Post Aq2rn1UAXjpijHPHhg by Alonealastalovedalongthe@toot.cafe
(DIR) More posts by Alonealastalovedalongthe@toot.cafe
(DIR) Post #Aq1VeQKgOvOR2EVKDY by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-01-13T01:01:20Z
2 likes, 2 repeats
I find it fascinating how people often talk about "social media" in the same way they talk about smoking or eating jelly donuts or getting spray tans. It's seen as a vice, something enjoyable but ultimately "bad for you"-- but I think this bad reputation has a lot to do with what we have let social media become. We treat it like it's not important. Like it's superficial and for vain shallow people who practice puffery. In reality it's the central hub of news, media and cultural distribution.
(DIR) Post #Aq1Vup9VtBk4e66GVE by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-01-13T01:04:17Z
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Social media is important and it's incredibly powerful. Increasingly, we see efforts to control it, to guide it and shape it to political and economic ends. There is also a desire to monetize it which has been there since the start in many cases. Most of the things that make social media "toxic" can be tied back to these forces. (Most but not all!)This notion that social media is unimportant and really not even something serious people care about has made it easier to co-opt.
(DIR) Post #Aq1Vx8cAV4dDaNbfWK by Makyris@friendsofdesoto.social
2025-01-13T01:04:41Z
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@futurebird Well said.
(DIR) Post #Aq1WB7nqJa7t7ejjaS by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-01-13T01:07:14Z
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I think social media can be: useful, amusing, enriching, educational, funny, and comforting. I think it can make people feel *less* alone and *more* hopeful. But that can't happen if anyone makes more money if they keep you scrolling and the reason why you are scrolling doesn't matter to them.
(DIR) Post #Aq1WdCgxjO5uOTuK4e by pelha@mstdn.social
2025-01-13T01:12:15Z
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@futurebird i use it as a source of news and information, besides entertainment. Like a mix of a 21 c newspaper and a good movie.
(DIR) Post #Aq1XN4lDYHLx7FlsYK by trochee@dair-community.social
2025-01-13T01:20:33Z
1 likes, 1 repeats
@futurebird this difference feels importantIf social media is — a low-grade private vice that we choose to indulge in —then objecting to changes to the feed algorithm is like whinging about changes to the "extra ball" mechanics of your favorite pinball machine But if the "social medium" is true to its etymology — a space for performing a society — that objection is closer to raising concerns about a head shop opening next to a playground
(DIR) Post #Aq1YOWXlqA6vWljglk by dgodon@mastodon.online
2025-01-13T01:32:01Z
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@futurebird thank you for this thread! Been thinking along these lines as the corporate social platforms are being enshittified. There are major problems there but there are also many great things. So many insightful, creative, funny and moving things folks share
(DIR) Post #Aq1YPajPkudmnzgv56 by indigoparadox@mastodon.social
2025-01-13T01:32:12Z
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@futurebird Drinking Coke Zero while I read this post on Mastodon. 😌Almost makes me wanna take up vaping.
(DIR) Post #Aq1Ze5KaspzhiVYZO4 by marquisedewhat@ohai.social
2025-01-13T01:46:03Z
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@futurebird Interesting, the degrees of disregard. I see it as an addiction, which is a form of vice. As such, I take it very seriously, as I've watched it take over friends' lives and become the locus of their social interaction and also their source of news. Regarding the latter, that's most troubling as a Canadian, as Meta blocked news links a couple of years ago. But most people haven't left; we use workarounds such as screenshots of articles, and URLs chopped up by spaces.
(DIR) Post #Aq1cZ9dtj5jDVEvV2G by gretared@sfba.social
2025-01-13T02:18:45Z
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@futurebird it’s like the pub! Is drinking good for you? No. Is it good and fun to congregate? Yes!
(DIR) Post #Aq1cdGmZ7fB6nxwWRs by noondlyt@hellions.cloud
2025-01-13T02:19:29Z
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@futurebird The Fediverse / Mastodon was the first place I felt I could make it entirely my own experience. The "work" to create an account and my own algorithm is enjoyable for me to this day. I agree with you 100%
(DIR) Post #Aq1eCp4PjV4TEioAwS by Leefellerguy@mastodon.social
2025-01-13T02:37:09Z
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@futurebird Yes, I have learned things here and I also find it entertaining.
(DIR) Post #Aq1gSLuc6qVLLVl0E4 by gyro@chitter.xyz
2025-01-13T03:02:20Z
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@futurebird to be honest "social media" means "websites I don't like / don't use" in practice a lot.
(DIR) Post #Aq1iB7t5CQlgpnxFvU by LexiGirl@mstdn.social
2025-01-13T03:21:38Z
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@futurebird the ‘tech bros’ entire business model is based off people on social media hating each other. Stripping away fact checking at Meta confirms this.
