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Some biologists and ecologists think social media is a risk to humanity

vox.com

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Re: Some biologists and ecologists think social media is a risk to humanity

#31

Post by thethethethe »

amanaplanacanal wrote: post #30
thethethethe wrote: post #28

This might be an unpopular opinion but I am getting very tired of academics thinking they can comment cross discipline and journalists somehow think it is worthy of writing an article about. This scientist isn't bringing any interesting, new ideas to the table, they are just repeating the same talking points pushed by mainstream "liberal" politicians. > My sense is that social media in particular — as well as a broad…

I didn’t know that being concerned about the impact of social media was strictly a liberal position.

Im not saying that it is, that is just the perspective that I believe this article is being written from. American conservatives are concerned about censorship, American liberals are concerned about "misinformation and disinformation". This article is firmly on the diss/misinformation side of the debate

Re: Some biologists and ecologists think social media is a risk to humanity

#32

Post by thethethethe »

dragonwriter wrote: post #29
thethethethe wrote: post #28

This might be an unpopular opinion but I am getting very tired of academics thinking they can comment cross discipline and journalists somehow think it is worthy of writing an article about. This scientist isn't bringing any interesting, new ideas to the table, they are just repeating the same talking points pushed by mainstream "liberal" politicians. > My sense is that social media in particular — as well as a broad…

> This might be an unpopular opinion but I am getting very tired of academics thinking they can comment cross discipline If academics can't comment cross discipline, no one else can comment at all.

I never said that they cant, it's more that people are writing articles about their opinions when they are bringing nothing new to the table. Why doesn't vox write articles about a grocery store clerk or trucker's opinion on social media and society? Why does some biologist somehow know more about this stuff than other people who aren't sociologists? This is why conservatives think academics are snooty and elitist

Re: Some biologists and ecologists think social media is a risk to humanity

#33

Post by pelasaco »

But not all social media are the same. HN for example, is the only social media that I consume completely (news feeds + comment section). Everything else I limit as much as I can.. what makes HN so much better than the others? Lack of ads? Moderation?

Re: Some biologists and ecologists think social media is a risk to humanity

#34

Post by justbored123 »

mrkramer wrote: post #22

Wasn't early Facebook all about connecting with friends and family and looking for boyfriend/girlfriend? Today I only hear something like "fake news, hate, racism, violence" etc. I wonder what has changed? I think that it is not Facebook's management fault but the reality kicked in. Medium like Facebook is convenient for all type of content and interaction unlike Instagram for example which is more for showing off wi…

Well, I don't know how your friends and families are, but mine are quite racist and quite hateful of minorities and they were that way long before the internet.

Facebook just shows that, it doesn't change it. I think that most people (specially white, heterosexual and not poor) were simply living in a bubble of ignorance thinking the world was a much better place that it actually is and social media simply popped that bubble and showed reality for everybody to see. And now they are angry at Social media in a classical shoot the messenger reaction.

Re: Some biologists and ecologists think social media is a risk to humanity

#35

Post by bckr »

pelasaco wrote: post #33

But not all social media are the same. HN for example, is the only social media that I consume completely (news feeds + comment section). Everything else I limit as much as I can.. what makes HN so much better than the others? Lack of ads? Moderation?

Intention of the creators and, yes, moderation. The exact same HTML/CSS/JS could power a community devoted to fighting a holy war against Lizard people.

Re: Some biologists and ecologists think social media is a risk to humanity

#36

Post by drewcoo »

If the threat is misinformation and use of social media is the risk, then I'd expect a comparison to baseline mass media misinformation. And everyone seems to agree that there is a frightening amount of that.

No comparison against control and this is only evidence that scientists publish clickbait.

Re: Some biologists and ecologists think social media is a risk to humanity

#37

Post by bckr »

birdyrooster wrote: post #7
slipframe wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that ubiquitous global communication is the "Great Filter" that prevents intelligent civilizations from colonizing the universe. Before any intelligent species can hope to tackle a problem like that, they invent something like the internet. And once they've invented an internet, they become addicted to low latency communication and will never stray far from it, at least not in significant numbers. Even one ye…

Humans will never make it, but our computers will. The internet is the singularity now.

This comment is probably about 3 or 4 decades too early.

Re: Some biologists and ecologists think social media is a risk to humanity

#39

Post by pelasaco »

bckr wrote: post #35
pelasaco wrote: post #33

But not all social media are the same. HN for example, is the only social media that I consume completely (news feeds + comment section). Everything else I limit as much as I can.. what makes HN so much better than the others? Lack of ads? Moderation?

Intention of the creators and, yes, moderation. The exact same HTML/CSS/JS could power a community devoted to fighting a holy war against Lizard people.

but not all moderation are the same too, right? I mean reddit has moderation, but IMO, there, it doesn't work as good as here.

Re: Some biologists and ecologists think social media is a risk to humanity

#40

Post by justbored123 »

> contributing to phenomena such as “election tampering, disease, violent extremism, famine, racism, and war.”

Sorry, but what are you talking about? The holocaust happened before social media, segregation and slavery happened before social media, religious extremism has been going on for at least 2000 years and its latest incarnation like in the middle east happened before social media. We had 2 world wars before social media, election tampering? Did you forgot about the Gore vs Bush fiasco before social media? I could go on all day, what are you talking about?

This is the best we had had it on all those fronts today after social media. You are making no sense. The first "cross-disciplinary" change we need is more historians combating this type of unbelievable childish ignorance and lack of perspective of reality.

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