• 6 Posts
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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 15th, 2023

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  • Been there. Reason I didnt is because other people would bear the shit if I did. Im in a much better place at the moment but I felt exactly the way ypu do about the world.

    There is a fuckload of propaganda, and a lot of it is meant to make you lose hope at ever seeing the system change. That makes the opinion that things can and might improve and you are going to be a part of it, no matter how small the most radical thing of all.

    Genuinely what helped me through it was volunteering. Everything is shit wall to wall BUT this one tiny thing is better than it was because of me. Its a sustaining feeling for sure.

    Keep hanging in there for the ones you love, and the ones that love you.



















  • I agree with you.

    And youre right that the article doesnt focus on the algorithmic hate factory which to me is the main difference between social media and traditional media. For instance, and this is just anecdotal, my grandma who had nothing besides an analog telephone and broadcast tv became just as polarized and angry as someone with social media just by reading and watching Fox news (and eventually OAN and Newsmax) all day. I cant imagine that Facebook would have made it any worse.

    The algorithm is probably accelerating the polarization pipeline, but i guess my point was that social media isnt necessarily doing anything new or distinct. Its doing the same thing Rush Limbaugh was doing on the radio 25 years ago, its just on a new frontier.

    The 24 hour news cycle was already throwing sensational controversial stories up and speculating wildly if not outright lying about to hold on to eyeballs. The longer you watch, the more commercials you see. Etc etc.

    I would love to see a study of social media vs traditional media to see whether the mean time to full polarization changes and if so, how significantly.

    Good Ted talk!