Thread: Something I think we should all consider

12 trackers on this page ready to profile us

Stephen Hawking would agree with you.

The Internet is a snakepit and everyone is tracked and all the info is sliced and diced and distributed.

If you are Internet savvy and understand how it works and how to use it you can make money, a lot of money. There are many folks out there who are multi millionaires because of it. Many, probably most are very young and never worked a day in their lives.

But that is a different story apart from the social media issue. Using those sites make it too easy to foment all kinds of bad things. You can bully people, start rumors, use it to direct everything imaginable.

Unfortunately we live in a world where a lot of folks seem to be missing large amounts of Grey Matter in their heads and have no ability for any critical thinking.

I am not sure what that film covered, but it could easily be a 10 part series. But to be fair, there are good things, too. I read about how social media was helping people cope with the isolation of the pandemic lockdowns. I think it was an article by a phycologist and not a scientific study, but the debate between the benefits and harms done with social media can be a long thread. And, like most debates on the internet would be light on the science and heavy on personal experiences.

Thanks for sharing the link Paul. I hope to have time to watch it soon. It's one reason i don't have a smart phone. Nothing more irritating than going to a friends house who can hardly put her phone down to have a conversation. Not to mention the censoring of those with opposing political views to those who run the social media platforms (but maybe that's a whole other can of worms).

Discussing social media apps is rather elementary because it's very big business and it's not going anywhere. The only question is at what point does the Govt get involved to control it and to what degree.

Originally Posted by tintin

Not to mention the censoring of those with opposing political views to those who run the social media platforms (but maybe that's a whole other can of worms).

Not a cans of worms at all. Nothing wrong with censoring messages espousing hate and violence and other unproven ramblings like G5 networks spreading Covid 19.

Bob

Originally Posted by BobH

Not a cans of worms at all. Nothing wrong with censoring messages espousing hate and violence and other unproven ramblings like G5 networks spreading Covid 19.

Bob

Also, in the US (not sure about other countries) they need to track political ads like the requirements for TV stations to make sure they are not coming from illegal sources.

Unfortuneatly they don't just stick to censoring hate and violence or conspiracys. A couple of the commentators i watch are regularly demonitized or blocked just for sharing a more concervative opinion. The platforms can have a huge impact on elections also.

This film was a documentary with a dramatized portion as a demo of the points they made. The people ringing the warning bells were insiders and investors and they mostly said the same things: this started out as, and still is a good thing. The problem is the unintended consequences. It's rather orwellian and a case of life imitating art.