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How Facebook makes us dumber

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Re: How Facebook makes us dumber

#91

Post by lorenzhs »

askafriend wrote: post #36
pjc50 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just wrote 500 words without using any logical fallacies backing up my assertions with scientific studies from trusted sources This is why you're getting downvoted. That's not how you convince people.

I think that might be the crux of the issue. Convincing people and making a logical argument aren't the same thing and are only tangentially related. The former requires a level of emotional intelligence and coercion in addition to any logical arguments. Why? Because people are people and they will only resent you if you just mechanically present arguments even if you're 100% right. They will look for any reason to s…

The candidates in the current US election cycle demonstrate this quite well.

Re: How Facebook makes us dumber

#92

Post by raverbashing »

eggie wrote: post #71
raverbashing wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, too bad it fails at some searches and falling back to google is needed For controversial stuff, the bubble is definitely a minus. For factual queries, it just makes things easier (yes, when I type 'python' I don't mean the reptile)

How does it fail for you? I persisted and find that although the results are different, they are often just different. Once I became used to DDG it's started to seem like Google is the broken one. It did take a while for me to switch, maybe 3 tries before it was working right.

- Autocomplete gives "funny" (non-relevant) suggestions

- Queries need more grooming to get to relevant results (search for things in Dublin, get results for Ireland/Ohio/California mixed)

Re: How Facebook makes us dumber

#93

Post by funkyy »

raverbashing wrote: post #30
dest wrote: post #2

As a search provider, DuckDuckGo tries to prevent the "gated community" syndrom: http://dontbubble.us/

Yeah, too bad it fails at some searches and falling back to google is needed For controversial stuff, the bubble is definitely a minus. For factual queries, it just makes things easier (yes, when I type 'python' I don't mean the reptile)

It would be better if they would have visible button next to search input field that would let you to decide if you want to be in bubble or not.

Re: How Facebook makes us dumber

#94

Post by hellofunk »

cryoshon wrote: post #86
hellofunk wrote: post #50

There have already been studies showing that frequent visits to FB make a person more unhappy in their overall life. Now this. So, a major worldwide internet power -- that is, a single company -- that is trying to disrupt so much of global life (India, anyone?), with the interesting side effect that it makes people unhappy and less intelligent. If you had heard this "reality" 20 years ago, you wouldn't believe the fu…

Yep, a major worldwide internet power has vested interest in mining data from its billions of users via its product, which is broadly detrimental to those users. To be honest, it seems a lot like the oil companies: major worldwide energy powers with vested interest in extracting fossil fuels from the earth then selling them to billions of users to burn, which is detrimental to everyone. A lot of these mega-scale corp…

Also, because laws are only a subset of the many ways a society handles, judges, and distinguishes detrimental actions. Laws can only do so much.

Re: How Facebook makes us dumber

#96

Post by mercer »

y04nn wrote: post #46

Few years ago Facebook was supposed to work with media to improve the activity feed. But from my perspective it is just became as bad as it can be, it gives me no relevant information and 80% of it is garbage. When close friends post something interesting, it does not get promoted and rapidity falls in the bottom. Filtering out noise in annoying so I end up not using Facebook as I used to. What describe the article i…

In a broader sense I'd say it's also a societal problem. Growing up in a more traditional society as well as a Christian community, I had to deal with a huge variety of people and opinions on a regular basis, whereas nowadays the default is to associate with 'people I like', which tend to be people I agree with. And because others do likewise, it's difficult to actively counteract that, much as I try.

Of course there were some strong biases in these 'older' communities too (views on sexuality, abortion, etc.), but generally speaking people inside them varied greatly in political views, social class, upbringing, lifestyle, habits, and so on. It gave a face to many opinions that I would consider offensive or dangerous, and by extension an understanding and empathy that is much more difficult to have these days (for me).

I fear for the future of our societies (and social safeties) in part because of this. Changing views often starts with mutual respect, and that's much more difficult to do when opinions get separated from those who hold them, and when interaction is increasingly opt-in.

Re: How Facebook makes us dumber

#97

Post by neogodless »

nkozyra wrote: post #49

Probably not a small nitpick, really, but the article explains not that we're dumber by using Facebook, but that we are less informed. I think that's an important distinction not only because people tend to conflate knowledge and intelligence/aptitude, but because we should worry as much about spending long amounts of time doing things that provide not even nominal information to keep our brains pliable and receptive…

I think I disagree. We actually spread lots and lots of "information" via Facebook. In other words, we're "very informed" (whether it's arguably correct information is another story.) But we are, really, becoming more rigid in opinions due to this "information" which means, we are less receptive to new knowledge and new ways of thinking.

(I think, in the big picture, our opinions on this overall point do align, so please don't completely disregard my comment :).)

Re: How Facebook makes us dumber

#99

Post by div0 »

So the study confirms that people naturally trust what their friends are posting, which then confirms that trust is what bonds friends together.

I view Facebook as a means to strengthen existing "physical" friendship, rather than a place to get unbiased information. So in that sense this is neither surprising, nor detrimental. Imagine what will happen if your friends start correcting your political views...

For less biased information, please refer to twitter. And please don't mix Facebook friends with twitter followings.

Re: How Facebook makes us dumber

#100

Post by kazinator »

eggie wrote: post #70
TeMPOraL wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 1. You're advertising another company for free. Is Facebook paying you to put their logo on your site? No. First of all, it doesn't matter. Facebook is not your competitor, so you're not harming yourself. Secondly, Facebook is an immensely popular communications platform . Even if for some reason you dislike them because they're privately owned, it doesn't change the fact that that's where people are . If you want…

> First of all, it doesn't matter. Facebook is not your competitor, so you're not harming yourself. You start by saying that Facebook is not a competitor, but in taking over part of your core business--- keeping track of potential customers--- it could be seen as that. > Secondly, Facebook is an immensely popular communications platform. Even if for some reason you dislike them because they're privately owned, it doe…

> You start by saying that Facebook is not a competitor, but in taking over part of your core business--- keeping track of potential customers--- it could be seen as that.

If keeping track of lists of potential customers is such an integral part of your core business that someone else doing it is "competition", then it can be plausibly argued that you're in the spam business, at least to some degree.

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