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RD's avatar

How about making the politicians that look to regulate social media regularly more accountable to their own trespasses. That alone would fix the majority of the problems. Who watches the watchers?

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Harley "Griff" Lofton's avatar

This article is very good and full of insights illuminating much.

It is essentially confirming that the best way to use social media is to stop using it. I get the irony of saying that on a social media platform.

I stopped using Xitter on the third day after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It became impossible to sort out real news (which I call factual truth) from opinion, speculation, viral and misleading smart phone videos, Russian trolls, etc.

Before this I had had my belly full of Social Justice Jihadists, the word police and the beginning of the woke/antiwoke Kulturkampf and the armies left and right compelled to educate us in 168 characters or less.

I am a committed Never Trump (and his allies) voter. But I saw social media exploding every time Trump did something to trigger or "own" the libs. This was exactly what Trump and his followers wanted It was proof of his power over them every time Rachel Maddow lit her hair on fire over the latest "outrage." Because so many journalists use Xitter (and still do) news programing started to be driven by Xitter itself. News report after news report amplifying what was happening and important on Twitter and not necessarily in the real world.

David Chappell once noted that "Twitter is not a real place." I think in response to the dragging he received because of some jokes he made about trans persons. What matters to him is how he treats trans persons in his actual real life just like the other people who fill his diverse life.

On Facebook the only people that I friend are people that I actually have known at some point in my life. Family members, classmates from high school and college, people I have met through work or through volunteer organizations. I don't belong to any politically oriented Facebook Groups. With the introduction of Reels the Facebook algorithms have filled my timeline/feed with lip-syncing body builders flexing and thrusting their pelvis in my face. At some point Facebook decided THAT is what I want to see... it remains a mystery to me.

That is how I manage my social media experience. First, I generally pay for access to the fora in which I participate. People who subscribe to a platform tend to respect others because they tend to be smaller communities. Second, I do not use a pseudonym I own everything I say online. Third, I do not feel compelled to respond to everything that I or anyone else posts especially if I disagree. I tend to endorse and extend the thoughts with which I agree and not correct the thoughts of others. Fourth, I try (I mean I really, really ,really try!) to avoid being snarky because that is probably the most common way I have to diminish and devalue others. That is just wrong. Finally I follow no one and never follow back.

I am a free speech and free market fundamentalist. If Xitter wants to be a cesspool that is fine. I just don't buy what they are marketing. Perhaps people feel an overwhelming need to be an influencer and others have a need to follow them. I suppose there will be a market for this so long as there is money to be made, books to sell, products to endorse and online "virality" is a marker of significance.

But in the end its just like People Magazine and The National Enquirer 40 years ago only with less moderation and the ability for the readers to react in real time with pseudonymous masks. If that is what the market wants then that is what the market should give them.

Each of us is responsible for what we choose to consume and how we choose to behave. Julian Assange once encouraged his followers to "Be the troll you want to see in the world." And many people have taken that to heart giving the troll in all of us permission to come out. The choice is to fight against that permission and to refuse to consume what is poisonous.

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