Nowadays, most social media platforms are filled with fake news, misleading news/videos/images. It is a constant struggle to filter out what is real information and what is fake information.
Deactivating Facebook for just a few weeks reduces belief in fake news
51–60 of 96 posts
Re: Deactivating Facebook for just a few weeks reduces belief in fake news
#52Facebook is easily more harmful than TikTok and should get the same treatment.
I feel like ticktok is more damaging for just how your brain is wired more than anything. People are walking into bathrooms and using the urinals one handed without putting the phone down the entire time. I can’t imagine spending every free second of your life engaging with short form media is going to help your ability to deeply think about things.
Re: Deactivating Facebook for just a few weeks reduces belief in fake news
#53I have kept my Facebook account for the primary purpose of making sure relatives don't share pictures of our kids' faces, and check it very rarely. Recently though, the change has been incredible. People I know in real life, including my own parents, have been "Liking" very obviously AI generated posts. A HUGE amount of the "Recommended" posts I see are obvious AI images. It's gotten really, really bad, in just the p…
But do anyone actually post anything anymore. My account got closed in 2016/17 when I refused to accept their new terms of service. Up until that point I had pretty aggressively filtered my feed down to only things posted directly by people I knew. I think I checked in maybe once every two weeks and spend 2 - 5 minutes catching up. No one posted anything, it was all likes and shared posts. My wife wanted to show me a…
There are posts by real humans - but you are correct Facebook does their best to make them hard to find and rare. I aggressively block everything but real posts, and it is still hard to find real posts.
Re: Deactivating Facebook for just a few weeks reduces belief in fake news
#54Facebook is easily more harmful than TikTok and should get the same treatment.
The "treatment" TikTok is receiving is a requirement that its US presence should be sold to a US company. Facebook is already a US company, so I'm not sure what you mean. TikTok is not actually getting banned, unless it fails to achieve that sale, which is highly unlikely.
> I'm not sure what you mean.
Stop with the intentionally obtuse “well akshually” stuff. You know what I meant: lawmakers should put Facebook under the same scrutiny and find a legal loophole that allows them to stop the harm Facebook is causing.
> TikTok is not actually getting banned
Semantic bullshit. Similarly strong logical footing as “we’re democratic we just don’t allow non-communist political parties.”
Re: Deactivating Facebook for just a few weeks reduces belief in fake news
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
YouTube achieves this, but the wider web never has very successfully.
I consider the "host your own software" approach akin to being a linux user, so I am already accustomed to being in a minority. People love frictionless UX which the FOSS lifestyle really can never provide. So perhaps we can settle for a solution that meets the needs of enthusiasts, even if the masses choose "junk".
I tend to agree, but maybe I'm talking about something slightly different. I was meaning that when I watch a YouTube video, if the creator has monetised it then they get a tiny amount of money, which enables them to do more videos. The Web in general doesn't have anything like that.
Re: Deactivating Facebook for just a few weeks reduces belief in fake news
#56I think it’s the same with all social media. I find X currently the worst; you cannot even go into post about react or whatever tech things and avoid maga, Trump, racism and anti woke shouting. It is depressing really. At least on Facebook there are my friends who got a new cat…
Re: Deactivating Facebook for just a few weeks reduces belief in fake news
#57Well okay, but Facebook is not an outlier. Every outlet has noticed the popularity that comes with telling people what they want to hear. It’s legal to give “opinion” that has no backing evidence, as opposed to journalism, where people reasonably expect some due diligence. That’s why Hannity, for instance, is quick to point out that he is not a journalist, but in fact an opinion show host. That distinction is meant t…
I actually think hiding behind “journalism” gives you more freedom to say what you want. In theory, you couldn’t blatantly make stuff up, because you risk getting sued. However, if the last decade has taught me anything, even then, the burden of proof is on the victim.
I think these high profile media folks volunteer that what they say is opinion, not out of freedom, but more so to frame their talking points in a more persuasive way. Humans will naturally put up their bullshit detectors if they think something is reported as fact, and expect to see evidence. Opinion on the other hand, means your guard is down and you will hear the same message, but consider it.
Re: Deactivating Facebook for just a few weeks reduces belief in fake news
#58I think it’s the same with all social media. I find X currently the worst; you cannot even go into post about react or whatever tech things and avoid maga, Trump, racism and anti woke shouting. It is depressing really. At least on Facebook there are my friends who got a new cat…
Just follow who you want to follow, and stick to the Following tab instead of "For You". At least X has that option; the other major/centralized social media services don't have any such option as far as I can tell (Instagram's "snooze recommended posts" option is the closest thing).
Re: Deactivating Facebook for just a few weeks reduces belief in fake news
#59Facebook is easily more harmful than TikTok and should get the same treatment.
I feel like ticktok is more damaging for just how your brain is wired more than anything. People are walking into bathrooms and using the urinals one handed without putting the phone down the entire time. I can’t imagine spending every free second of your life engaging with short form media is going to help your ability to deeply think about things.
You don’t need TikTok to promote that kind of behavior. I know people who do that and have never touched TikTok in their lives. Meanwhile Facebook was used as a tool in a real life insurrection that got people killed.
Re: Deactivating Facebook for just a few weeks reduces belief in fake news
#60It is still unclear to me how we expect these platforms to filter "misinformation" given that 1) It's not in Meta's interest 2) who gets to decide what is and is not fake news ie "who watches the watchman"? and 3) the human base desire to gorge on junk, of one form or another.
> given that 1) It's not in Meta's interest Somewhat glib answer is it needs to be in their interest. Section 230 means the social media platforms are insulated from liability for the content they publish and promote. It was conceived in a world where those platforms were perceived as (relatively) neutral infrastructure for publishing and sharing content. But it's a long time since they were neutral. The algorithms u…
> without any of the accountability that mainstream media has with regards journalistic integrity and veracity of content.
I wouldn't assume that mainstream media has any journalistic integrity or veracity of anything. Watch several mainstream news stations and listen to them use the exact same wording when making politically hot statements. It seems likely to me, that some centralized body is ensuring that.
I have never had a FB or any highly popular social media account. I have no reason to believe that they are any better than mainstream. At the moment, I am in a continuous state of disbelief to be honest. All facets of information-flow appear to be politically biased and saturated with half-truths, double-talk and straight-up lies.
In my personal opinion, I do not support censorship of social media as our constitutional right to freedom of speech is more important to me. I believe this right should be honored in 100% of cases else the constitutions has no value in this respect. i.e. if it does not apply in all cases, then it cannot be relied on to apply in any scenario, and its purpose is lost.
We live in a world now, where we are all going to have to make up our own minds on what the truth is. It was always that way, but society took it for granted that "the news" was the truth. This is why propaganda is so effective by the way. I would rather except this as the one and only truth, and proceed into the future with a healthy dose of skepticism applied to all facets of information-flow.