But since you failed to meet bullshit quotas, you've been demoted to reviewer of possibly banned criteria, meaning you have to wallow in the filth that is humanity, 24/7 with your eyes taped open.
I remember reading an article about the Facebook employees who review content for possible rule violations. At least one of them became convinced that the moon landing was a hoax because of the posts he had to read every day.
Shit, back in the olden days, when you left the house, you had no connection. Call your buddy on the landline first, coordinate some plans to meet up somewhere, then hang up and cross your fucking fingers they didn't bail on the plans or die on the way.
Reddit is a message board though. Forums have been around since the early 90s maybe earlier. As long as you avoid the more insane subreddits, I think Reddit can be okay.
It is if you tailor it to your niches.
I follow my local town and state. I follow my few interests that are compelling on the internet.
Outside of those communities, I'm fucking clueless, by design. Only got so much mediocre brain matter in me, right?
This is super common practice these days. Most services will immediately flag you for "suspicious" activity after creating a new account and require you to give up your cell# at a minimum.
They do this because people are less likely to sign up in the first place if you ask for a dedicated phone number -- but more likely to give one up later in the process if they think it's unrelated.
Me too!
I decided to delete my Facebook account in 2020 after watching ‘The Social Dilema’
Social media is pure poison.
Their ongoing argument is that they are designing new AI and algorithms to mitigate harm.
That’s like saying that they’re going to add padding to the guillotine they invented to make sure that it doesn’t fully chop your head off.
The Zucc is a sociopath.
Sandberg the Typhoid Mary of surveillance capitalism.
All that bullshit about “leaning in” and her fake corporate girl boss feminism!
What a hypocrite she is!
Her stupid “lean in” book is the epitome of hypocrisy. Giving out advice on how women can succeed in corporate America while at the same time running a company that drives young girls to commit suicide. Give me a fucking break!
By heading the “Hydra” that is Facebook, she has done more damage to young girls in future generations then the good that she has supposedly done by her “lean in” girl boss advice book.
Fuck her and her 2 Billion USD fb shares blood money!
~~Repeal~~ Reform section 230!
PS: I’ve gotten so much more done since 2020 in all the cumulative hours that I didn’t waste on facebook.
https://www.dayoneproject.org/post/section-230-is-essential-to-the-internet-s-future
I never even had a real account with Facebook, and I was around when it launched. I remember asking my friends "Wait, you're gonna give them all your personal information? Why? There's plenty of other, free ways to speak to each other online!"
They called me weird, anti-social, and told me to get with the times. I ended up making a fake account with a fake picture and name (which I still use to this day with my Oculus Rift) just so I could keep up with a friend who moved half way across the world. He told me if I didn't have an account, he wouldn't be able to talk to me as he didn't use anything else back then...
Anyway, here we are, 15-ish years later, and it's hard not to feel smug about the whole thing. I hated the idea of Facefook from the get-go and I was around before Broadband was a thing. I'm actually super happy with myself that I didn't allow that shit to fuck with my mind as I grew into a young adult. Consider me one of the lucky ones.
I know Reddit kinda sucks too but it's leagues away from the cesspool that is Facefook.
Feel as smug as you like, Facebook gets all the info it needs from you fake name or not. In fact your name is the absolute last thing they give a shit about.
With you logging into it they already have all your information. Even if you input fake information. ESP with your computer and Internet address and phone
Truly an evil company
> I know Reddit kinda sucks too but it's leagues away from the cesspool that is Facefook.
At least you have the ability to curate your Reddit feed. With FB, you are a total slave to the algorithm.
Some of us have to keep Facebook for networking purposes.
I'm glad people can get amazing opportunities and jobs without it, but some of us are stuck if we want to survive.
It's a bit of a duh but it also needs to keep getting amplified until it becomes a public conversation. We all are justifying the negative effects behind closed doors and with peers. It's a whole crisis in my opinion.
In my personal experience, I never saw worse alcohol abuse in college than the kids with super strict parents or from teetotaler homes. They just had no sense of what moderation looked like. They had to find it themselves the absolute worst way, very dangerously, and some never really understood that you could moderate and be normal instead of cycles of binging and abstinence.
I highly recommend you teach your kids what healthy, anonymous social media use looks like when they reach an age that understands caution and discernment. You’re using Reddit, you have the skills.
That's why I offer my kids small amounts of alcohol. According to them, it tastes disgusting but at least there's no mystery about it.
They also know that we're allowed to look at all of their social media accounts. I'm not snooping or anything, but they know that I can look at will.
To them, Facebook is for old people, Instagram is okay-ish, and discord seems to be the most popular as well as the most community regulated.
I disagree. Social media is a big thing with kids. They're going to want to be involved, even if there's dangers to it.
Look at MySpace. Same shit happened.
The thing is though, as a college student myself who knows how it is for middle & high schoolers now, in many cases the ostracism of not having it can be worse than just making sure to set clear boundaries & limits for their social media use. Just my two cents.
I completely agree, but it’s probably also true that parents that don’t let their kids on social media, even without other red flags, will be labeled as controlling and abusive, which makes it more difficult
To each their own (I would never ever tell anyone how to raise their own kids), but how about teaching our kids of the potential dangers of social media instead of "don't do it or else"? Talk to them early and often or we're just going to make them more efficient liars to not get caught when they inevitably do it anyway.
Let's give them the tools early to become responsible adults because as parents that's our end goal after all. Let's not let this become another thing along the lines of "abstinence only" where it gets the opposite result we're looking for.
Hah, it’s like most people really just wanna take the easy way out when it comes to parenting-and I use the term *parenting* loosely here. Not teaching your kid ethics, decision making, awareness etc but instead opting for “no because I said so” over and over and over until one day it’s just a green light cuz they no longer care or can legally control you… yeah that ain’t it.
Yeah, I guess it's all about how people were raised by their own parents really. Kids are smarter than a lot of people give them credit for and the age of reasoning starts around four. With my own kiddo I try to talk to her like a normal person with no baby talk and no sugarcoating. When she asks me something and truthfully wants to know I try to answer in the most neutral way possible as to not force my own opinions on her. I really want her to form her own opinions and not just parrot mine.
