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[Heimdall_Xtreme]

There are many advances in communication, in terms of technology that have done wonderful things, but I also feel that moral values have changed.

In my opinion, I do not agree with social networks, as many times they are sites where rumors or gossip occurs, when they upload photos showing off objects where ironically they sometimes cause envy or simply the fact of sometimes giving false news.

In the case of YouTube, where children are honestly exposed to violent or sexual material.

I think that human values have been harmed with the arrival of Facebook and YouTube in our lives.

Yes ... YouTube also allows us to find good information, but usually most of the content is violence, bully, sex, obscene language and bad influences.

What is your opinion?

 

[Torrent of Pork]

Social media is the greatest cancer on our society that any of us have yet experienced.

 

[lachesis]

Oftentimes I do think people are too connected yet disconnected at the same time, thanks to the SNS - and we are not really meant to exist such way. I would rather not have it at all if possible, but like Pandora’s box - cat is already out.

 

[I collect VHS tapes]

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Yes and no.

Social media is great for people who are level headed who just want to expand their network (friends, fam, coworkers, recruiters). It's also great if most of the people you are linked with are good natured and not ragging and nagging on life or trying to spin it into personal greed or ego boosting.

Hey, I got some off those tards on FB, so I block their news feeds. I dont need to hear about you bitch about being vegetarian is the best or Trump/Biden/Trudeau politics and conspiracies or seeing your 60th post about selling your used shoes and other junk to friends for $20. I just want it to be about friendly photos, memories and keeping in touch with friends and fam since childhood days.

Social media is bad for people angry at life and envy people and are easily irritated. Some people just have an axe to grind and if they are 40 and see everyone they know blow past them, they probably feel miserable. Or they are someone who focuses on negatives, which is bad since comments can increase fast. They see they got 1000 positive comments, 80 bad remarks and spend all day responding to those 80 when they got 920 good ones, feel bad and probably keeping thinking about it when they go to bed.

On one hand, you'd think someone who has issues with social media would just drop their account or not sign up. I dont have Twitter or Instagram or Pinterest. What the fuck do I care? But some people do and keep latching onto it.

But then again, if some groups have them chatting and they can help themselves feel better because they can share constructive advice to get them out of their situation, then that's good.

As a whole too, social media is often text based, which leads to miscommunication. If I tell someone to Get Lost, they may think I'm serious. But if I said that in person I might be saying that in a sarcastic joking way. They'd never know it, unless theyve known me for a long time or I put a /s after the post.

 

[Velcro Fly]

Unquestionably they have harmed children, whose brains are not fully developed yet and are unable to cope with things with the emotional maturity that is needed often times.

 

[Tschumi]

No debate to be had, they and Google have entirely hacked the way we gain information about the world, and our instincts/brains haven't kept up with it, so anyone who is even remotely susceptible to taking things for granted has absolutely no capacity for filtering out genuine sources of information from algorithm-spawned rabbit holes of increasingly blinkered views. On either side of politics.

Anything but anything can be instantly derailed and sent down a politicised path.. hell I'm sure if i said "I'm gonna go take a dump" someone somewhere would find a way to swing an election with it if they really wanted to... And this explosion of politicised subjects distracts us from what really needs to happen, like dismantling coal and oil producers and reforming the carbon footprint of the livestock industry.. yep, we can't handle social media. S'why NeoGAF is the closest thing i have to a social media presence.

 

[Ionian]

You're on one right now OP.

Has NEOGaf harmed you?

 

[Hulk_Smash]

I thought Facebook, Instagram, and even Twitter were great at first. Catching up with old friends and distant relatives in the early '10s was revolutionary. But, once you had the ability to share memes from FB groups and links to news articles, it was over for me. Now I can't stand any of it.

I deleted my twitter and insta profiles and wish I could delete FB, but my business is on there so I have to maintain at least a small footprint. But, last year, I downloaded all of my photos and deleted everything from my FB profile that I could and I do NOT post there any more except business related stuff.

We should have seen it coming with all the email spam and useless forwarded emails. Even texting is not completely safe and has wreaked havoc on social circles.

Youtube comments are mostly a cancer, but can prove to be helpful depending on the video's content.

Never fucked with snapchat or (shudders) tiktok or any of those wannabe conservative apps.

GAF is bae, though. GAF is always bae.

 

[nush]

YouTube also allows us to find good information, but usually most of the content is violence, bully, sex, obscene language and bad influences.

 

[AJUMP23]

Social media is one of the worst things the western world has levied on itself. When we launched it we crossed the Rubicon and we can never go back.

