The Social Dilemma - Who has watched this on Netflix?

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#2579429 5-Oct-2020 09:48

tehgerbil:
Call me naïve but I genuinely think social media is for the most part what you make of it.

If you follow trash, you will get bombarded with trash, monkey see, monkey do.

Please don't misunderstand me Social media plays an abhorrent and diabolical part in our lives and has directly caused many deaths. It's obscenely evil and Facebook as a company are the equivalent of tobacco or big oil companies.

You don't have to follow trash to get bombarded with trash. It just takes a few friends and even family who are naive, and you will be bombarded with trash by proxy.

"I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there." | Octopus Energy | Sharesies
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afe66

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#2579436 5-Oct-2020 10:03

I've only got a disposable fb account to access a couple of hobby groups. No friends, no like or dislikes.

I'm OK with FB knowing i like EV and i have a myford lathe.

The email account it was setup with no longer exists so if FB ever asks be to prove email is valid, im stuffed.

Only access via guess login in ubuntu vm.

What would GZers do if need to give social media usernames as part of visiting USA ?

netspanner

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#2579675 5-Oct-2020 16:33

I notice the same thing happening with LinkedIn. It sends me emails that people are looking at my account, or I have unread notifications, only to find they are meaningless when you check them out. Its all about getting you back on LinkedIn.

Dratsab

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#2579689 5-Oct-2020 17:07

netspanner: I notice the same thing happening with LinkedIn. It sends me emails that people are looking at my account, or I have unread notifications, only to find they are meaningless when you check them out. Its all about getting you back on LinkedIn.

Yes, I've noticed this too. I deleted my Instagram account quite a while back, hardly touch Twitter these days, and don't use LinkedIn at all. I think I'll erase (as much as possible) my accounts on these last two tonight. That'll only leave me on FB which I find useful for keeping up with bands of interest and friends/family overseas, and YouTube for watching videos on topics of particular interest to me.

FB is only used on a computer at home now, it's not on the loan phone I currently have and won't be on my new (replacement) phone when it arrives. That said I will have WhatsApp on there, whether or not I install FB Messenger is up in the air...

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#2579736 5-Oct-2020 20:06

While it was interesting and concerning at the lengths these companies go to, I felt it was only half the story. Completely missing was all the positives from social media.

Lazy is such an ugly word, I prefer to call it selective participation

alasta

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#2579756 5-Oct-2020 20:50

scuwp:

While it was interesting and concerning at the lengths these companies go to, I felt it was only half the story. Completely missing was all the positives from social media.

I often wonder what it would be like if social media had a more friendly business model. Perhaps you pay a subscription fee to access the service, and you get to nominate one or two people to gift a free subscription to if they can't afford their own.

You'd get all the positives of keeping in touch with the people who matter, but without the data harvesting, psychological manipulation, etc.

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#2579784 5-Oct-2020 21:59

alasta:
scuwp:

While it was interesting and concerning at the lengths these companies go to, I felt it was only half the story. Completely missing was all the positives from social media.

I often wonder what it would be like if social media had a more friendly business model. Perhaps you pay a subscription fee to access the service, and you get to nominate one or two people to gift a free subscription to if they can't afford their own.

You'd get all the positives of keeping in touch with the people who matter, but without the data harvesting, psychological manipulation, etc.

Or as one idea was suggested on the show, tax data harvesting and then use that money for education on the matter

Any views expressed on these forums are my own and don't necessarily reflect those of my employer.

spaceknight

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#2579795 5-Oct-2020 23:05

netspanner:

I notice the same thing happening with LinkedIn. It sends me emails that people are looking at my account, or I have unread notifications, only to find they are meaningless when you check them out. Its all about getting you back on LinkedIn.

I use Facebook mainly for some hobby groups, but there was a period of several months where I barely logged into Facebook. During that time I used to get 'bait' emails saying I had been tagged in some photo, only to find that I wasn't after I logged in.

dafman

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#2590126 22-Oct-2020 08:51

scuwp:

Completely missing was all the positives from social media.