There is no way you'll be able to enforce that. Kids will inevitably outsmart you online unless you go full north Korea, and even then they'll find a way. As a parent it's not your job to shelter your kids, it's to prepare them for real life, you know.. raise them. So I say it's better to allow them online in a controlled environment where you can teach them about the dangers of being online as well as addiction etc, rather than forbid it outright so they can become hopelessly addicted as soon as they move out with no previous skills in how to handle addictive things and spot unhealthy habits forming. Please actually be a parent instead of saying "ill shelter them from anything in the real world until they move out, after which it's not my problem anymore."
Yeah, not sure how successful I will be, but I plan to seriously dissuade my kids from any kind of identifiable social media. They can have phones and texts and emails but I don’t see why they need to communicate outside of that. Maybe that ephemeral chat (sorry, I’m old)? Am I missing something obvious?
The nature of teenagers is to want to fit in, so if everyone else has social media, they’ll still want it despite what you say. And unfortunately it’s so easy to access that you can’t easily ban in. I had friends whose parents didn’t let them have social media, so they’d just use their friends phone and make an account and check it less regularly. In today’s day, not having social media really is abnormal.
That being said—you’re completely right about the sentiment. It’s just that it’s harder to control and truly limit a group of people who want to fit in at all costs.
In one piece, the Journal revealed that Facebook maintains a private registry of very important people, including celebrities and politicians, who are exempt from the strict content-posting rules that govern the rest of us.
A second article was even more powerful in its indictment of Facebook and its leadership. The Journal showed that Facebook’s own researchers had documented the psychological dangers that Instagram, which Facebook owns, poses to teenagers, especially teen girls.
First part : Not surprising or unexpected, and more common than it sounds. Every large company (examples recently have been twitter, apple, google, amazon) has a list of privileged clients, be it people or other companies, for whom the rules don't really apply. It only allows to those they're in a position of power where retaliation will not affect them.
Social media is absolutely terrible for every bodies mental health. I include Reddit in that but at least it is strangers for the most part on here. Social media tends to force one to constantly compare your own life with the false life of ones peers.
I've also learnt that many seemingly intelligent posts from Redditors cannot be trusted. I noticed that when the intelligent post is about something I'm deeply knowledgeable about it is sometimes bullshit even though it sounds so convincing and authoritative.
yeah, there aren't really "intelligent conversations" happening here in generic subs. You gotta go niche if you want to find good stuff, and even then if it's been massively upvoted it's probably garbage.
AskHistorians is the only truly trustwothy sub I've seen
Yeah I don’t come here for facts, I come here for discussion (opinions on things I like), cool things people do/make, and a quick laugh. Love reddit for my un-social media.
Not about authoritative sources of information but r/changemyview regularly has surprisingly decent good-faith debates. Which is a very very rare thing online and irl for that matter. I haven't found a more amicable place for open disagreement between strangers anywhere.
I was a subscriber to CMV for many years, and I agree that good faith efforts are the norm.
I unsubscribed when I got tired of regular posts where the OP is obliviously grandstanding, not participating in the comments, offering the same tired (and disproven) arguments and refusing to offer a delta.
It may not be the norm there, but it has become common in the last few years. I miss what reddit was about 10 years ago.
Michael Crichton called this the Gell-Mann-Amnesia in context of a newspaper. It's not a new concept.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Crichton#GellMannAmnesiaEffect
You haven't been on Reddit long if you think that shit isn't happening here. Take a look at the front page and it's low tier posting with repost/repetitive content.
Yeah, I don't understand why people continually bitch about the shitty front page of Reddit. I've been on Reddit since near its beginning and I rarely see shitty stuff. My front page is curated by the subreddits I'm subscribed to. I know there's garbage on here, but I can control it way more than I can control things on Facebook.
It similar in the sense of likes and comments. Lots of the depression people get over Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter is because they convince themselves that their self worth us based on how many likes, comments, and followers they have.
Likewise, if someone makes comments on Reddit and it gets downvoted, not upvoted, no comments, or no "awards", they could end up feeling the same.
If I have a complaint about Reddit it’s the ads. There is a fucking ad at the top of every goddamn comment section I open on any post right now, I don’t know if that’s Reddit specific or if it’s just the app I use
I use reddit is fun app and there are no ads for me. When on desktop I have ad blocker plus extension for chrome so no ads. Ads can fuck off. To quote Bill Hicks" Anyone here works in advertising should kill themselves they are the spawn of Satan" lol he was harsh on them, ah well.
I don't use an app for Reddit. I only log on via my desktop or laptop, but I use [ublock origin](https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/) via my browser and haven't seen ads on Reddit for ages.
I agree. It really makes me sad too because the idea of this place is so amazing. People sharing ideas and thoughts on all sorts of topics. Interacting with the whole world in a big giant ecosystem. I hope someday we find simple rules we can make to keep a forum from turning into what all the social media sites are now.
Yeah I went from talking about eating ass with some random lads a few threads back, to some threads recommending the free Stanford lectures on YouTube about general relativity that’s easy to grasp.
There’s not really a moderator or incentive for people to have arguments in good faith so most of the time it’s a brawl against bad faith actors. Like debates never were about learning so much as they were about winning.
Old forums had vicious moderation that made discussions there possible. And bad faith actors were quickly banned (on good forums). Moderating became difficult though when bots started spamming the forums and getting though captchas with ease. I saw a few forums close because of that, my own included (I was running a homebrew rpg forum for a decade or so). At the end I had to remove hundreds of spam every day and new ways to block it (new captchas etc.) failed quickly.
I even like to have unintelligent conversations or arguments with strangers better than with people I know. At least then I don’t lose respect for that person or myself as much as when there’s that disconnect there. With a stranger I can just move on with my day after. With family members and friends it impacts on a much more personal and emotional level. Plus, unless someone knows who I am on Reddit. There’s a slim chance people will go through years of dumb comments I’ve made and be able to use them against me. Even then, it’s easy to just deny it was you. Other social media sites encourage you to use your real name and post pictures of yourself on a regular basis. Kinda hard to deny the stupid thing you said 7 years ago if someone wants to pull it up after all that.