 

[Taxexemption]

They have harmed us, and we might ban it at some point. Its hard to imagine now, but I can imagine a future where social media practices are heavily regulated or outright banned as a concept, that would be one of the many utopia's we are unlikely to experience. In a world of 7 billion people there will always be someone doing something infinitely more interesting than what you are doing right now, and more interesting than the actual people around you. We killed boredom, but great minds come out of boredom. Hard men come out of boredom.


It also creates an illusion that nothing is really worth doing unless you get attention for it. It sells kids on toxic dreams of being a "youtube content creator." The kind of person that does something really interesting does it out of passion or boredom, not because "I wanna be famous."


Consider the following. Ideas are contagious. Peoples minds are like hardware, we are born with a certain hardware and we ourselves and others install various programs on it. Some ideas if given to you, you will accept them because the way your hardware works will cause it to think that idea is good, regardless of whether it objectively is. A lot of our thinking only appears rational, but actually is not. With social media you are exposed to a lot more ideas. You don't have better information, just more, and your mind is constructed in such a way that you accept or reject it based primarily on your factory settings rather than any rational process.


I think if you are on social media, and have a mental illness, you should be able to sue the social media company for whatever apps you are on. If you have a mental disorder and youtube didn't make you mentally ill, I can almost guarantee you if we could study objectively it we will find it made it worse. What's a paranoid schizophrenic doing on youtube? What do you think there search history is like? Do you think it's puppies and kittens or is it conspiracies about how the government is going to kill you in your sleep? Somewhere literally what I just described is happening, and a pot of coffee is being brewed, and there is a severely distressed mentally ill person having a major freakout for the rest of the night. I think unless you are an ultra normie, most social media is going to be bad for your mental health.

 

[DeafTourette]

Like anything in life, social media is what you make of it. Follow and friend who ADDS to your life and whose company or words you enjoy and you trust to an extent and you won't see all the crap you're talking about.

I don't have to worry about crap on my FB timeline because I friended people who actually have my back or treat me with respect, and whom I treat the same.

I have a Twitter but I'm not on there much because it's boring (again, I only followed people who didn't crap stuff up) .... I always felt like I was tweeting to myself...

I like Instagram... It's great seeing my cousins and nephews living their lives.

Do y'all just follow any old account?

 

[nush]

Hard men come out of boredom.

It's true, many times I've decided to have a wank because there's nothing to do and it will kill 20 minutes.

 

[I collect VHS tapes]

Like anything in life, social media is what you make of it. Follow and friend who ADDS to your life and whose company or words you enjoy and you trust to an extent and you won't see all the crap you're talking about.

I don't have to worry about crap on my FB timeline because I friended people who actually have my back or treat me with respect, and whom I treat the same.

I have a Twitter but I'm not on there much because it's boring (again, I only followed people who didn't crap stuff up) .... I always felt like I was tweeting to myself...

I like Instagram... It's great seeing my cousins and nephews living their lives.

Do y'all just follow any old account?

Instagram is the only social media I use. It’s great for keeping up with the local food scene. Pretty much the only thing I use it for.

 

[DeafTourette]

Instagram is the only social media I use. It’s great for keeping up with the local food scene. Pretty much the only thing I use it for.

I follow a few restaurants... Seeing what's new on the menus... I really miss going out

 

[SuperBabyMethod]

I remember when MySpace was first out, it was basically a popularity contest among friends. It was new and innocent and it had its own little charm to it with customizable backgrounds and a music player. Sometime through high school though, almost instantly, a massive flock just up and went to join Facebook, myself included.

At first it was cool to be able to communicate and post “statuses” on how you were and what you were up to and stay connected to “friends”. But I realized very quickly, especially when Instagram was taking off, that the way people were portraying themselves online was almost a complete 180 to how they were in real life. A close friend of mine, who I noticed always wanted validation and attention from people, especially from women, would always portray an exciting lifestyle; I remember feeling envious of him, to the point where I was depressed and even angry. But I noticed every single time we met up to hang around, he was never ever like the way he showed himself online, in fact, he was miserable and going through a very dark time. This was in the early 2010’s and I quickly realized that something was wrong with these apps and social media in general. I only use Youtube, which is its own demon, and Facebook for my family/mother. Other than that, it’s fucking terrible.

 

[Chankoras]

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

There are videos of headshots and beheadings.

How many people have access to this type of video without problems?

It is not that it restricts free access, but think that it is easy to be exposed to this material

 

[godhandiscen]

Social media is linked to upward trends in teen suicide, financial distress, body dysmorphia, screen and substance addiction/abuse, obesity, general unhappiness, etc.

