I joined reddit a few months it sold out, started pushing an agenda, and started censoring anything that didn't advance it. The only good thing that came of my time there was a link to here that someone posted in the alternatives sub when people started looking to leave the echo chambers.
I'm not sure about the bot influence. There are some, but when you drive out any opposing views, what you are left with is "everybody I don't agree with is a bot". Or a paid troll, probably Russian. Not just a person with a different opinion.
Social media creates bubbles. People are attracted to those who share similar opinions and shy away from those that don't. It's so much easier to unfriend or ignore anyone who challenges or makes you really think about and defend your deeply held assumptions. You're left with a group that thinks the same way you do, and the natural progression is that everyone thinks the same way. It's painfully jarring when something happens that disrupts that assumption.
This place is special. I hope it lasts longer than I do.
To a certain age, that I think gets younger all the time. I see kids as young as 6 or 7 with cell phones. As soon as they get on social media, they have to "fit in" with the crowd and that warps their perspective.
That used to not happen until puberty. Of course that's happening earlier than it did when I grew up. (No chance it has anything to do with the hormones we feed farm animals). My wife works childcare. She sees 5-year olds are telling the 3s and 4s that Santa, Easter Bunny, and Tooth Fairy are really parents.
I joined reddit a few months it sold out, started pushing an agenda, and started censoring anything that didn't advance it. The only good thing that came of my time there was a link to here that someone posted in the alternatives sub when people started looking to leave the echo chambers.
I'm not sure about the bot influence. There are some, but when you drive out any opposing views, what you are left with is "everybody I don't agree with is a bot". Or a paid troll, probably Russian. Not just a person with a different opinion.
Social media creates bubbles. People are attracted to those who share similar opinions and shy away from those that don't. It's so much easier to unfriend or ignore anyone who challenges or makes you really think about and defend your deeply held assumptions. You're left with a group that thinks the same way you do, and the natural progression is that everyone thinks the same way. It's painfully jarring when something happens that disrupts that assumption.
This place is special. I hope it lasts longer than I do.
By all means pull up a chair at the unwelcomed table of misfits.
I think of it as moving from the kids table to the adult table.
Kids have an unbiased point of view, a perspective we laugh at and ignore at our peril.
To a certain age, that I think gets younger all the time. I see kids as young as 6 or 7 with cell phones. As soon as they get on social media, they have to "fit in" with the crowd and that warps their perspective.
That used to not happen until puberty. Of course that's happening earlier than it did when I grew up. (No chance it has anything to do with the hormones we feed farm animals). My wife works childcare. She sees 5-year olds are telling the 3s and 4s that Santa, Easter Bunny, and Tooth Fairy are really parents.
Childhood innocence just doesn't last as long.
So true, and I don't know if innocence lost is wisdom gained.