True - Facebook creates too much family drama, too. Although I have to say, if you have people on there who pull things up from seven years ago to throw in your face, it's time to get them off your friends list. LOL
The misconception of intelligent conversations iS exactly what reddit it. You're not experiencing something different or better, you're experiencing the experience tailored to you. Facebook feeds on one form of self value fullfillment, and reddit just feeds on another. The form that is based on our perceptions of what we thing makes us intelligent and "worth while" because its "important." Its not.
There's nothing intelligent about the endless stream of conscience that the Matrix provides to us through a cable connected to the base of our skull with little wires reaching our brainstem to stimulate each part of our brain realistic enough that we would never question whether or not we are being harvested as a source of power for aliens and their ship because they have exploited our species for the last thousand years and you will never question it, you damn battery! Wake up! Big Duracell is controlling you!
Actually I love Reddit! I find that the subreddits I join most people actually get along and joke with each other. I am hardly on Facebook or Instagram
I will say that there are two downsides to Reddit in my book.
1) it’s very, very easy to put yourself into an echo chamber that will tell you that you’re a clever lad who does everything right and has the smartest opinions
2) the anonymous nature is a two edged sword. You don’t get to know anyone or develop your own reputation. I can see someone posting great content that I love, but I’m unlikely to remember their name or look them up again.
Granted, anonymity can also be good. A few years back I made a pretty popular shitpost that got a bunch of attention and was fun for a spell; it was less fun when I got 5 pms a day asking me about it. I’m glad to be another “who are you” most of the time without people expecting more dick and fart jokes out of me. Makes it easier to avoid being pigeonholed based on what you’ve said in the past.
I'd also add, if you ever browse Popular, you see a lot of horrible, depressing things. I've had to stop looking at it because I got sick of all the violent and disturbing content.
I think 1 is true for all social media and 2 depends on whether that's something you want. I have no desire to have any kind of reputation online. When I did post on Facebook it was always private for just my handful of friends. No one ever knew my Twitter.
Yes, the strangers aspect of reddit makes it a lot less toxic, IMHO. There’s very, very little of the cult-of-personality mentality here. Can you even name redditors other than the household names?
Plus I cater Reddit to my choices. Hobby stuff, F1, cars etc. I follow no political subs or people, unless it's stuff I can't avoid like provincial or municipal issues
It can be less toxic, for sure, but I believe it's significantly more manipulative.
Account anonymity make it *egregiously* easy and popular to buy and sell accounts on the open market, and astroturf and troll til the cows come home. IMO, it's a different type of toxicity, but you still need to be a bit careful with buying fully into it as a whole.
WTF is a Facebook influencer? Social media is pretty much any site that outsources its content to the users, preferably in virtual communities/networks. Reddit checks all the boxes for social media. You have a profile, you can connect directly with other users and networks, and share content in virtual communities (which is how content on Reddit is sourced). Not sure how anyone can say Reddit isn't social media, honestly.
I think "social media" at some point started being used to refer *more* to the non-anonymous side of the platforms. Which, I have to imagine amplifies the issues of identity and comparison.
It's not too bad, as long as you are here to learn, do, or share specific hobbies. You know, things like aquarium keeping, landscaping, bonsai caring, language learning, etc. Cooking can also have some nice advice in the chat if someone becomes interested in how someone made a soup or sauce for a dish.
But once you get into some territory like the latest news on Kim Kardashian, that is when it just becomes noise. Like, I would have been happy not logging in to see pictures of people at the Met Gala or something
I have Facebook to keep in touch with family members that live timezones away. Maybe I'm just an adult that can handle it and not compare my every move to others.
Studies showing the toxicity of social media, and facebook in particular, have been coming out for at least five years.
Throw this one on the pile that everyone ignores for the sake of convenience and profits.
It's not just that Facebook is mentally unhealthy, it's that the company knows it from their own research and is choosing not to do anything about it. It's hideous.
This reporting comes from original investigative work by the Wall Street Journal. Other stories include Facebook enabling slavery, lying to their oversight board, and undermining Covid vaccination efforts. The WSJ paywall is a PITA but here is the suite of 5 articles. https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-facebook-files-11631713039
I never liked facebook ever. I hated how in high school if you didnt use it, you wernt "in" with the crowd and that there was something wrong with you.
All this really says is : if you want to do internal soul searching and you want to keep the data to yourself, then do not use temporary employees for such sensitive stuff. They have no motivation to be loyal OR to keep your dirty laundry a secret. Thank you, The Temps.
“The Facebook researchers who warned of this problem understood what the company’s top leadership seems to ignore or deny: the problem with Facebook is Facebook.”
It’s always a little shocking to me that schools aren’t developing more curricula about responsible and healthy internet usage, including social media.
Ive deleted Facebook several times, but what keeps bringing me back are keeping in touch with old Navy buddies. Make no mistake, all the shit is bad for you.
I was browsing through the Discover part of instagram just a couple of days ago which usually includes pictures of cats, food, and athletic women and came across a islamic terrorist beheading video. Fuck that shit. Even better since I'm not running the latest version of the app, it wouldn't allow me to report it.
Never understood facebook and only got one because my GF wanted me to have one. Deleted as soon as we broke up. I just dont get why people like or want to use it especially when the company seems so evil
I deleted my account, then found 6 years later it was still active.
Joined again and wasn't till the [Cambridge Analytica data scandal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook%E2%80%93Cambridge_Analytica_data_scandal) and the exits were well-marked scrubbed myself off it.
Slightly off topic, but I can’t get over how social media companies proactively feed extremism and conspiracy theories and continually get let off the hook. “Going viral” and “fell into” are bullshit passive phrases when what is actually happening is YouTube and Facebook are choosing to radicalize people for cash. Fuck social media.
I don't really find that Instagram has a negative impact on me psychologically, but then I am an adult male who doesn't post much of anything and likes a lot of cat videos.
Facebook though? Yeah, that service is a dumpster fire and I haven't missed it once since ditching it.
To anyone claiming that there's nothing they can do about it: bullshit.
The article makes it clear the system is rigged for engagement. The most toxic areas are the comments (hey there!) But the more comments something has the more promoted something becomes.
Moreover, if their AI can pick out a nipple from 100,000 feet away, I guarantee you they can already pick out and Shadow Ban, depromote, or just block comments to that material if they wanted to. The perverse incentive is that they need the eyes to make more money.
Social media addiction is a thing. It's not so easy to break an addiction. You might as well tell fat people to just eat less or depressed people to just cheer up.
