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Facebook Is a Doomsday Machine

theatlantic.com

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Re: Facebook Is a Doomsday Machine

#91

Post by klunger »

blhack wrote: post #27

I must have really different experiences than all of these people that write these articles (it seems like there has been something like this, every week on HN, for the last 10 years) My facebook is mostly people showing pictures of stuff, sharing memes, some movie discussion groups, event planning groups. It seems like mostly just people using facebook as a proxy for real world interactions. Twitter on the other han…

I have the exact opposite experience tbh. It probably depends on the network of people you engage with. Twitter is, for me, mostly about professional networking. I just tweet about software development and follow other developers.

Facebook is where I am "friends" with extended family and random people from high school. This is where all the toxic garbage in my social media life comes from. Thank goodness for the option to "unfollow but don't unfriend" there.

Re: Facebook Is a Doomsday Machine

#92

Post by runawaybottle »

soupfordummies wrote: post #37
mfer wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just knowing why people believe the things doesn't stop people from believing lies or the damage it can do to them and those around them.

Exactly. People know smoking is deadly but they still light up anyway. You can know that there is a misinformation bubble and it still influence you.

So, should someone not have the liberty to smoke? I just want to get to the bottom of the logic. Are you my mom or dad?

I have the right to join an echo chamber, a straight up human right. I have the right to let Russia feed me misinformation. I have this right.

Re: Facebook Is a Doomsday Machine

#93

Post by dorkwood »

blhack wrote: post #27

I must have really different experiences than all of these people that write these articles (it seems like there has been something like this, every week on HN, for the last 10 years) My facebook is mostly people showing pictures of stuff, sharing memes, some movie discussion groups, event planning groups. It seems like mostly just people using facebook as a proxy for real world interactions. Twitter on the other han…

My Twitter feed is mostly people sharing art and personal projects.

I can see where people get this idea, though. Twitter is trying really hard to make it impossible to curate your feed. They started jamming "follow topic" suggestions into mine recently, which appear to be random tweets from angry video game nerds I don't know or care about. I had to write my own script to remove them from the page since there seems to be no way to do it through Twitter's own settings.

I really wish they'd let me keep it to just the people I follow, and the things they like and retweet. I don't want to see anything else.

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