Delighted with that @Arthur I have only started really reading about this stuff. I am going to read that one asap. I also heard Nicholas Carr on Ezra Klein’s podcast. I like that term, ‘algorithmic amplification’ thanks for the heads up.
I did and as @Wolfie points out in his blunt but absolutely correct way. If you are on Instagram you are on FB. I don’t miss Twitter either though I didn’t think it as toxic as FB at the time. Career wise and in terms of financial benefit, including LinkedIn, none of them produced anything useful for me by the way.
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This is a little off-topic, but the main reason I keep Instagram is because it’s the only way to talk to a large amount of people I know or meet. In my age group and location (26, single, big US city), it’s very common to exchange IG usernames before phone numbers, to chat on there in general (vs texting or other), and to share pictures or content with friends.
I don’t follow many accounts, mute most of who I follow, and I make sure to only go on IG to message people, but for me it has unfortunately helped my social life so much that I’ve decided it’s worth it for the moment.
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I highly recommend Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport. I’ve read this and his book, Deep Work. Both are excellent and challenging.
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FWIW I just deleted iG. When you find how to do it it’s quite easy and fast. I remember when I deleted FB they said that the account was frozen for 30 days (or so) and that if I re-logged in the account would revive…
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I am still on Facebook as it is the best platform for me to interface with a number of distant family members and friends. It is also a place where my lab is able to interface with people interested in the work we do. Even so, being on Facebook requires discipline on my part (must ignore and not be tempted to engage with garbage), manage security to make sure only those I want to see certain content get to see it, and routinely squash for 30 days individual friends who are political extremists (on either side of the aisle). More work than I would like it to be.
Facebook let a genocide in Myanmar be planned on their platform and is where the Anti-Vax/5G conspiracy movement flourishes.
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With all due respect @sotojuan, this seems a bit, um, extreme. And I’m saying this as a dedicated Facebook anti-fan.
In 2018 UN investigators published a damning report calling for a number of senior military figures, including the head of the armed forces, to be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court. Soldiers murdered, tortured, and raped members of the Rohingya minority as part of a “widespread and systematic attack on a civilian population,” according to the report. But the UN report also described Facebook as a “useful instrument for those seeking to spread hate,” adding that the its response had been “slow and ineffective.” It said that the “extent to which Facebook posts and messages have led to real-world discrimination must be independently and thoroughly investigated.” NYTimes article offers an explainer:
Only after the NYTimes article did Facebook ban four ethnic armed Myanmar-based groups from the site. It took over a year after 25,000 Rohingya were killed by Myanmar’s army and allied Buddhist militias and 700,000 Rohingya were forced to flee the country – for Facebook to ban Tatmadaw leaders from its platform.
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My own personal opinion of the above is that this much is (well?) understood, despite Mr. Zuckerberg’s assurances. I’m not sure that constitutes planning a genocide on their platform. Furthering it, perhaps, but planning it?
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A deliberate, multi-year campaign using hundreds of military personnel, with military-created troll accounts working online in shifts, that involved planting false anti-Rohingya propaganda which incited murders, rapes and the largest forced human migration in recent history. Right out of the pre-social-media mid-90s Rwanda playbook. This was no mistake, it was a ploy, a plot, a plan of action.
https://www.reuters.com/article/myanmar-rohingya-un-idUSL8N1VH04R
And even today, years after being first reported, Facebook is stalling at revealing all in this matter:
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See, I struggle with that. I deleted my facebook account a few years ago, and I don’t regret it at all. But I had an instagram account before Facebook acquired it, and I actually kinda like just looking at the pictures people post. I have never found it toxic or that it makes me feel bad in the way that Facebook did. So it’s kinda weird. Getting off of Facebook was simple because not only were they the devil with all the questionable politics and security leaks and privacy concerns, going there actually had a bad impact on my mental health. I can’t say the same about Instagram. So, I’d have to leave there only because they’re the devil. It’s temping, for sure—I’m now down to Twitter and Instagram for social media, and I actually kinda like Twitter so I don’t see myself leaving there anytime soon, but Instagram… yeah, that’s a tough one.
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To add to this, Sheryl Sandberg herself admitted in her reply to one of the above mentioned articles that Facebook is « committed to do better » regarding those very situations. Which pretty much amounts to responsibility.
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Funny you should mention it! I hadn’t been on it for weeks. Honest. I can tolerate less and less. Something depressing about it although I am in a Snoopy, a Nancy Drew, and a Beatles group.
Of late, I pop in approximately once a week to say a quick hi to a buddy I know misses me a lot when I’m not there. Well, I stayed entirely too long. Got into what I thought was a discussion with a distant relative concerning a controversial matter. I studied in depth what he deeply cares about but he went into a more practical field.
