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39 votes
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Why Gen Z is quietly giving up
27 votes -
Scammers are targeting teenage boys on social media—and driving some to suicide
27 votes -
To make sure grandmas like his don't get conned, he scams the scammers
25 votes -
Here are thirteen other explanations for the adolescent mental health crisis. None of them work.
17 votes -
Setting up a 3d printing RTMP stream on YouTube
4 votes -
Discord to start showing ads for gamers to boost revenue
62 votes -
Two popular Danish television presenters have reported Meta to the police after finding their images and words had been manipulated and misused in thousands of Facebook ads
29 votes -
Twitter replaces twitter.com with x.com without user consent. Bad implementation invites an influx of Phishing attacks. (german source)
48 votes -
Instagram generated almost 30% of Meta’s revenue in early 2022
27 votes -
Why do negative topics dominate social media sites, even here?
This is a question I eventually ask about every social media site I use(d). I like Tildes, and the discussions here are much more constructive than any other place I've seen, however I've seen it...
This is a question I eventually ask about every social media site I use(d). I like Tildes, and the discussions here are much more constructive than any other place I've seen, however I've seen it to be true even here. When one doesn't curate their feed, and use the default home page, the negative topics seems to dominate. I'm talking about the topics that talk about problems and what's wrong with something, often with titles implying the awfulness or emergency of such a problem. I think I don't need to elaborate on how this is much more prevalent and extreme on other sites. But nevertheless, it's a recurring pattern even here.
I know the argument that goes that humans are problem-fixing machines, and that there are psychological incentives to focus on problems. However, this seems overly reductive and lacking in explanatory power to me. Outside of internet, this is not a phenomenon I've experienced with people, unless they were mentally going through something very rough. Otherwise, people generally seem to talk about neutral or positive issues. And even while talking about negative issues, the tone often isn't grim, and doesn't leave a depressive aftertaste.
Even on the internet, in smaller spaces and more closed spaces, like chatting servers, this doesn't seem to hold true. Sure, there are politically-oriented, and therefore problem-oriented spaces even there, but most spaces don't seem to be that way. Back when I used Facebook too, while the posts were vain, most of my friends and acquaintances were just interested in sharing and commenting on social lives.
So I think this is a problem that is more endemic to "open" social media sites, with easily accessible and open-to-public spaces, rather than applying to the whole humanity or even every internet space. Its one of my biggest head scratchers about social media sites. So far I couldn't find a satisfactory explanation in the literature either. Doesn't mean there isn't, but I haven't stumbled upon such.
So, I'm interested in your opinions: Why do negative topics dominate on open social media sites, even here, unless curated against? Why is this such a strong recurring pattern for sites structured like this, while it's not in other online and physical spaces and interections I mentioned?
54 votes -
Fedi Garden to instance admins: “Block Threads to remain listed”
23 votes -
You don't need to document everything
31 votes -
The rise and fall of the trad wife: Alena Kate Pettitt helped lead an online movement promoting domesticity. Now she says, “It’s become its own monster.”
39 votes -
The great rewiring: is social media really behind an epidemic of teenage mental illness?
28 votes -
The influencer who “reverses” Lupus with smoothies. Psychiatrist Brooke Goldner makes extraordinary claims about incurable diseases. It’s brought her a mansion, a Ferrari, and a huge social following.
18 votes -
Why Bluesky remains the most interesting experiment in social media, by far
30 votes -
Florida latest to restrict social media for kids as legal battle looms
22 votes -
Lego requests California police department stop using their toy heads to cover suspect mugshots on social media
40 votes -
Refund fraud schemes promoted on TikTok, Telegram are costing Amazon and other retailers billions of dollars
37 votes -
Reddit pops as much as 70% in NYSE debut after selling shares at top of range
37 votes -
Elon Musk on racism, bailing out Donald Trump, hate speech, and more - The Don Lemon Show (full interview)
29 votes -
US judge rules YouTube, Facebook and Reddit must face lawsuits claiming they helped radicalize a mass shooter
47 votes -
Tell US Congress: Stop the TikTok ban
32 votes -
Time to delete your Glassdoor account and data
102 votes -
Once more with feeling: Banning TikTok is unconstitutional and won’t do shit to deal with any actual threats
24 votes -
The end of the MrBeast era
39 votes -
An influential economics forum has a troubling surplus of trolls
18 votes -
What I did when my art got stolen (I got help from lawyers and posted on social media)
17 votes -
YouTube blocks access to CBC's The Fifth Estate story on killing of B.C. Sikh activist at India's demand
50 votes -
Can Reddit survive its own IPO?