(DIR) Post #Aq1ofSSfryWh3YRtUu by jamesmarshall@sfba.social
2025-01-13T04:34:22Z
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@futurebird Thank you! 💖 Social media as a concept has amazing and powerful potential. The commercial products that have dominated the social media market are awful in many ways. But that's a problem with those companies, not with social media in general. Far too often, people conflate FB/etc. with "social media" itself.
(DIR) Post #Aq1pw9RHwnQyw8KBDE by iveyline@mastodon.world
2025-01-13T04:48:32Z
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@futurebird Its also the central hub of misinformation, stalking, hate, radicalisation, cyber-bullying and cyber crime. While it has a lot of positives it also has a lot of negatives. After all it is humans who use and abuse it.
(DIR) Post #Aq1rjtwhvP3xJoJ624 by mivox@mivox.net
2025-01-13T05:08:45Z
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@futurebird @SrRochardBunson In the early 2000s, I traveled overseas multiple times, always staying with people I’d met on early social media & forums. It was fantastic, and I’m friends with almost all those folks to this day. Social media was the absolute best thing that ever happened to my socially awkward ass.
(DIR) Post #Aq1sCpWrQSLq1A0moa by ethniccanuck@ohai.social
2025-01-13T05:13:58Z
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@futurebird #WiseWords 👍👍
(DIR) Post #Aq1tai0N9RNxaQlWyG by anne_twain@theblower.au
2025-01-13T05:29:33Z
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@futurebird I agree. It inhabits the place that used to be filled by letter writing, greeting cards, postcards, newspapers, magazines, newsletters and notice boards.
(DIR) Post #Aq1zCr6OHCd2ZkacbI by l0ve30@mastodon.world
2025-01-13T06:32:24Z
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@futurebird I understand why social media is thought of as a vice. Without conscious effort, social media use can be addictive, can create craving for attention, disconnect people from their surroundings, and warp their understanding of reality.
(DIR) Post #Aq22k5vOUFYTxwzH8q by Sven@mstdn.games
2025-01-13T07:12:03Z
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@futurebird Funnily enough, I agreed until the very last sentence. 😄There are enough hubs for news and media, but too few places where people are true, genuine and where they (can) connect with each other.
(DIR) Post #Aq23Ju7BsA4nlPa2k4 by tenteni@mastodon.social
2025-01-13T07:18:33Z
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@futurebird Social media itself is not a bad habit, but it becomes one if a person starts using it improperly. The majority of the population prefers, sorry, primitive content. And social media fulfills that demand. Not always and not for everyone. But in general.
(DIR) Post #Aq29v3cU62jhgKJiqG by miqokin@denden.world
2025-01-13T08:32:28Z
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@futurebird I want to agree but I'm so online I've seen so much stupid niche subculture within a subculture within a subculture drama that no advertiser could even conceive of
(DIR) Post #Aq2CCGQpukUEFVCXgW by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-01-13T08:58:03Z
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@miqokin I want to assume people like that stuff, it's mostly opt-in isn't it?
(DIR) Post #Aq2COYb8CPUM45sWWW by tonytins@furry.engineer
2025-01-13T09:00:14Z
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@futurebird That's why I like to make the dictation between social media and networks. Mastodon or Bluesky would be social networks - they encourage discussion and thought. Social media, by contrast, tries to cram consumerism into something that is, well, *social*.
(DIR) Post #Aq2FHnwf2WrPV0Q8S8 by acb@mastodon.social
2025-01-13T09:32:38Z
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@futurebird That and mainstream examples of it (Xitter, the Zuckerverse, TikTok) being algorithmic feedlots and dopamine casinos rigged to exploit, rather than help, their captive users.
(DIR) Post #Aq2SPntoORmf4rETj6 by jwcph@helvede.net
2025-01-13T11:59:41Z
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@futurebird I think you're absolutely right. Most people seem to just follow whatever's popular; almost every time I see someone else's feed it blows my mind how badly they curated it - but only because I came to the game late, not for a novelty or out of FoMo but because I could finally see that first Facebook, later Twitter (& now Fedi) provided the opportunity to seek out specifically interesting people; friends, acquaintances & public figures alike & build a feed relevant to my interests.
(DIR) Post #Aq2bEJHQnEMYW3sHBI by miqokin@denden.world
2025-01-13T13:38:28Z
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@futurebird :lolwtf: if you think i willingly learned about the guy who microwaves his own soiled underwear then I have a bridge to sell you
(DIR) Post #Aq2rn1UAXjpijHPHhg by Alonealastalovedalongthe@toot.cafe
2025-01-13T16:44:03Z
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@futurebird Social media needed to be reified as an addiction so that all the consequences of being forced into a neo-feudalist society and being depressed and exhaustes by it could be explained in terms the ruling class finds acceptable.In otherwords, the only thing we are allowed to complain about or have agency over in our lives is social media so isn't it convenient the rich are pushing this narrative?