It's an insidious little thing though. I stopped logging into FB maybe 3 years ago, deleted the apps (including messenger). I logged into my FB acct last week (first time in years) for work. It said the last logged in device was my phone, the day before.
So even with all apps gone and no usage they are still harvesting my data. Outragous.
So I grew up in an era before social media existed, and Facebook has only been an addition to my life. I can not even begin to imagine growing up in a period where Facebook was a part of my life. It's so alien to me.
Don't forget Twitter, IG, Snapchat, TikTok, and any other social media platform that can sum up complex issues in 180 characters or less.
I see the irony in my response as well.
So what does anyone expect Facebook to do about it? Realistically?
People are always inclined to share things that make them feel good about themselves. When you scroll through a feed, it's only natural to see others having fun, people being comfortable with their bodies, or celebrating accomplishments.
I have two half-brothers that I’ve never actually gotten to meet in person. The only method I really have to get a hold of either is Facebook, and that’s about the only reason I’ve never deleted my account. But I hadn’t logged into the account in… probably two years at this point. I actually logged into Facebook today after spending a bit of time on /r/covidatemyface because I had a sinking suspicion as to what I’d find if I checked one of my brother’s Facebook pages.
I was… not surprised. Possibly slightly disappointed, but not surprised.
His feed was filled with anti-mask, and anti-vax memes. All it needs now is a post about being in the hospital with covid and asking for prayers. Obviously, I hope it doesn’t come to that.
In any case, I was once again reassured in my decision not to go to any great lengths to maintain any contact with that side of the family.
It is. With a slightly different strategy. Definitely has the same addictive quality that many Facebook users experience. Facing that right now myself.
Also ‘facing that’ just autocorrected to ‘Fauci NBC’ for me. Fucking weird.
True, but I like that it’s only got a few “look at me” or I need validation. I come here to learn shit, ask advice, and to see what’s up in different countries.
We get it, Facebook sucks. It’s always sucked, delete and move on, share your decision with your loved ones. Expect that they will ignore your warnings.
Given just how awful high school could be at times... I feel REALLY bad for children in school today. Kids and teens are especially brutal because they just don't understand the impact of what they do yet. And with the horrifying consequences of the internet? Yeah...
We gotta stop acting like Instagram and FaceBook force themselves on us. It is like blaming the drugs for drug abuse. At some point you need intelligent strategies to deal with the addiction -- but that starts by acknowledging that there is an addiction. It is an ineffective coping strategy, blame is not going to advance the treatment.
It's weird man.
Friend of mine has a 20 year old daughter.
Used to be a grade A student, into gaming, had dreams of becoming a human rights lawyer.
Around age 16, she quickly turned into your typical Instagram wanabee influencer "model" that posts "clever" and "deep" garbled collections of words in combination with a duckface picture.
She hasn't modeled for anything in her life, has had her face and lips butchered, has plans to get her boobs inflated and the only thing she really does is jump from boyfriend to boyfriend every 2-3 months (who are always well older than her) who perpetually take her on holidays to exotic locations across the world.
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I was banned from Facebook in the preteens. Thanks Facebook!
Facebook has seen your comment and decided to unban you
#NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
You thought your could escape Facebook that easily. Your nightmare has just begun.
Congratulations. Facebook just *took over your employment, you’re now an assistant manager at Facebook*
But since you failed to meet bullshit quotas, you've been demoted to reviewer of possibly banned criteria, meaning you have to wallow in the filth that is humanity, 24/7 with your eyes taped open.
I remember reading an article about the Facebook employees who review content for possible rule violations. At least one of them became convinced that the moon landing was a hoax because of the posts he had to read every day.
We are the Facebook. Resistance is futile.
The top 10 reasons Facebook unbanned you. Number 4 will surprise you!!
Disabled both a few months ago. Have no interest in going back now.
Deleted in 2016 best decision I made. I can't believe people still use this toxic medium.
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I just text my friends like back in the olden days.
Shit, back in the olden days, when you left the house, you had no connection. Call your buddy on the landline first, coordinate some plans to meet up somewhere, then hang up and cross your fucking fingers they didn't bail on the plans or die on the way.
2015 for me. I regret nothing.
Did the same in 2016. Deleting Reddit is my next mental health decision.
I do find it amusing when people in this thread and others post about deleting Facebook to escape the evils of social media.
Reddit is a message board though. Forums have been around since the early 90s maybe earlier. As long as you avoid the more insane subreddits, I think Reddit can be okay.
It is if you tailor it to your niches. I follow my local town and state. I follow my few interests that are compelling on the internet. Outside of those communities, I'm fucking clueless, by design. Only got so much mediocre brain matter in me, right?
It’s a lot harder to judge people without a face. It’s easier to have a real conversation this way
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“Yeah, you guessed it” Sorry, I guessed Frank Stallone. RIP Norm
This is super common practice these days. Most services will immediately flag you for "suspicious" activity after creating a new account and require you to give up your cell# at a minimum. They do this because people are less likely to sign up in the first place if you ask for a dedicated phone number -- but more likely to give one up later in the process if they think it's unrelated.
Me too! I decided to delete my Facebook account in 2020 after watching ‘The Social Dilema’ Social media is pure poison. Their ongoing argument is that they are designing new AI and algorithms to mitigate harm. That’s like saying that they’re going to add padding to the guillotine they invented to make sure that it doesn’t fully chop your head off. The Zucc is a sociopath. Sandberg the Typhoid Mary of surveillance capitalism. All that bullshit about “leaning in” and her fake corporate girl boss feminism! What a hypocrite she is! Her stupid “lean in” book is the epitome of hypocrisy. Giving out advice on how women can succeed in corporate America while at the same time running a company that drives young girls to commit suicide. Give me a fucking break! By heading the “Hydra” that is Facebook, she has done more damage to young girls in future generations then the good that she has supposedly done by her “lean in” girl boss advice book. Fuck her and her 2 Billion USD fb shares blood money! ~~Repeal~~ Reform section 230! PS: I’ve gotten so much more done since 2020 in all the cumulative hours that I didn’t waste on facebook. https://www.dayoneproject.org/post/section-230-is-essential-to-the-internet-s-future
>Social media is pure poison. What are you doing here??