Such as?

dafman

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#2590130 22-Oct-2020 09:06

Watched this last night. I've been actively interested in the negative effects of social media for some time, so was familiar with many of the presenters and the views expressed.

I ditched Facebook two years ago. My life hasn't self destructed and is actually much better for it. But I am a minority, the overwhelming majority will continue down the rabbit hole of this massive social experiment, with the overwhelming response from the majority being "Yes, I agree Facebook is not good, but ... ".

I agree with many of the presenters; the genie is out of the bottle and little can be done to stop it. The end of shared truth and increasing polarisation will have a catastrophic ending for global society. In the US, civil war.

For those interested in exploring further, Tristan Harris (the main presenter from the documentary) has a current podcast series looking into the topic: Your Undivided Attention.

Gurezaemon

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#2590156 22-Oct-2020 10:45

Totally aside from the insidious tracking characteristics of social media, positives of Facebook and its ilk are being able to maintain some contact with people that you wouldn't necessarily want to mail or call on a regular basis, but also don't want to lose all ties with; and its sheer pervasiveness (for good or bad) which makes its use as a method for clubs, etc. to communicate.

The real toxicity of social media is when people use it as a news source, as the news sources presented have a strong self-selecting bias, leading to an echo-chamber effect.

I've stripped out all news/opinion/celebrity sites, and use the "unfollow but remain friends" function to hide people I know who insist on turning it into a combative environment. Fluff Busting (FB) Purity also takes care of ads that might otherwise slip through.

Get your business seen overseas - Nexus Translations

frankv

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#2590185 22-Oct-2020 11:56

I'm late to this party, but I watched it a week or so ago.

I don't think that social media is in fact much worse than the rest of the tracking/marketing industry. e.g. https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-target-figured-out-a-teen-girl-was-pregnant-before-her-father-did/#5b8a6c7b6668

The only difference is that in 2020 they have algorithms seeking out patterns out of vastly more data, whereas in 2002-2016 they had people doing it.

martyyn

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#2590188 22-Oct-2020 12:02

geekiegeek:

I've posted here before that to me "I just use it to access this that group" is a bit of a cop out as you are still supporting these companies by using their platforms so in my mind you are still part of the problem. There is only one way these companies will change, if enough people delete their accounts.

This would be great if people had a choice.

We had to buy a smartphone for our son when he joined a football academy six years ago as they would only communicate with the players via Whatsapp. They use it extensively, they use it well and they are aware of their responsibilities. But there was no choice for us.

The smartphone then brought it's own problems. I'd like to think we have educated him well enough to keep out of it but he's now signed up to most things because it's the only way his friends will communicate and given he has so little down time I can't bring myself to restrict that access to his friends.

He also has apps from the academy, NZ Football and now the Wellington Phoenix. All wanting to know when he sleeps and for how long, when he trains and for how long, how he's feeling, does he have any pain, are any muscles tight, what he's eating, what he's not eating, the list is endless and with every organisation pushing their own app it just breads normalisation.

Having dozens of SM accounts and apps is normal for so many people, the moment you question it, or you tell someone you are not on Facebook/Instagram/Whatsapp, or you want to be contacted by email you are considered a freak.

Don't get me started about the fact his image is plastered all over SM every weekend because every man and woman who thinks they are sports photographer is at every game adding photos to their own SM accounts and websites for their own benefit.

Our local surf club will ONLY communicate with our kids (who are lifeguards) via Facebook, the coaches my girls have had for netball over the years will ONLY communicate via Facebook, car clubs I am a part of will ONLY communicate via Facebook.

It's simply not possible to be part of anything anymore and not be on Facebook at the very least.

[e] terrible spelling !

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#2590205 22-Oct-2020 13:13

martyyn:

Having dozens of SM accounts and apps is normal for so many people, the moment you question it, or you tell someone you are not on Facebook/Instagram/Whatsapp, or you want to be contacted by email you are considered a freak.

Sadly this is so true

Any views expressed on these forums are my own and don't necessarily reflect those of my employer.

alasta

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#2590228 22-Oct-2020 14:25

I think the rules for social media should be the same as rules at the dinner table; don't talk about religion or politics!

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