called out, that the calling out is itself a conspiracy, and further entrench themselves rather than heed warnings.

"How to keep a social media platform from enabling anti-democratic demagogues" is an unsolved problem.

Re: I resigned from Twitter

#469

Post by unethical_ban »

syshum wrote: post #332
ViViDboarder wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To not promote toxicity, one could just avoid amplifying anything that’s a hot button or divisive issue. However, incentives don’t align with that. The key is the issue is the amplification. Promoting of content you’re not following in feeds. Of course, completely changing it back to only content from those you follow in chronological order and allowing you to curate would solve that problem as well, but there’s no w…

Speech is easy if all you post is kitten video's The most interesting conversation by necessity have to be "hot button" or "divisive" that is how we grow as a culture, a society. If we always avoid anything that is divisive than we never can address any problems

Lies and bad faith should not be tolerated in the public square.

Re: I resigned from Twitter

#470

Post by TheCondor »

wonderwonder wrote: post #420
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 eff…

Was this an internet age thing? I mean 24hour news networks found out long before social media took off that they can eat a bigger piece of the pie and not spend money working on news by running opinion hacks. Just decide which echo chamber you want to pander to and then fill up your schedule with pundits. Their market share went up, their costs went down and no matter what happens or doesn't happen each day, they have a group of people that want to tune in. People like to hear their world view reaffirmed.

Silicon valley just optimized it and turned it in to a science.

I'm sure various social scientists and historians could link it other issues. Advertising and selling goods in and of itself doesn't really explain how people just fall in to utter bullshit beliefs, does it?

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