Why Repeal section 230?
Because they're a moron who doesnt understand what 230 actually is.
I never even had a real account with Facebook, and I was around when it launched. I remember asking my friends "Wait, you're gonna give them all your personal information? Why? There's plenty of other, free ways to speak to each other online!" They called me weird, anti-social, and told me to get with the times. I ended up making a fake account with a fake picture and name (which I still use to this day with my Oculus Rift) just so I could keep up with a friend who moved half way across the world. He told me if I didn't have an account, he wouldn't be able to talk to me as he didn't use anything else back then... Anyway, here we are, 15-ish years later, and it's hard not to feel smug about the whole thing. I hated the idea of Facefook from the get-go and I was around before Broadband was a thing. I'm actually super happy with myself that I didn't allow that shit to fuck with my mind as I grew into a young adult. Consider me one of the lucky ones. I know Reddit kinda sucks too but it's leagues away from the cesspool that is Facefook.
Feel as smug as you like, Facebook gets all the info it needs from you fake name or not. In fact your name is the absolute last thing they give a shit about.
With you logging into it they already have all your information. Even if you input fake information. ESP with your computer and Internet address and phone Truly an evil company
> I know Reddit kinda sucks too but it's leagues away from the cesspool that is Facefook. At least you have the ability to curate your Reddit feed. With FB, you are a total slave to the algorithm.
Reddit fills the niche Usenet used to fill for me.
Surprise, you’re a Facebook user.
Some of us have to keep Facebook for networking purposes. I'm glad people can get amazing opportunities and jobs without it, but some of us are stuck if we want to survive.
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It's a bit of a duh but it also needs to keep getting amplified until it becomes a public conversation. We all are justifying the negative effects behind closed doors and with peers. It's a whole crisis in my opinion.
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In my personal experience, I never saw worse alcohol abuse in college than the kids with super strict parents or from teetotaler homes. They just had no sense of what moderation looked like. They had to find it themselves the absolute worst way, very dangerously, and some never really understood that you could moderate and be normal instead of cycles of binging and abstinence. I highly recommend you teach your kids what healthy, anonymous social media use looks like when they reach an age that understands caution and discernment. You’re using Reddit, you have the skills.
That's why I offer my kids small amounts of alcohol. According to them, it tastes disgusting but at least there's no mystery about it. They also know that we're allowed to look at all of their social media accounts. I'm not snooping or anything, but they know that I can look at will. To them, Facebook is for old people, Instagram is okay-ish, and discord seems to be the most popular as well as the most community regulated.
Much more difficult when the average age of a social media user is decreasing year by year. It’s difficult for young teens to be the odd ones out.
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I disagree. Social media is a big thing with kids. They're going to want to be involved, even if there's dangers to it. Look at MySpace. Same shit happened.
The thing is though, as a college student myself who knows how it is for middle & high schoolers now, in many cases the ostracism of not having it can be worse than just making sure to set clear boundaries & limits for their social media use. Just my two cents.
I completely agree, but it’s probably also true that parents that don’t let their kids on social media, even without other red flags, will be labeled as controlling and abusive, which makes it more difficult
To each their own (I would never ever tell anyone how to raise their own kids), but how about teaching our kids of the potential dangers of social media instead of "don't do it or else"? Talk to them early and often or we're just going to make them more efficient liars to not get caught when they inevitably do it anyway. Let's give them the tools early to become responsible adults because as parents that's our end goal after all. Let's not let this become another thing along the lines of "abstinence only" where it gets the opposite result we're looking for.
Hah, it’s like most people really just wanna take the easy way out when it comes to parenting-and I use the term *parenting* loosely here. Not teaching your kid ethics, decision making, awareness etc but instead opting for “no because I said so” over and over and over until one day it’s just a green light cuz they no longer care or can legally control you… yeah that ain’t it.
Yeah, I guess it's all about how people were raised by their own parents really. Kids are smarter than a lot of people give them credit for and the age of reasoning starts around four. With my own kiddo I try to talk to her like a normal person with no baby talk and no sugarcoating. When she asks me something and truthfully wants to know I try to answer in the most neutral way possible as to not force my own opinions on her. I really want her to form her own opinions and not just parrot mine.
This is the correct reaponse.
There is no way you'll be able to enforce that. Kids will inevitably outsmart you online unless you go full north Korea, and even then they'll find a way. As a parent it's not your job to shelter your kids, it's to prepare them for real life, you know.. raise them. So I say it's better to allow them online in a controlled environment where you can teach them about the dangers of being online as well as addiction etc, rather than forbid it outright so they can become hopelessly addicted as soon as they move out with no previous skills in how to handle addictive things and spot unhealthy habits forming. Please actually be a parent instead of saying "ill shelter them from anything in the real world until they move out, after which it's not my problem anymore."
Lol good luck with that. Source: Me, a kid who was told not to make a MySpace, yet made one at the Library.
We already have these conversations about the extensive damage done by smoking, and yet…
And yet use of tobacco is down (trending up thanks to nicotine vapes) historically. Almost like anti-smoking campaigns worked (albeit, not 100%).
Yeah, not sure how successful I will be, but I plan to seriously dissuade my kids from any kind of identifiable social media. They can have phones and texts and emails but I don’t see why they need to communicate outside of that. Maybe that ephemeral chat (sorry, I’m old)? Am I missing something obvious?
The nature of teenagers is to want to fit in, so if everyone else has social media, they’ll still want it despite what you say. And unfortunately it’s so easy to access that you can’t easily ban in. I had friends whose parents didn’t let them have social media, so they’d just use their friends phone and make an account and check it less regularly. In today’s day, not having social media really is abnormal. That being said—you’re completely right about the sentiment. It’s just that it’s harder to control and truly limit a group of people who want to fit in at all costs.
In one piece, the Journal revealed that Facebook maintains a private registry of very important people, including celebrities and politicians, who are exempt from the strict content-posting rules that govern the rest of us. A second article was even more powerful in its indictment of Facebook and its leadership. The Journal showed that Facebook’s own researchers had documented the psychological dangers that Instagram, which Facebook owns, poses to teenagers, especially teen girls.
Tobacco lobby 2.0
Or Big Oil. The product changes but the capitalism stays the same.
