Is social media a neccasary poison?

[Zion]

What makes you think social media is either necessary or unnecessary & why?

[Egzoset]

What makes you confuse a thing with human attitudes?

[LastThursday]

Being social is necessary. Social media is not.

Email only took hold with the internet around 1994. Myspace and Facebook in the 2000s. Before that the only social media was writing a letter to your overseas pen pal or writing a letter to a TV show or gossiping on the telephone. Yes, there were bulletin boards and email way back in the 1980s, but they were for rich tech nerds - you needed an acoustic coupler, a computer (a novelty) and deep pockets for the phone bill.

Saying that, like all other technology once it's mainstream society can't function without it. Try doing anything without cars or email. So social media will be around for a while, but Facebook and the like will be taken over by others in time.

The serious problem with Facebook (and others) is that they are advertising agencies in all but name. They're not interested in the people they serve, other than to simply squeeze money out of them by tracking their every transaction and targeting them or selling their data. They're metaphorically selling you crack to get you addicted to their services. That addiction can be a problem for society: for example just look at the ferocious bullying that happens in schools though social media.

So there is definitely room for a more imaginative and higher conscious social media platform - one that doesn't hoodwink its clients - one that protects younger users. That's not to say they shouldn't make money, but they should do so transparently.

Edited March 5, 2021 by LastThursday

[Zion]

So as of right now, you don't see it as a necessity? Or are you saying you think it's invaluable, even with all the propaganda it's used for and that some day, you hope to see it positively changed by competition or otherwise?

Judging from that view, it's difficult to see its potential in our modern culture. I too would like to see social media prosper in that way, though it is very difficult to see it changing anytime soon. 

I'm aware that the definite answer is "social media isn't the one with the issue, you are the one with the issue", however as much as I'm not for modern social media, It seems to be a necessity to socialize easily within our society. Especially within my generation & the ones following close behind. 

To clarify, I've also deleted all my social media. I'm just curious as to what other's opinions are on the subject.

[Origins]

@Zion social media provides a recursive improvement feedback loop within culture towards the memetic values harboured by the corresponding culture. So it’s not only positive it’s absolutely vital. Just goes to show the kinda of values we have that we would degrade it’s use and development in such a deplorable way. Zuckerberg has thousands to potentially millions of dead bodies crawling out of his wide open mouth of ulterior motivated monopolistic cock sucking. It’s also the consequence of the time we are in history, for example if the internet coincided with social media we would have created far more intelligent means of disseminating social information. This is a subject that concerns the time gap between technologies and their adoption by a demographic and species overall. Social communication within the military in times of war is extremely useful, outside of urgency the primacy of information decreases rapidly depending on what values said social unit is resting on, of course, Ashkanazi Jews and many other demographics utilisation of social technologies is far superior to that of the general western population. Zuckerberg is the poster child of a memetic winner in this sense, he is both a victim of the values that his users rest on and a perpetrator of the proliferation of the virus that is social media consumption in a failing social economy. Bottom up developments of communities say in Canada will be examples in the future of how social media usage can be used for good, look up “Future Thinkers Smart Village a Holistic Vision”, I haven’t at all delved into it but I can easily extrapolate on its ramifications, I also highly doubt social media has been properly brought up but it would be an intelligent adaptation in the context of more rapidly spreading cultural values within a system just as Hitler did so for less than saintly purposes between 1939 and 1945. Yes, Zuckerberg is Hitler, just with a few slight inversions on purpose and outcomes but with the same amount of if not worse level of damage to the social evolution of the human species.

Edited March 6, 2021 by Origins

[Leo Gura]

Every technology comes with pros and cons. There's rarely a free lunch. Social media is not going away, so get used to it. Everyone needs to learn how to use it responsibly and for good rather than devilry.

[Rilles]

Social media has been of great use for me, I carefully select Instagram pages to follow to inspire my Life Purpose, kind of like Pinterest, nothing toxic about it. You have to be conscious in your application of it.

Edited March 6, 2021 by Rilles

[Sahil Asthana]

For me personally, social media is great. I'm a musician and it provides a platform for me to share my art and connect with people. I've had some beautiful conversations with people on there, and I've found other people who are passionate about what they do. Social media is what you make of it,imo. You can find value anywhere. 

Whether it is necessary or not is a difficult question to answer. I think it is helpful, and the problem lies more with the level of consciousness of the people using it rather than the technology itself