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Former Facebook Executive: Social Media is Ripping Society Apart

Posted: Tue Dec 26, 2017 9:05 am
by Hortator
"The short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops we’ve created are destroying how society works. No civil discourse, no cooperation; misinformation, mistruth."

https://youtu.be/78oMjNCAayQ

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Re: Former Facebook Executive: Social Media is Ripping Society Apart

Posted: Tue Dec 26, 2017 9:18 am
by Philip
I'd say social media addiction/obsession is mostly making an impact on those very young - or of a certain age - and people with WAY too much time on their hands. Most over 40 might use it for business purposes and networking. But the gossiping, arguing, trolling types - I'd say they are mostly rather young. I never use it! I've got a linked in page, but don't even use that. The idea that I'm going to use electronic means to seek out "friends" or old acquaintances - so absurd and artificial to me. And my oldest son's generation (he's almost 20), they almost never use it.

Re: Former Facebook Executive: Social Media is Ripping Society Apart

Posted: Wed Dec 27, 2017 11:23 pm
by Nicki
Philip wrote:I'd say social media addiction/obsession is mostly making an impact on those very young - or of a certain age - and people with WAY too much time on their hands. Most over 40 might use it for business purposes and networking. But the gossiping, arguing, trolling types - I'd say they are mostly rather young. I never use it! I've got a linked in page, but don't even use that. The idea that I'm going to use electronic means to seek out "friends" or old acquaintances - so absurd and artificial to me. And my oldest son's generation (he's almost 20), they almost never use it.
Even Instagram? That's what my two are on - I don't let them spend long on it though at this stage. To me social media's good for keeping in touch with people who don't live nearby anymore - like a good friend of mine overseas; I can regularly see photos of her kids and find out about other things she's been up to (other than having kids I guess!) If not for Facebook I suppose we might have had the odd phone call since I moved away (probably mostly her calling me - I'm less sociable in general) and then started to forget or wonder why we were still bothering to keep in touch.

They say it's affecting teenagers' social skills but I would have thought not being able to use their phones all day at school would keep a balance with face-to-face communication. Of course it's different if people are able and inclined to just look at their phones all the time when they could be conversing with others they're actually with. I can't believe a lot of people have so much to text about as well - maybe it's just my lack of friends but I send only a handful of texts a week and most of them are work-related.