Has social media damaged society or have people abused this technology?

[Seahawks Fan]

We all know that there's something wrong with the relationship between people and social media. But where there will be ample disagreement is about who or what is to blame.

So I pose the question to you. Who is to blame for the current toxic union between people and social media: is it the technology itself which poisons society, or is it the way that people utilize this technology which leads to the toxic outcome? In other words, if people had better intentions with their use of social media, then would social media be a net positive rather than the negative it is today?

 

[Deleted member 110072]

Really though I think its a smaller negative if it is one at all in terms of peoples personal lives, the kind of thing the media love to play up in favour of much more important issues like the cost of living crisis.

I think problem the biggest negative is the way social media seems to thrive on negative feelings, the algorithms running realise its easier to get traffic via hatred. Also I spose makes bullying harder to escape from than it was previously.

 

[Berserker13]

The people who created it are the problem...

 

[Red Beard]

People that never had an audience and were usually isolated due to their radical, and often dangerous beliefs, were able to group up with others in similar situations basically normalizing their radical viewpoints. The media contributed by polarizing so many things, and globalization finished the job by putting the concept of going viral into the lexicon. Utter shit.

 

[Satur9]

Definitely a problem with the idea itself. To expose yourself and others constantly to a stream of BS lies, rage porn, and endless congratulations for just existing, has damaged the masses. Everyone is now a TV host of a sort. Selling themself at every turn for a like or attaboy. So like Sherdog, but turned up to 100.

Some people are ok using it on a regular basis, but overall, I do think it has made a bad situation even worse.

 

[Sweater of AV]

Both.

 

[Cole train]

I was forced to listen to social media influencer for 45 minutes yesterday due to us sharing same way home from school

Was thinking about violent ways to end her storytelling

 

[Wilmer Digreux]

No its the way they set up the algorithms. Thats the problem.


Because we did not have all these problems when Myspace was on top.

 

[lsa]

I was forced to listen to social media influencer for 45 minutes yesterday due to us sharing same way home from school

Was thinking about violent ways to end her storytelling

hows her boobs?

 

[Cole train]

hows her boobs?

All about ass looking at her ig

 

[lsa]

All about ass looking at her ig

 

[Takes Two To Tango]

I guess it's more or less people exploiting the technology and trying to take advantage of other people through it. It's just human nature to abuse things, regardless of the technology imo.

 

[gonads20]

I personally think people should taught about social media like sex is taught in school. Explain how our brains work in regards to social media. How a human can crave attention and why they crave attention, click bait, trolls, bots, the internet is forever. How social media can affect your mental health. How the media will use certain headlines to get a reaction.

I say this because I've seen people who have never had social media all their lives and they get on and lose their minds. Ranting about politics, arguing with russian bots, because they dont know how to handle this new thing.

 

[JangoMike]

Its what you make of it. Society tends to perverse technology anyways as it is

 

[fica]

It damaged isociaty it is all for clicks now people want to see how many followers can follow them and does not matter if they tell the truth or not. Now lately it is all dating issues girls issues what they want in guys guys saying theybare done with them social media destroyed everything

 

[fingercuffs]

I don't think it's good for formative year kids, knowing your friends are having a better time or a better pencil case, trainers etc.

 

[KBE6EKCTAH_CCP]

We all know that there's something wrong with the relationship between people and social media. But where there will be ample disagreement is about who or what is to blame.

So I pose the question to you. Who is to blame for the current toxic union between people and social media: is it the technology itself which poisons society, or is it the way that people utilize this technology which leads to the toxic outcome? In other words, if people had better intentions with their use of social media, then would social media be a net positive rather than the negative it is today?

I think so far it has been a very clear negative. I do hope though that society will learn to understand that some tweet which is liked a million times is not an actual crowd talking to you but just 3 lines that took someone 2 minutes to compose, 30 seconds to read and one second to like. It‘s air. So i hope that the disproportionate influence it has on politics business media etc will stop.
As for the rest of exhibitionism and voyeurism as well as cancel culture, that is simply vain and toxic trash.

 

[Wrath of Foamy]

I think that some very powerful people have been able to enhance manipulating us with it.

I like shorts on YouTube, but seeing people complain about not getting views because their videos are more than eight minutes long is alarming.

Technology is great, but we rely too much on it and it's changing us for the worse. We have to step back.

 

[badascan]

It's certainly damaged individuals on some level(s). I work with a green sailor who's around 50-55 and he somehow spends something like 12 hours a day on Facebook. He will live stream any chance he gets, even while on the clock and at times when he should be paying attention/doing something...

I'd say social media has damaged older people, while young people have always had it so they have a different "baseline"...

As individuals go, so goes society and our society is shit right now and going south so I'd say yes, social media has damaged society...

 

[I Am Legion]

There are positives as well, but ATM it is an issue that is making society divided, dangerous and stupid. I like the connectivity taht th world has now. I like forums and open ideas and debates. I like access to information and entertainment. BUT.....the negatives are growing:

1. Mis Information--agenda driven lies spread about everything from Covid and vaccines, to Wars in Ukraine and Israel, to economy and cultures.
2. Influencing of elections by foreign parties.
3. Turning young women into selfie obsessed addicts who only derive self worth from "likes" and their appearance.
4. Sites like Facebook Meta stealing information and targeting you for sales tactics and political manipulation.
5. Source of depression, with others depicting false realities hiding that we are all basically the same.
6. A forum for anonymous cowardly bullying and trolling.
7. Breeding ground for philia and trafficking.