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Treat Facebook Like Big Tobacco

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Re: Treat Facebook Like Big Tobacco

#41

Post by i_am_proteus »

Barrin92 wrote: post #29
asdfasgasdgasdg wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the fundamental difference is that smoking actually shortens lives by years. On the other hand, Facebook's privacy violations have . . . made people feel a little squicky? What concrete harm has been done? Nothing to rival even a hundredth of tobacco's death toll. That's not to say we shouldn't have laws and regulations around privacy, but personally I think it's a bit of a stretch to compare Facebook and Phi…

the suicide rate, especially among adolescent women has increased by almost 70% from 2001 to now, self-harm has increased, rate of depression, anxiety and related illnesses has increased in that demographic. Among young men as well, albeit to a lesser extent. While it will take more time to figure out precisely how social media impacts the development of teenagers and young adults, the relationship is pretty unambigu…

Since the base rate of adolescent male suicide was higher to begin with, it would be technically and morbidly correct to say that social media has contributed to increased gender equality in this area.

Re: Treat Facebook Like Big Tobacco

#42

Post by code_duck »

markstos wrote: post #8

As someone without a Facebook account, it's awkward to read these articles that assume inevitably of Facebook's influence. You can quit. We can quit. Sometimes I run into a group that I want to be more involved with that organizes on Facebook. When I mention I want to be involved but am not on Facebook, there is usually sympathy and a response that there are others interested in the group which are not on Facebook, e…

The unfortunate thing is that Facebook uses their outsized, monopolistic assets to purchase competitors. So, at this point if you want to avoid Facebook, you must essentially avoid all popular social networking online. In my line of business, attempting to market without using Instagram is like tying a slab of concrete to my leg.

Re: Treat Facebook Like Big Tobacco

#43

Post by patrick5415 »

stevetursi wrote: post #13
markstos wrote: post #8

As someone without a Facebook account, it's awkward to read these articles that assume inevitably of Facebook's influence. You can quit. We can quit. Sometimes I run into a group that I want to be more involved with that organizes on Facebook. When I mention I want to be involved but am not on Facebook, there is usually sympathy and a response that there are others interested in the group which are not on Facebook, e…

Hello, my name is Steve and I'm addicted to Facebook. It has been 3 months since I deactivated my account. Kidding aside (I'm not really kidding) In my last year using facebook, I was aware of all the privacy shenanigans, and I saw news articles every day about things like cambridge analytica. None of that mattered. But the thing that actually got me to deactivate my account was realizing that it was all performant.…

I deleted my Facebook about 5 years ago but hung on to my Instagram. I was never very active, but about a year ago I noticed a similar trend to the behavior you describe: I’d post something and wait with bated breath to see how many likes it got. Didn’t like how that made me feel, so IG got deleted too.

Re: Treat Facebook Like Big Tobacco

#44

Post by anonuser123456 »

mapt wrote: post #12

I think it may be more appropriate to treat them like Big Asbestos. All it should take is them knowingly handing our private messages in full to other corporations. They were not a party to these messages, they were a network service provider. This actually happened. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/dec/19/facebook-... Regardless of what may or may not be on the TOS, that's federal wiretapping. Fuck you, g…

Yeah totally. Building a website is exactly the same as giving hundreds of thousands of people lung cancer.

Re: Treat Facebook Like Big Tobacco

#46

Post by toss1 »

asdfasgasdgasdg wrote: post #25
SilasX wrote: post #5

I think it's a good (if inflammatory) analogy: in both cases, people are aware, in the abstract, of dangers, but systematically underestimate them by a big margin. People knew "smoking is bad for you", but didn't appreciate how bad. People know "Facebook violates privacy" but not the depth of the profile they've made on you across numerous websites. People know "You shouldn't compare yourself to others and feel bad a…

I think the fundamental difference is that smoking actually shortens lives by years. On the other hand, Facebook's privacy violations have . . . made people feel a little squicky? What concrete harm has been done? Nothing to rival even a hundredth of tobacco's death toll. That's not to say we shouldn't have laws and regulations around privacy, but personally I think it's a bit of a stretch to compare Facebook and Phi…

FB was the primary tool of RUS Intel Agencies' Active Measures attack against the US 2016 elections, against the Brexit vote, and against multiple EU elections.

They utilized Cambridge Analytica, Russian 'Internet Research Agency', and thousands of paid & unpaid trolls to micro-targeting voters for their specific psychologically tested anger trigger points, with billions of impressions of the same in the US alone,

FB at best ignored/minimized the entire episode, dismissing it for many months afterwards.

These attacks are in no small part responsible for the current administration, and at the very least for their inhumane anti-immigrant policies that have resulted in multiple deaths.

The administration, along with the Russians, is actively working to undermine every independent democratic and law enforcement institution that will not act as a support of the rule of them as an autocrat, vs the rule of law.

FB may well go down in history as the key element in the destruction of democracy itself.

That alone is a far larger consequence to the smoking epidemic (& I lost my grandfather to that).

Re: Treat Facebook Like Big Tobacco

#48

Post by HNthrow22 »

randyrand wrote: post #10

Who else finds this really silly? FB is just a social network. It's where dumb people post dumb things. How does it deserve this much new press.

it's ridiculous it's given this much attention when there's far more nefarious activity and problems caused by big tech that are to date totally under the radar outside of a few researchers and journalists, and they go far beyond privacy violations (controlling global narratives/elections for one, facilitating the indoctrination of populations by optimizing for user engagement).

Re: Treat Facebook Like Big Tobacco

#49

Post by drivingmenuts »

If Facebook is bad, then how bad are other forms of social media, like Instagram or Twitter? Or Hacker News? Or Mastodon?

I'm fine with tearing them down if they've committed actual criminal acts, but going after them for breaches of social norms seems a bit awkward. About the most anyone can say about that is it makes them feel icky.

It all seems a bit nanny-statist, to me.

Re: Treat Facebook Like Big Tobacco

#50

Post by vonnik »

SilasX wrote: post #5

I think it's a good (if inflammatory) analogy: in both cases, people are aware, in the abstract, of dangers, but systematically underestimate them by a big margin. People knew "smoking is bad for you", but didn't appreciate how bad. People know "Facebook violates privacy" but not the depth of the profile they've made on you across numerous websites. People know "You shouldn't compare yourself to others and feel bad a…

Social media networks are the cigarette companies of the mind. Like Altria (which owns Philip Morris etc.), they exploit an addiction, but it's a behavioral addiction, and therefore less visible.
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