15 votes

On social media what filters do you have to block content? Any motivation beyond "not interested"?

On Tildes I don't have any filtered tags yet but I did unsubscribe from ~anime, ~books, ~food, ~games, ~movies, ~sports, and ~tv. Wow I just made that list and realized I cut out most of the fun groups... I'm not sure what that says about me haha. I unsubscribed from all of those because I either don't enjoy those things or if I do, I know what I like and don't have any inclination to discuss them.

Reddit is where I have the most things filtered out. Mostly entire subs from r/all but I have some users blocked too. Like poem_for_your_sprog. Don't get me wrong I like poems in the right context but it throws me off too much when I'm reading an askreddit thread and suddenly find myself reading a poem. A dumb pet peeve.

Facebook it's just random people blocked from showing on the newsfeed.

I have said "not interested" to videos on youtube more times than I would ever care to count. I'm not sure why but they have a really hard time giving me content I want to see. There's usually like 3 videos in the feed I'm down with and the rest is just garbage. They're good about not showing me things I said I'm not interested in but they can't seem to pinpoint what I actually want.

15 comments

  1. [2]
    meghan
    Link
    Nothing really, but I shouldn't have to block content. The content should only be the content I told the platform I want to see. AI in social media was a mistake and they all need to stop.

    Nothing really, but I shouldn't have to block content. The content should only be the content I told the platform I want to see. AI in social media was a mistake and they all need to stop.

    11 votes
    1. GetsITAndy
      Link Parent
      They should stop but they very much won't! Those AIs are their moneymakers. Page clicks, time suckers and other "engagement". Until the goals of the game change or they find a more profitable...

      They should stop but they very much won't! Those AIs are their moneymakers. Page clicks, time suckers and other "engagement". Until the goals of the game change or they find a more profitable model it is the way they'll stay.

      2 votes
  2. [3]
    rodya
    Link
    This is the only site I really ever filtered content on, so far I've just been adding tags to the list whenever I see something I dislike. I only have 11 so far, which speaks to the quality here...

    This is the only site I really ever filtered content on, so far I've just been adding tags to the list whenever I see something I dislike. I only have 11 so far, which speaks to the quality here imo.

    I've never used youtube for video discovery so I've never really understood all the complaints about the recommended section.

    6 votes
    1. [2]
      temporalarcheologist
      Link Parent
      Could I ask what you have filtered out? Not trying to start a fight, just unaware of the diversity of content here.

      Could I ask what you have filtered out? Not trying to start a fight, just unaware of the diversity of content here.

      5 votes
      1. rodya
        Link Parent
        Right now I have: bitcoin, tesla, elon musk, spacex, peterson, jordan peterson, esports, cryptocurrency, transhumanism, kurzgesagt, sam harris

        Right now I have:

        bitcoin, tesla, elon musk, spacex, peterson, jordan peterson, esports, cryptocurrency, transhumanism, kurzgesagt, sam harris

        2 votes
  3. [4]
    Comment deleted by author
    Link
    1. GetsITAndy
      Link Parent
      Nahhh you don't have low standards, you're open to everything! Very positive perspective!

      Nahhh you don't have low standards, you're open to everything! Very positive perspective!

      3 votes
    2. [2]
      Barskie
      Link Parent
      Same way. I believe it's important to expose yourself to different perspectives, even if you have to wade through shit to get to it. 75% of Reddit may be repetitive memes and terrible jokes, but...

      Same way. I believe it's important to expose yourself to different perspectives, even if you have to wade through shit to get to it. 75% of Reddit may be repetitive memes and terrible jokes, but there's always a nugget of wisdom hidden somewhere down in the comments.

      Of course, you have to keep a level head while doing this, so I don't recommend it for people who get triggered when browsing r/all. I'm not American, so at least I can find some humor in your shit-flinging partisanship.

      3 votes
      1. GetsITAndy
        Link Parent
        That's the point of the filters though. I can accurately define certain kinds of shit and filter them out. A lot less to wade through!

        That's the point of the filters though. I can accurately define certain kinds of shit and filter them out. A lot less to wade through!

        1 vote
  4. [2]
    unknown user
    Link
    I've really stopped using a lot of social media to be honest; I keep the accounts active and check them a couple of times a week, but I post barely anything, and in the case of Twitter, actively...