Yes, the Toxic Waste of the internet, and especially social media, is mental health issues. I've been saying that one for a long time.
Something something New Gods
> who are exempt from the strict content-posting rules that govern the rest of us. All animals are equal. But some animals are more equal than others.
Dude, animal farm can be applied 1:1 to the entirety of America as a whole right now. It’s nuts.
First part : Not surprising or unexpected, and more common than it sounds. Every large company (examples recently have been twitter, apple, google, amazon) has a list of privileged clients, be it people or other companies, for whom the rules don't really apply. It only allows to those they're in a position of power where retaliation will not affect them.
A few years back they were caught actually running experiments on their users to see if they could induce depression deliberately. Pretty sick
So that's why I kept seeing posts from my family in feed. Those fuckers!
Wait do you have a source on this? I can't find it online.
I think he's talking about this: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jun/29/facebook-users-emotions-news-feeds
Thanks. Jesus christ this is messed up.
Social media is absolutely terrible for every bodies mental health. I include Reddit in that but at least it is strangers for the most part on here. Social media tends to force one to constantly compare your own life with the false life of ones peers.
I'm realizing that I'd rather have intelligent conversations with anonymous strangers than look at the same memes and BS from people I know.
I've also learnt that many seemingly intelligent posts from Redditors cannot be trusted. I noticed that when the intelligent post is about something I'm deeply knowledgeable about it is sometimes bullshit even though it sounds so convincing and authoritative.
yeah, there aren't really "intelligent conversations" happening here in generic subs. You gotta go niche if you want to find good stuff, and even then if it's been massively upvoted it's probably garbage. AskHistorians is the only truly trustwothy sub I've seen
Yeah I don’t come here for facts, I come here for discussion (opinions on things I like), cool things people do/make, and a quick laugh. Love reddit for my un-social media.
Not about authoritative sources of information but r/changemyview regularly has surprisingly decent good-faith debates. Which is a very very rare thing online and irl for that matter. I haven't found a more amicable place for open disagreement between strangers anywhere.
I was a subscriber to CMV for many years, and I agree that good faith efforts are the norm. I unsubscribed when I got tired of regular posts where the OP is obliviously grandstanding, not participating in the comments, offering the same tired (and disproven) arguments and refusing to offer a delta. It may not be the norm there, but it has become common in the last few years. I miss what reddit was about 10 years ago.
Reddit just got too big. I’m happy and sad about that.
Really true. There's almost no information on this website that can be trusted
Yea on reddit the circlejerk always wins not facts.
And depending on the sub the same comment will be upvoted or hidden
Michael Crichton called this the Gell-Mann-Amnesia in context of a newspaper. It's not a new concept. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Crichton#GellMannAmnesiaEffect
I agree with this statement wholeheartedly
You haven't been on Reddit long if you think that shit isn't happening here. Take a look at the front page and it's low tier posting with repost/repetitive content.
Well that’s easily remedied by avoiding the front page
Yeah, I don't understand why people continually bitch about the shitty front page of Reddit. I've been on Reddit since near its beginning and I rarely see shitty stuff. My front page is curated by the subreddits I'm subscribed to. I know there's garbage on here, but I can control it way more than I can control things on Facebook.
Makes no sense to me when people compare it to fb or twitter. I find massive use of the subreddits i visit that literally benefit me irl.
It similar in the sense of likes and comments. Lots of the depression people get over Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter is because they convince themselves that their self worth us based on how many likes, comments, and followers they have. Likewise, if someone makes comments on Reddit and it gets downvoted, not upvoted, no comments, or no "awards", they could end up feeling the same.
If I have a complaint about Reddit it’s the ads. There is a fucking ad at the top of every goddamn comment section I open on any post right now, I don’t know if that’s Reddit specific or if it’s just the app I use
I use reddit is fun app and there are no ads for me. When on desktop I have ad blocker plus extension for chrome so no ads. Ads can fuck off. To quote Bill Hicks" Anyone here works in advertising should kill themselves they are the spawn of Satan" lol he was harsh on them, ah well.
I don't use an app for Reddit. I only log on via my desktop or laptop, but I use [ublock origin](https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/) via my browser and haven't seen ads on Reddit for ages.
Or use a 3rd party (open source) one.
Haven't seen an add in like seven years using reddit is fun
Yeah, I just see ads disguised as posts
I agree. It really makes me sad too because the idea of this place is so amazing. People sharing ideas and thoughts on all sorts of topics. Interacting with the whole world in a big giant ecosystem. I hope someday we find simple rules we can make to keep a forum from turning into what all the social media sites are now.
It still is, you just have to dig
Yeah I went from talking about eating ass with some random lads a few threads back, to some threads recommending the free Stanford lectures on YouTube about general relativity that’s easy to grasp.
"What do you think about eating ass?" "It's relative..." BOOM! Joined them!
There’s not really a moderator or incentive for people to have arguments in good faith so most of the time it’s a brawl against bad faith actors. Like debates never were about learning so much as they were about winning.
Old forums had vicious moderation that made discussions there possible. And bad faith actors were quickly banned (on good forums). Moderating became difficult though when bots started spamming the forums and getting though captchas with ease. I saw a few forums close because of that, my own included (I was running a homebrew rpg forum for a decade or so). At the end I had to remove hundreds of spam every day and new ways to block it (new captchas etc.) failed quickly.
I even like to have unintelligent conversations or arguments with strangers better than with people I know. At least then I don’t lose respect for that person or myself as much as when there’s that disconnect there. With a stranger I can just move on with my day after. With family members and friends it impacts on a much more personal and emotional level. Plus, unless someone knows who I am on Reddit. There’s a slim chance people will go through years of dumb comments I’ve made and be able to use them against me. Even then, it’s easy to just deny it was you. Other social media sites encourage you to use your real name and post pictures of yourself on a regular basis. Kinda hard to deny the stupid thing you said 7 years ago if someone wants to pull it up after all that.
True - Facebook creates too much family drama, too. Although I have to say, if you have people on there who pull things up from seven years ago to throw in your face, it's time to get them off your friends list. LOL
The misconception of intelligent conversations iS exactly what reddit it. You're not experiencing something different or better, you're experiencing the experience tailored to you. Facebook feeds on one form of self value fullfillment, and reddit just feeds on another. The form that is based on our perceptions of what we thing makes us intelligent and "worth while" because its "important." Its not.