So we should be able to exchange ideas, theories, right? Wrong! He’s disowning me! Seemed like a nice kid. I’m not sure he even remembers meeting me that one time although he was an adult. Oh well. Distant. LOL!
However, my friend seemed quite happy to see me and I– her!
But, maybe, it is for the best you just go for it and sever the cord! Don’t mind me none. ;o)
I have a hard time deleting most anything, btw. So let us know how it goes, ok?
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I don’t understand. I’ve deliberately kept myself in the dark because I’ll surely head for the nearest soapbox, stopping only to grab a Coke, a megaphone I don’t need because my voice carries!
Frontline did a special about AI in Communist China and I was floored. I had no idea they had industrialized like that, for starters. I must have watched it three times I was so stunned. The political ramifications had me reeling for months!
There was a Criminal Justice professor in 1973 talked about this every other day one semester. My friend sat right next to me. She is a computer security specialist now. Her class. She doesn’t remember him. I remember him like it was yesterday. I just went with her. Oh did he make an impression. The man was brilliant albeit not so kooky! He made perfect sense then even.
I’ve never thought of deleting my Facebook account (ok maybe once) but then again I’m not really addicted to it and don’t use it for much beyond the odd group (people seem to love it for that at least laymen) and so its good to have around. I do try not to use it for too many things in case I do have to ditch it someday but I find it useful for signing up to the tons of services that I don’t really care about and also the ones that connect you to your friends.
In that last case its actually the best casual phonebook since it’s pretty much the biggest on earth.
It would be nice if LinkedIn could have evolved as the professional forum rather than a collection of resumes but I still think its great for business.
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I’m a reluctant Facebook user. I’m in several Groups that are on Facebook, and cutting them out of my life is not feasible because they cannot be replaced. A few are for online classes, others are for obscure interests. I’m more tolerant of the “obscure interests” reasoning, because these are often non-technical people who don’t have the money and time to move to a new platform.
I’m less tolerant of people whose online businesses use a Facebook Group for student interaction. I avoid it when possible, and hold my nose when not. But I understand the conundrum. Most discussion board software is crap (hard to install, hard to use), and Discourse is expensive (especially when compared to “free”).
I ignore my feed and tolerate the terrible interface that is Groups.
Instagram — despite being owned by Facebook and having a lot of ties to Facebook — is a different beast. My feed there is very specific, limited to a few topics, and as a result is actually useful. From the beginning I set up a few rules for myself: unfollow aggressively, never look at “search” unless actually searching a person or hashtag, and keep my own posts on-topic. With all the social justice stuff happening lately, I’ve added a new one: don’t read people’s re-posts (they’re almost always off-topic and inflammatory).
Let me be clear: I loathe Facebook, and I am in no way defending it. In fact I believe the way that Mr. Facebook has lied and dissembled is indefensible. They are, IMHO, intentionally disconnected from reality.
My only objection is with the notion of planning, which I took to mean “coordinating strategy and tactics.”
No. I admit I’m quibbling over words. Facebook has repeatedly shown they don’t care what appears on their platform as long as it contributes to their bottom dollar. I believe you made that point earlier
I couldn’t agree more. I’ll not name names, you know who you are.
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I will, especially regarding marketing impact. That’s the biggie that worries me a bit, though. And the reason why I keep Twitter. But honestly, if I was sure none had any impact on the ability to market my writing (which I don’t know yet), I would have nuked my accounts from orbit already.
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I don’t think anyone ever thought a country’s military would for unknown reasons abandon its own secure communications apparatus in favor of planning genocide on the servers of a social network outside its country or control. But indeed, they did coordinate and implement their strategy/tactics.
One user posted a restaurant advertisement featuring Rohingya-style food. “We must fight them the way Hitler did the Jews, damn kalars!” the person wrote, using a pejorative for the Rohingya… Another post showed a news article from an army-controlled publication about attacks on police stations by Rohingya militants. “These non-human kalar dogs, the Bengalis, are killing and destroying our land, our water and our ethnic people,” the user wrote. “We need to destroy their race.” That post went up last September, as the violence against the Rohingya peaked…
Matt Schissler, a doctoral student at the University of Michigan, said that between March and December 2014, he held discussions with Facebook officials in a series of calls and online communications. He told them how the platform was being used to spread hate speech and false rumors in Myanmar, he said, including via fake accounts. He and other activists provided the company with specific examples, including a Facebook page in Burmese that was called, “We will genocide all of the Muslims and feed them to the dogs.”
(Only after being contacted did Facebook eventually remove these posts, on a case-by-case basis.)
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