22 votes -
House passes bill that could ban TikTok in the US, sending it to the Senate
45 votes -
On popular online platforms, predatory groups coerce children into self-harm
15 votes -
Trolls targeted TikTok librarian Mychal Threets. Now he’s quitting to rediscover his library joy.
31 votes -
Reddit is letting power users in on its IPO
38 votes -
The life-ruining power of routines: Habits don’t lead to personal optimisation. They lead to suffering.
32 votes -
The mystery social media account schooling US Congress on how to do its job
39 votes -
With little enforcement or legal culpability, social media helps wildlife trafficking thrive in plain sight
16 votes -
Notes on conciseness
30 votes -
Generative AI - We aren’t ready
27 votes -
Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Threads down in widespread outage
14 votes -
Is an ethical social media platform even possible?
I've long been uncomfortable using platforms that have a bad reputation with respect to: Human rights / genocide Disinformation Privacy All three of those can be connected with advertising...
I've long been uncomfortable using platforms that have a bad reputation with respect to:
- Human rights / genocide
- Disinformation
- Privacy
All three of those can be connected with advertising revenue, among other things. When I use platforms that are shady in this regard, I know I'm colluding with them and contributing to the problems they create. So it's been a relief to see new platforms like Tildes emerge, as well as those based on ActivityPub.
But even platforms that don't have overt advertising (Telegram?) do have a problem with hate groups that go unchallenged. And I know that if I was running an instance of an ActivityPub compatible platform such as KBin, I mightn't be able to keep on top of moderating things like disinformation.
So I suppose my question is, where do you draw the line? I've deleted my Twitter and Meta accounts and I'm exploring alternatives, but I'm not sure if I'm going from the darkness to the light, or just into shades of grey.
38 votes -
Tumblr to begin selling user content to AI generative service companies, opt-out will be per blog
75 votes -
Texas is right. The tech giants need to be regulated.
10 votes -
Matt Levine's Money Stuff: Reddit plans to allow users to buy IPO shares, Nvidia share purchases and Three Arrows Capital [a collapsed crypto company]
19 votes -
Donald Trump trials - Georgia defendant Kenneth Chesebro caught lying to Michigan prosecutors about alt Twitter account
21 votes -
Google cut a deal with Reddit for AI training data
23 votes -
Bluesky announces data federation for self-hosting
20 votes -
Does anyone else have posting anxiety?
To preface, I have accounts on multiple link aggregators, three microblogging platforms, and I have my own (transiently online) blog. I'm a member of more niche Discord servers than I can count,...
To preface, I have accounts on multiple link aggregators, three microblogging platforms, and I have my own (transiently online) blog. I'm a member of more niche Discord servers than I can count, and I'm in a few other nooks where people generally seem to gather and talk. Despite all that, I find that it's incredibly rare that I ever actually participate in any of the discussions that I see taking place, and that's something that I think I'd like to change.
I think part of the problem is that I grew up in the formative years of the "modern" net, and was always taught that you should be careful about what you say online (and, implicitly, that saying nothing is probably even better), lest an axe murderer track you down and explodify your tibia while you sleep.
So, does anyone else, or have stories about, posting anxiety? Anyone gotten over it? Am I just crazy?
81 votes -
The majority of traffic from Elon Musk's X may have been fake during the Super Bowl, report suggests
50 votes