2856

I have a FB account but I never post and I don’t really even use it for contacting family and friends. Now and then I look and see what someone has posted, and that’s about it.

Somehow, some way, I don’t run into much conservative nonsense on FB.

2857

Can I suggest that this smacks of an over-literal engineer’s view of what communication is? (I say that, having myself often said or thought similar things.)

Many or most conversations aren’t about transmitting information, they’re about maintaining a social connection. The words just don’t matter very much. I haven’t logged into my FB account for at least 18 months now, but for the friends and family I know who still enjoy Facebook, the enjoyment comes from the sense of connection, of reaffirming relationships, not from exchanging information.

2858

My perspective is actually stemming from the fact that things like facebook and social media essentially remove actual human components from communication, and distill it into essentially just shouting into an echoing void.

It’s not simply that it results in conveyance of disinformation (which it does), but that it does so via a sort of dehumanizing element, which eliminates the normal human elements of communication and leaves only a grotesque husk.

2859

If my mom ever checked emails it would be one thing.

But I literally have to be on there monitoring her and debunking shit or she’ll believe anything her idiot fascist, racist “friends” shit onto her timeline. It’s like being a parent but for someone who should know better. Thankfully she knows I’m not stupid and isn’t a wingnut, but it doesn’t mean it isn’t a constant fucking thing.

2860

I don’t think that’s true. Facebook has clearly demonstrated an ability to engage real human emotion. It wouldn’t have been successful if that wasn’t true. I have learnt to recognize the fact that that I’m in a minority in finding that it doesn’t work for me.

There are obviously huge problems caused by the way social media has changed the way people form and support their political affiliations. Maybe we’ll have to work out how to fix them. Or maybe people will learn how to handle them over the next couple of generations.

But I don’t see any point in staying oblivious to the real human and emotional value Facebook and friends actually have to the people around me.

2861

You, personally, deleting Facebook is about as impactful as you, personally, no longer using plastic straws.

You get to feel good about yourself and superior to every that didn’t do those things, but it doesn’t do anything to actually change the state of the world.

The problem is waaaay bigger than you and needs a large, organize response. If you’re serious about making a difference, start pounding the pavement, building a movement, pitching on on the hard work of electoral change (which is not just voting every four years), etc.

2862

Yeah, I can totally understand that. Been there.

2863

It conveys plenty of human emotion. This is why people are addicted to it.
But it does so in a deformed manner.

Instead of people engaging each other in a normal human manner, it facilitates this messed up feedback system of people spamming garbage into echo chambers, and then having garbage spewed back out at them, which validate their garbage beliefs and thus make them feel good about them.

Heroin has value to an addict, but that doesn’t mean it’s good for them.

2864

I like seeing pictures of my friends’s kids and family doing stuff, like graduations and parties and the like. You can’t really get that over the phone. Are we going to go back to getting film developed and mailing pictures through the mail? I mean, I don’t know if I care that much. On the other hand, when I see my timeline full of photos my friends took, funny images or videos friends have shared, that stuff is interesting to me and it’s a very casual “check this out” kind of contact. Comparing it to “just email or call them” isn’t the same thing, really. It’s also not like I’m not calling or emailing my close friends either.

Ultimately, I don’t really see the problem or what the big deal is, from me having a FB account and using it to communicate with folks that aren’t quite in my inner orbit any longer but used to be or are close to it. Why would anyone care?

2865

Facebook saved my life, literally. I think too many people want to stand by principle, talk in the abstract… our entire valley was burning. It was the only thing I had. You can judge me for that, but fuck anyone who does.

2866

The anti-social network brigading is a bit much at times I think. If you have garbage people in your feed, just take them out.

2867

Also, deliberately click on ads that you aren’t interested in to fuck up their algorithms.

2868

This is a good point:

2869

Barr and the DOJ has been threatening a lawsuit against FB and other social networks for muzzling conservative voices for years now - that threat has no bite anymore, although Dems also have their own reasons for potentially raising lawsuits against big tech.

2870

I think people who hate on Facebook are the same people who didn’t own a TV in the 90s. Weirdos.

It can be awful, but it has its uses.

2871

It’s a tool, like any other.

2872

Yep, and I have no loyalty to it. When a better one that other people use surfaces, I’ll use that. Just as MySpace, LiveJournal and a host of others who quickly others will move. It’s not a love of the company that keeps people there.

2873

I think you’re really underestimating the influence and danger of the platform, but I get what you’re saying about its uses. @Nesrie has brought up a very good example of how important it was to her during the fires up in Oregon this past year. It certainly has value.

2874

Definitely wasn’t my preference though. If the news is bad, there is no emergency broadcast because stupid people decided not to do it… what else do you have. The answer is… you don’t have anything else but Social Media.

2875

I feel like the part that gets missed is just simply the fact that lots of people are idiots and just aren’t responsible netizens. Social networks absolutely have the ability to amplify bad actors but I think a lot of folks here who yearn for the pre-social network days forget the fact that the main reason why pre-2005 message boards boards, bbses and the like were better behaved is just due to the higher barrier to entry.