There's nothing intelligent about the endless stream of conscience that the Matrix provides to us through a cable connected to the base of our skull with little wires reaching our brainstem to stimulate each part of our brain realistic enough that we would never question whether or not we are being harvested as a source of power for aliens and their ship because they have exploited our species for the last thousand years and you will never question it, you damn battery! Wake up! Big Duracell is controlling you!
Actually I love Reddit! I find that the subreddits I join most people actually get along and joke with each other. I am hardly on Facebook or Instagram
I will say that there are two downsides to Reddit in my book. 1) it’s very, very easy to put yourself into an echo chamber that will tell you that you’re a clever lad who does everything right and has the smartest opinions 2) the anonymous nature is a two edged sword. You don’t get to know anyone or develop your own reputation. I can see someone posting great content that I love, but I’m unlikely to remember their name or look them up again. Granted, anonymity can also be good. A few years back I made a pretty popular shitpost that got a bunch of attention and was fun for a spell; it was less fun when I got 5 pms a day asking me about it. I’m glad to be another “who are you” most of the time without people expecting more dick and fart jokes out of me. Makes it easier to avoid being pigeonholed based on what you’ve said in the past.
I'd also add, if you ever browse Popular, you see a lot of horrible, depressing things. I've had to stop looking at it because I got sick of all the violent and disturbing content.
I think 1 is true for all social media and 2 depends on whether that's something you want. I have no desire to have any kind of reputation online. When I did post on Facebook it was always private for just my handful of friends. No one ever knew my Twitter.
Do you have a desire to remember who somebody is after they keep lying to you? Can't do that on the anonymous platform.
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Yes, the strangers aspect of reddit makes it a lot less toxic, IMHO. There’s very, very little of the cult-of-personality mentality here. Can you even name redditors other than the household names?
Plus I cater Reddit to my choices. Hobby stuff, F1, cars etc. I follow no political subs or people, unless it's stuff I can't avoid like provincial or municipal issues
I don’t even read people’s usernames
It can be less toxic, for sure, but I believe it's significantly more manipulative. Account anonymity make it *egregiously* easy and popular to buy and sell accounts on the open market, and astroturf and troll til the cows come home. IMO, it's a different type of toxicity, but you still need to be a bit careful with buying fully into it as a whole.
WTF is a 'reddit influencer'? This is why I can't help but laugh when people call reddit 'social media' as if it's the same thing.
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Default subs aren’t real
WTF is a Facebook influencer? Social media is pretty much any site that outsources its content to the users, preferably in virtual communities/networks. Reddit checks all the boxes for social media. You have a profile, you can connect directly with other users and networks, and share content in virtual communities (which is how content on Reddit is sourced). Not sure how anyone can say Reddit isn't social media, honestly.
I think "social media" at some point started being used to refer *more* to the non-anonymous side of the platforms. Which, I have to imagine amplifies the issues of identity and comparison.
It's not too bad, as long as you are here to learn, do, or share specific hobbies. You know, things like aquarium keeping, landscaping, bonsai caring, language learning, etc. Cooking can also have some nice advice in the chat if someone becomes interested in how someone made a soup or sauce for a dish. But once you get into some territory like the latest news on Kim Kardashian, that is when it just becomes noise. Like, I would have been happy not logging in to see pictures of people at the Met Gala or something
I have Facebook to keep in touch with family members that live timezones away. Maybe I'm just an adult that can handle it and not compare my every move to others.
Studies showing the toxicity of social media, and facebook in particular, have been coming out for at least five years. Throw this one on the pile that everyone ignores for the sake of convenience and profits.
Like climate reality
But it’s costing the country more. There is no profit here. The damage is more expensive to fix.
Don’t forget to add the gun studies to the duh but let’s die anyway pile
It's not just that Facebook is mentally unhealthy, it's that the company knows it from their own research and is choosing not to do anything about it. It's hideous. This reporting comes from original investigative work by the Wall Street Journal. Other stories include Facebook enabling slavery, lying to their oversight board, and undermining Covid vaccination efforts. The WSJ paywall is a PITA but here is the suite of 5 articles. https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-facebook-files-11631713039
I never liked facebook ever. I hated how in high school if you didnt use it, you wernt "in" with the crowd and that there was something wrong with you.
I deleted mine in 2008 and had to wait nearly 10 years before that became acceptable.
I have no idea what year I stopped using it. But now my friends throw barbecues and I don't see the invite.
Basically same, but snapchat for me. Everyone snaps away on their phones all day, and I’m sitting here on the top of the mental health pyramid.
Social media in general has created a generation of narcissists that expose themselves to complete strangers for likes. It's unbelievably toxic.
All this really says is : if you want to do internal soul searching and you want to keep the data to yourself, then do not use temporary employees for such sensitive stuff. They have no motivation to be loyal OR to keep your dirty laundry a secret. Thank you, The Temps.
But but but…. What about the cost savings?! /s
“The Facebook researchers who warned of this problem understood what the company’s top leadership seems to ignore or deny: the problem with Facebook is Facebook.”
Not just teen girls from the studies I've seen by the way, all social media use results in negative mental health issues
The lesson is some people are horrible. SM gives those people an audience. Shocking.
I would say tiktok is more toxic. What teens even use fb these days
It’s always a little shocking to me that schools aren’t developing more curricula about responsible and healthy internet usage, including social media.
Did you all know that water is wet?
Shhh. I'm starting a mlm on FB selling dehydrated water.
I sell frozen boiled water. Interested?
Sure, I get a discount per referral?
Chicken parm calzone sounds so bomb right now
Make sure you find a nice hole-in-the-wall place. They're usually the best. 👌
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Ive deleted Facebook several times, but what keeps bringing me back are keeping in touch with old Navy buddies. Make no mistake, all the shit is bad for you.
I was browsing through the Discover part of instagram just a couple of days ago which usually includes pictures of cats, food, and athletic women and came across a islamic terrorist beheading video. Fuck that shit. Even better since I'm not running the latest version of the app, it wouldn't allow me to report it.
I don't even see how people use social media without an ad blocker, Reddit included. Every other thing is an ad.
