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Myths about Social Media

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Re: Myths about Social Media

#31

Post by fleddr »

Can't say I'm impressed.

It seems plain as day to me that many people are far more hateful online than in real life, mostly under the disguise of anonymity and/or the physical divide. You can say some truly nasty things online that in the physical world would make you wake up in a hospital. There's no real correction mechanism online.

I can't believe the research doesn't address the point that some others here are making as well: the most harmful content is promoted, to the point that you exclusively see harmful content, which is then normalized. Social media promotes the crazy and silences the reasonables.

Not a word on the massively increased speed of information. There is no time to refute any point because the damage is done in minutes and garbage spreads, and then the next one comes.

Not a word on the complete lack of trust in information itself. In media, science, even simple verifiable facts. It doesn't seem to matter any more, people just make up their own facts.

And then the solutions:

"Invest in remedying the offline frustrations that drives online hate"

Ah, ok then. The solution is to just improve the world.

Re: Myths about Social Media

#33

Post by fleddr »

krapp wrote: post #16
mstade wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would love to read the research he's referring to, but I couldn't find any links or citations. I intuitively believe that there's truth to all of these so called myths, but I'd love to be proven wrong. Anyone know where I can read more about this?

I think the myth is the misinterpretation of scale. People tend to believe social media is primarily hate and misinformation, that most users are simply addicted to it like dope fiends, and that it's nothing but echo chambers, etc. All of these things are true, but likely to a lesser degree than assumed.

Agree, the negative part is disproportionately impactful.

As an analogy, my g/f and I recently went grocery shopping. As we got out she was fuming at how old people completely ignore COVID rules, whilst society is largely making sacrifices for them.

I was part of the whole experience, and two people ignored the rules. One did not have a mask, another did have one but ignored social distancing.

There were probably some 200 people in the store. So actual reality is that almost everybody complied. But it takes just one or two that don't, to make a sweeping conclusion like that.

Re: Myths about Social Media

#34

Post by taurusnoises »

ckastner wrote: post #27
royalroad wrote: post #5

Maybe it would be worth repeating the 'myths' he lists in the tweets: Myth 1: A lot of misinfo on social media No, research suggests there is little, shared by few & having small effects. Those sharing misinfo are not dumb. But they have intense political animus, which motivates to share what fits their worldview, true or false. Myth 2: Social media makes people hateful No, research suggests that online hate reflects…

> Myth 2: Social media makes people hateful > No, research suggests that online hate reflects offline frustrations that make them hateful both online & offline. That's just a sleight of hand. Sure, people may have been hateful before, but social media amplifies that hate exponentially. Social media thrives on outrage, being addictive, and uses algorithmic ranking to feed it as much as possible. > The hateful are few…

There's no way he's right in this. Sure, hate or may germinate offline to some degree, but it is stoked almost entirely online.

Re: Myths about Social Media

#35

Post by heavyset_go »

mstade wrote: post #12
royalroad wrote: post #5

Maybe it would be worth repeating the 'myths' he lists in the tweets: Myth 1: A lot of misinfo on social media No, research suggests there is little, shared by few & having small effects. Those sharing misinfo are not dumb. But they have intense political animus, which motivates to share what fits their worldview, true or false. Myth 2: Social media makes people hateful No, research suggests that online hate reflects…

I would love to read the research he's referring to, but I couldn't find any links or citations. I intuitively believe that there's truth to all of these so called myths, but I'd love to be proven wrong. Anyone know where I can read more about this?

I would, too, because I've seen research that says otherwise. I've talked with this researcher[1] about it in the past, not sure if their page has the study they were conducting online yet, but the page has papers that are relevant/adjacent to this topic.

[1] https://kelleycotter.com/papers/

Re: Myths about Social Media

#36

Post by onionisafruit »

nomdep wrote: post #24
royalroad wrote: post #5

Maybe it would be worth repeating the 'myths' he lists in the tweets: Myth 1: A lot of misinfo on social media No, research suggests there is little, shared by few & having small effects. Those sharing misinfo are not dumb. But they have intense political animus, which motivates to share what fits their worldview, true or false. Myth 2: Social media makes people hateful No, research suggests that online hate reflects…

Myth 2: Social media makes people hateful No, research suggests that online hate reflects offline frustrations that make them hateful both online & offline That conclusion seems completely wrong to me. Sure, there are previous frustrations, but when you feel attacked online, you become hateful as a defense mechanism… and of course, there is always some YouTube channel ready to reinforce that anger. And this happens w…

When I feel attacked online I stop going to the places where I don’t feel welcome. As you say, some people react by engaging and escalating, but I don’t think most people stick around long in those situations. What this guy is saying seems to be that the people who escalate are likely people who already behave that way offline.

Re: Myths about Social Media

#37

Post by [deleted] »

royalroad wrote: post #5

Maybe it would be worth repeating the 'myths' he lists in the tweets: Myth 1: A lot of misinfo on social media No, research suggests there is little, shared by few & having small effects. Those sharing misinfo are not dumb. But they have intense political animus, which motivates to share what fits their worldview, true or false. Myth 2: Social media makes people hateful No, research suggests that online hate reflects…

[deleted]

Re: Myths about Social Media

#38

Post by prawn »

brimble wrote: post #3

I'd say the fundamental problem with social media is that current incentives strongly encourage companies to make bad social networks. Cutting advertising and mass spying out of the picture could be enough to all but completely solve the problem. But there may be other ways to fix it. Maybe significantly increasing the liability and risk platforms are exposed to for widely-posted/shared content.

I suspect advertising might actually sometimes be a moderating effect in that sites/networks occasionally clean up their act to retain major advertising partners. Not great on the whole, but might be one meagre positive.

Re: Myths about Social Media

#39

Post by disambiguation »

timoth3y wrote: post #18

This drives me nuts. The irony here is that one of the things social media does is force us to simplify our discourse to the point of infantilization. Subtly does not get traction. We need binary truths! Myths and myth-busters. None of the author's "myths" are myths. They are all true in a general sense. What the author is correctly pointing out is that there is more subtly. That to understand the real situation requ…

> one of the things social media does is force us to simplify our discourse

In this case it's not because of social media, since the author cites a 10 min constraint to present to the Danish parliament.

Re: Myths about Social Media

#40

Post by irjustin »

What is the lens here? If it's Danish lens, then I'm concerned it doesn't fully capture what's happening in other markets.

> Myth 1: A lot of misinfo on social media... No, research suggests there is little, shared by few & having small effects.

The U.S. anti-vax group is quite vocal and quite large. At times this includes elected officials, but sometimes elected officials simply resist mandates which emboldens vaccination resistant groups.

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