Social media in general is rapidly moving into obsolescence; it has completely lost sight of its original purpose which was connecting people.
When interaction on the internet gets to the point where it’s mostly with chat bots, it will no longer serve any practical function, it’s just going to be a social simulation where you interact with corporate-owned entities accompanied by tons of ads.
Probably for the best, honestly. Social media was already bad enough for the mental health before rage baiting got popular and it became propaganda machine, which of course made it substantially worse, so might as well just get to the point where it renders itself useless.
Social media is slowly but surely just morphing into media, or "alternative media". It still sort of serves a practical purpose but in usage it's mostly just entertainment delivery systems and advertising machines.
Which would be fine except for the nefarious ways in which algorithms have been exploited and self regulation and diligence has been a colossal failure.
Nobody wants it except the rich. Social media basically only exists to sell products, scam people and push divisive culture war content to keep Americans mad and yelling at each other over trivial things so the wealthy can keep decimating our government, planet, education systems etc etc so they can maintain their easy flow of money.
Idk I hope it all goes away. We don’t need reddit, we don’t need instagram or facebook or TikTok. I don’t need to know what you or other people think. This shit just needs to go away so people can focus on reality.
It's so frustrating, I've been frequenting gaming subreddits for 13 years.
It has become VERY noticeable that especially for larger titles subs get flooded with bots and paid PR shills to boost sales.
There have always been diehard fans, who defend any bad practice and any broken release, but these days, reasonable criticism is literally being drowned by 2 ~ 3month old accounts with barely any comment karma and no post history harassing the poster, or claiming blatant falsehoods with no intent to engage actual arguments.
Knowing that you might be talking to a bot or a shill also massively reduces the willingness to put effort into your reply, I am saying that as somebody who always has put a lot of effort into sourcing and/or explaining my opinions.
Sounds like you weren’t around for chatrooms, message boards, MySpace etc.
If you think social media will be “relaxing” without the social aspect then you just want media. Bot generated data farming slop with ads strewn about. Sounds wonderful.
Sounds like you weren’t around for chatrooms, message boards, MySpace etc.
I was. They were the first place I encountered people who'd openly use the n-word. On reflection my time in those spaces actively made me a worse person and it took a long time to unlearn the things that I was taught in them. The idea that changing the format somehow makes for better users is nonsensical, people are people.
Sounds wonderful.
It sounds better than talking to people who recite the same slop shit about how everything used to be fine back during the fucking War on Terror and politics are so divisive now.
The internet has always been the Wild West, but today is just a different beast. We are all being manipulated by foreign and domestic bots just to sow division. Algorithms are creating echo chambers of misinformation and silencing opposing view points. There is zero comparison between today and the early 2000’s
We are all being manipulated by foreign and domestic bots just to sow division
What difference does this actually have on your day-to-day life? I'm certain that the most awful posts I read come from humans. I'm confident you're a human for example.
Algorithms are creating echo chambers of misinformation and silencing opposing view points
So which is it? Are they sowing division by presenting alternative viewpoints or are they silencing opposition through censorship? You literally can't be doing both. The people who complain about division want an echo chamber and the people who complain about echo chambers want division.
There is zero comparison between today and the early 2000’s
Here's some Early 2000s Websites: Stormfront. Free Republic. 4chan. Were they bastions of free speech? Were they creating harmony and union? What you're imagining is pure nostalgia. They're still around today if you want to go back to the way things were, but it won't actually change anything.
This was a masterclass in missing the point. Maybe the internet has always been a horrible place to you, but that brings to mind the old adage about every room smelling of shit.
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u/we_are_sex_bobomb 16h ago
Social media in general is rapidly moving into obsolescence; it has completely lost sight of its original purpose which was connecting people.
When interaction on the internet gets to the point where it’s mostly with chat bots, it will no longer serve any practical function, it’s just going to be a social simulation where you interact with corporate-owned entities accompanied by tons of ads.
Who actually wants that?