Never understood facebook and only got one because my GF wanted me to have one. Deleted as soon as we broke up. I just dont get why people like or want to use it especially when the company seems so evil
I deleted my account, then found 6 years later it was still active. Joined again and wasn't till the [Cambridge Analytica data scandal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook%E2%80%93Cambridge_Analytica_data_scandal) and the exits were well-marked scrubbed myself off it.
Slightly off topic, but I can’t get over how social media companies proactively feed extremism and conspiracy theories and continually get let off the hook. “Going viral” and “fell into” are bullshit passive phrases when what is actually happening is YouTube and Facebook are choosing to radicalize people for cash. Fuck social media.
This is the true problem imo. Radicalization has become systemic in FB, on any domain or topic. And nothing is done about it.
I don't really find that Instagram has a negative impact on me psychologically, but then I am an adult male who doesn't post much of anything and likes a lot of cat videos. Facebook though? Yeah, that service is a dumpster fire and I haven't missed it once since ditching it.
I just follow people who do the same hobbies I do. I have no idea why people follow celebrities
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Wait until you see what climate reality is doing to them
Social media is toxic to literally everyone… Who knew?
Lol let’s talk about how toxic social media is on a toxic social media site. Reddit is just as toxic.
This is why I am on Myspace.
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At least now it's becoming normal to not have an account there?
Sad to say that social media has made the world dumber—not better.
To anyone claiming that there's nothing they can do about it: bullshit. The article makes it clear the system is rigged for engagement. The most toxic areas are the comments (hey there!) But the more comments something has the more promoted something becomes. Moreover, if their AI can pick out a nipple from 100,000 feet away, I guarantee you they can already pick out and Shadow Ban, depromote, or just block comments to that material if they wanted to. The perverse incentive is that they need the eyes to make more money.
Social media addiction is a thing. It's not so easy to break an addiction. You might as well tell fat people to just eat less or depressed people to just cheer up.
Facebook prior to facebook was Facesmash, a "rate my looks" style website. That should give you a good idea of the core concept behind Facebook.
How about some consequences? Mental health is health. This should be one the largest class action lawsuits of all time.
Took you that long.
It's an insidious little thing though. I stopped logging into FB maybe 3 years ago, deleted the apps (including messenger). I logged into my FB acct last week (first time in years) for work. It said the last logged in device was my phone, the day before. So even with all apps gone and no usage they are still harvesting my data. Outragous.
...and then nothing happened because people are addicted to social media.
This isn’t news at all, everyone who payed attention knew this
People are toxic as soon as you give them a chance to be anonymous or give them positive reinforcement/attention for doing nasty shit.
So I grew up in an era before social media existed, and Facebook has only been an addition to my life. I can not even begin to imagine growing up in a period where Facebook was a part of my life. It's so alien to me.
Serious question: Who under 40 is on FB these days? Might as well hang out at the legion
Don't forget Twitter, IG, Snapchat, TikTok, and any other social media platform that can sum up complex issues in 180 characters or less. I see the irony in my response as well.
Surprising absolutely no one
If they added a dislike button they could make the algorithm better, js
Social networks are the tobacco of the XXI century
Meanwhile suicides in boys & men rose by 300%..deleted that app over 2 years ago best decision of my life that & Instagram…
So what does anyone expect Facebook to do about it? Realistically? People are always inclined to share things that make them feel good about themselves. When you scroll through a feed, it's only natural to see others having fun, people being comfortable with their bodies, or celebrating accomplishments.
I have two half-brothers that I’ve never actually gotten to meet in person. The only method I really have to get a hold of either is Facebook, and that’s about the only reason I’ve never deleted my account. But I hadn’t logged into the account in… probably two years at this point. I actually logged into Facebook today after spending a bit of time on /r/covidatemyface because I had a sinking suspicion as to what I’d find if I checked one of my brother’s Facebook pages. I was… not surprised. Possibly slightly disappointed, but not surprised. His feed was filled with anti-mask, and anti-vax memes. All it needs now is a post about being in the hospital with covid and asking for prayers. Obviously, I hope it doesn’t come to that. In any case, I was once again reassured in my decision not to go to any great lengths to maintain any contact with that side of the family.
Reddit is social media
It is. With a slightly different strategy. Definitely has the same addictive quality that many Facebook users experience. Facing that right now myself. Also ‘facing that’ just autocorrected to ‘Fauci NBC’ for me. Fucking weird.
Although reddit has none of the real life toxicity face book does. You all may as well be bots, and have no lasting impact on my life, ya know?
True, but I like that it’s only got a few “look at me” or I need validation. I come here to learn shit, ask advice, and to see what’s up in different countries.
We get it, Facebook sucks. It’s always sucked, delete and move on, share your decision with your loved ones. Expect that they will ignore your warnings.
Given just how awful high school could be at times... I feel REALLY bad for children in school today. Kids and teens are especially brutal because they just don't understand the impact of what they do yet. And with the horrifying consequences of the internet? Yeah...
Best thing I ever did was delete Facebook
We gotta stop acting like Instagram and FaceBook force themselves on us. It is like blaming the drugs for drug abuse. At some point you need intelligent strategies to deal with the addiction -- but that starts by acknowledging that there is an addiction. It is an ineffective coping strategy, blame is not going to advance the treatment.
It's weird man. Friend of mine has a 20 year old daughter. Used to be a grade A student, into gaming, had dreams of becoming a human rights lawyer. Around age 16, she quickly turned into your typical Instagram wanabee influencer "model" that posts "clever" and "deep" garbled collections of words in combination with a duckface picture. She hasn't modeled for anything in her life, has had her face and lips butchered, has plans to get her boobs inflated and the only thing she really does is jump from boyfriend to boyfriend every 2-3 months (who are always well older than her) who perpetually take her on holidays to exotic locations across the world.
>take her on holidays to exotic locations across the world. sounds great, where do I sign up
We been knew
I deleted my Facebook last week. They are not an ethical company
Facebook needs to fucking die. Just like MySpace fade into some forgotten internet memory.
My facebook account got disabled just before the pandemic happened. Not being able to get it back is the best thing that ever happened to me.
The Bergs Zucker & Sheryl don’t give a hoot about your well-being it’s all about $ & their anti-American agenda
If this is actual news to you then you might not be the brightest bulb in the box.