They aren’t regulated because they are experts at convincing masses they are on your side.

I am well educated in the topic, built my career and wealth in the field of marketing technologies, and I do not use social media. If you want a good overview of how vile they are, this documentary is a great resource:

The Social Dilemma - A Netflix Original documentary

We tweet, we like, and we share- but what are the consequences of our growing dependence on social media? Discover what's hiding on the other side of your screen at TheSocialDilemma.com

www.thesocialdilemma.com

Like anything in life, social media is what you make of it. Follow and friend who ADDS to your life and whose company or words you enjoy and you trust to an extent and you won't see all the crap you're talking about.

I don't have to worry about crap on my FB timeline because I friended people who actually have my back or treat me with respect, and whom I treat the same.

I have a Twitter but I'm not on there much because it's boring (again, I only followed people who didn't crap stuff up) .... I always felt like I was tweeting to myself...

I like Instagram... It's great seeing my cousins and nephews living their lives.

Do y'all just follow any old account?

No it isn’t. I build similar systems and they are actually designed to shape human behavior.

If you think you are in control of your social media consumption, you are either an extreme outlier, or unaware of how pervasive they are in your life and how much influence they have over every choice you make.

 

[AJUMP23]

Social media is the world hoisting itself on its own petard.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

I remember when MySpace was first out, it was basically a popularity contest among friends. It was new and innocent and it had its own little charm to it with customizable backgrounds and a music player. Sometime through high school though, almost instantly, a massive flock just up and went to join Facebook, myself included.

At first it was cool to be able to communicate and post “statuses” on how you were and what you were up to and stay connected to “friends”. But I realized very quickly, especially when Instagram was taking off, that the way people were portraying themselves online was almost a complete 180 to how they were in real life. A close friend of mine, who I noticed always wanted validation and attention from people, especially from women, would always portray an exciting lifestyle; I remember feeling envious of him, to the point where I was depressed and even angry. But I noticed every single time we met up to hang around, he was never ever like the way he showed himself online, in fact, he was miserable and going through a very dark time. This was in the early 2010’s and I quickly realized that something was wrong with these apps and social media in general. I only use Youtube, which is its own demon, and Facebook for my family/mother. Other than that, it’s fucking terrible.

Thats the social media way.

I got friends and coworkers who have great family pics with their spouse and kids, yet went through a messy divorce. Only friends and fam close enough know the details, but since many people have probably 50%+ of their friends lists as ultra peripheral friends or school mates from 30 years ago you dont care to talk to, all these kinds of people would never know. They'd all think their household is The Cosby Show.

Unless someone is extremely extroverted and willing to tell the world their life issues, 99% of it is promoted as all roses and the perfect family.

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

You're on one right now OP.

Has NEOGaf harmed you?

Neogaf is awesome, so this is a amazing website =)

 

[*Nightwing]

Life is far to complex to break it down as simply as one cause for it. I’m far more concerned about the ideas being propagated, or lack there of, than the tools used to de-/propagate said ideas.

I mean the algorithms behind these tools are designed to show what will keep you most engaged and keep your screen time as high as possible. Its working as intended. It’s not cocaine’s fault it is addictive, it is made to release dopamine at a rate that is highly addictive. It’s working as designed.

If you give everyone a loud horn to say whatever they want I don’t think you can logically complain to the loud horns about the symphony of bedlam that follows.

 

[Keihart]

I wouldn't worry about the "moral" part about it or how youtube used to be a "social network", if your problem is with the attention as commodity of today, that is far from being only a problem with social media platforms.
I think that the next step is to distribute tools for the users to be in charge of the information again, the problem it's about how information get's distributed to everyone through several different platforms while at the same time being curated without much control from the user besides ignoring it or opting out while giving away all the conveniences of it.

We need tools that interact and compete with the tools used to target content to us since that is not going anywhere anytime soon.

 

[DaleinCalgary]

Social networks have successfully showed me which friends are nuts.

 

[haxan7]

In the case of YouTube, where children are honestly exposed to violent or sexual material.

The same material that their increasingly morally lax parents don’t let them see on TV, movies, the news, or video games?

Your whole OP ignores the real problems of social media. It sounds like an evangelical Christian criticism of violence and sex in media from the 1980s.

Get back to me when you catch a clue.

 

[Keihart]

There are videos of headshots and beheadings.

How many people have access to this type of video without problems?

It is not that it restricts free access, but think that it is easy to be exposed to this material

This is nothing new, the internet has hosted all kind of vile contents since it's inception, if anything, it's one of the things that makes the internet great. The sites that shaped the internet culture (way before any real "social networks") had this type of content in excess. This type of stuff is getting shunned to the dark corners for the internet now more than ever.