    I've really stopped using a lot of social media to be honest; I keep the accounts active and check them a couple of times a week, but I post barely anything, and in the case of Twitter, actively took the time to trim down my tweets from ~1000 to about 80 of them to lower my exposed surface area on the internet.

    With Facebook, it's really a case of spamming "Not interested" whenever something I dislike comes across my newsfeed. Turns out my friends really like some truly inane content! YouTube is also turning a bit to algorithmic for me, so I've made sure my home YouTube page is /subscriptions, which appears to be the only chronological listing of content you subscribe to on the site. Twitter is a bit different. I follow a lot of spaceflight and tech accounts, but I still get a lot of political content in my feed, so I usually unsubscribe from seeing likes or retweets from more politically oriented people I follow. I did end up having to unfollow @elonmusk simply because his signal-to-noise ratio dropped massively in the past year. Any interesting tweets from him will usually be retweeted by someone else I follow now.

    My main outlets for "keeping up with the world" are now The Guardian, HackerNews, Tildes, and a very limited subset of reddit; and a couple of blogs/RSS emitters such as DF, Roughly Drafted, First Look Media, The Outline, etc.

    5 votes
    1. annadane
      Link Parent
      Having someone's "likes" or "commented on" has been, is, and forever will be, a huge mistake and a massive invasion of privacy. But they'll never fix it. All these social media companies who do...

      Having someone's "likes" or "commented on" has been, is, and forever will be, a huge mistake and a massive invasion of privacy. But they'll never fix it. All these social media companies who do this can fucking go to hell.

      1 vote
  5. [2]
    Comment deleted by author
    Link
    1. 5thface
      Link Parent
      Would you mind explaining more about https://mdnt.surge.sh/ ? I didn't see an explanation on the page.

      Would you mind explaining more about https://mdnt.surge.sh/ ? I didn't see an explanation on the page.

      1 vote
  6. [3]
    Akir
    Link
    I avoid "real" social media - the ones where you aren't anonymous - since they are more like beauty pagents where you try to make yourself look affluent and unreasonably happy. Reddit is as close...

    I avoid "real" social media - the ones where you aren't anonymous - since they are more like beauty pagents where you try to make yourself look affluent and unreasonably happy.

    Reddit is as close as I get to social media. I was never subscribed to them in the first place but the current round of default subreddits are just awful. They are all incredibly mean-spirited, almost always making fun of someone (who is thankfully usually anonymized). And while I never really got /r/blackpeopletwitter, it seems to be slowly sliding into the cesspit of racism.

    I used to be subscribed to /r/programmerhumor, but it seemed like it got taken over by children who just took a programming class.

    1 vote
    1. [2]
      GetsITAndy
      Link Parent
      Definitely different strokes for different folks! I use Facebook to keep up with the happenings of distant family (I'm nosey) and I've got a strong group of guys in a private group I keep tabs on....

      Definitely different strokes for different folks! I use Facebook to keep up with the happenings of distant family (I'm nosey) and I've got a strong group of guys in a private group I keep tabs on.
      Twitter is my instant news. I can stream live headlines and find the up and happening pretty quick when I'm in a news ticker watching mood. Intermingled with dumb memes from friends it's fun on occasion.
      My family, my friends and I definitely don't appear affluent and I think I'm pretty damn cute but definitely not having a beauty pageant going on. Blocked people like that on my feeds long ago so I get to see what I want to see! I love filters! I get to make my social media sites work for me!

      I've noticed there's some pretty easy topics showing up in r/programminghumor too. On one hand some of the dumber jokes get old, rehashed and old again but on the other hand I'm glad a lot of new programmers are finding a sub they can join and feel a part of. If dumb dead horse beat memes are showing up a lot I'm inclined to think a new generation of coders are up and coming and it excites me that they want to participate with programmers beyond an academic context.

      3 votes
      1. Akir
        Link Parent
        I used beauty pageant because I couldn't think of the term I was looking for at the time. I was looking for "dog and pony show". I was trying to point out that people are displaying the positives...

        I used beauty pageant because I couldn't think of the term I was looking for at the time. I was looking for "dog and pony show". I was trying to point out that people are displaying the positives of their life and behavior, and hiding all the bad. It's very fake and disingenuous to me.

        Though it certainly is a beauty pageant for some people.

  7. starchturrets
    Link
    I don't filter anything on tildes due to there not being much to actually filter, but once the site gets bigger, I probably will.

    I don't filter anything on tildes due to there not being much to actually filter, but once the site gets bigger, I probably will.

    1 vote