The manipulation of consumers of the attention economy on the internet is a complete separate problem to the content of what is being consumed, the manipulation itself is what it's worrisome not that people get access to what you consider to be immoral.

 

[j0hnnix]

I agree with OP in part of morals and I'll throw in desensitization of the youth since many things that were not available when I was younger are now made open to children. That's more a dad hat on.

I was having this discussion with my gf last week. While the topic is mainly social networks, many understand the point of the internet was to "bring us closer" to socialize across the world which it has done but to fault.

While many have made friends across the world which is a beautiful thing the abundance of information through media, influencers etc being twisted for personal gains has caused an internal serperation through manipulation.

With that said. Is the system designed to perpetuate the serperation? In my opinion it's not the systems fault its more the fault of the user in not being open to different options , different opinons and the ability to be open.

We can not blame a system that gives us the tools but more understand why those tools are not being used by the user correctly.

While commercials/social media are designed to sway our minds we have the ability to see both sides of that coin, there is no gun pointed to our heads to force us into one choice but we do sometimes allow ourselves to be swayed.

I'll blame the melotonin if I miss understood this whole thread.

 

[haxan7]

No debate to be had, they and Google have entirely hacked the way we gain information about the world, and our instincts/brains haven't kept up with it, so anyone who is even remotely susceptible to taking things for granted has absolutely no capacity for filtering out genuine sources of information from algorithm-spawned rabbit holes of increasingly blinkered views. On either side of politics.

Anything but anything can be instantly derailed and sent down a politicised path.. hell I'm sure if i said "I'm gonna go take a dump" someone somewhere would find a way to swing an election with it if they really wanted to... And this explosion of politicised subjects distracts us from what really needs to happen, like dismantling coal and oil producers and reforming the carbon footprint of the livestock industry.. yep, we can't handle social media. S'why NeoGAF is the closest thing i have to a social media presence.

My dumps swing elections at least three times a year.

 

[Yoboman]

The problems started when old media propagandists and Governments started using the platforms and they changed from social media to news and propaganda platforms

I dont think the idea of social media networks are any more to blame than the idea of a printing press or TV is in leading to tabloids and 24 hour TV news

 

[Airbus Jr]

Depends on the person bro

 

[Tschumi]

My dumps swing elections at least three times a year.

Zat's a SPICY meatball

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Social media is the greatest cancer on our society that any of us have yet experienced.

One and done. If people wanted to just share pics with grandparents there are way better ways to do that e.g. shared albums.

Social media platforms were engineered and designed for engagement. All the bullying, cyber harassment, teens feeling inadequate directly steams from that.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

24 hour TV news

Might be a shocker for some - you never needed and don’t need that. 24hrs news channels are an equivalent of a dopamine high, guilt tripping you to ‘never miss a story’. It’s no strange all successful people living fruitful lives do not participate on social media, do not watch tv, do not watch news channels.

 

[RJMacready73]

it started off great, got in contact with old mates, shooted the shit outside of working hours with work colleagues loads of lolz were had and stories retold... then the fucking the orange moron and Brexit happened and suddenly every cunt outside of America had an opinion on the orange cunt whilst being experts in Brexit and boiled down what was essentially a complex decoupling of over 40yrs of regulatory systems into THEY steal our FISH, everyone started showing their colours, politics became everything and it was less and less craic so i used it less and less and then exited, shut down everything, facebook, insta.. was never fan of Twitter and blocked everything on my phone cause you cant fucking delete it... its a cancerous blight on society, it brings out the worst in everyone, people saying shit online that would never say boo in daylight and now you have tiktok conditioning kids brains into only working with 2-5mins or less bursts of entertainment.. fuck off, it'll be banned when my kids get to mobile phone age..

TLDGAF (to long didnt give a fuck) Social Media Needs to Die

 

[TonyK]

I'm 47, so I grow up without internet and social media. At the beginning it was amazing, so much possibilities. And free porn, to be honest. But now I really think it has been for worse.

In fact, my son is 8 years old and my biggest concern is when he has to access social media.

 

[FunkMiller]

Harm now far outweighs the good. Since clicks and views were monetised, everything is warped around the desire to increase platform, to increase earnings. Nothing can be trusted.

Internet itself still largely a positive thing, but social networks are clearly fucking not.

 

[BadBurger]

It started out stupid fun, but Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter grew to become vast mechanisms for spreading misinformation and agitating the public.

 

[nush]

Might be a shocker for some - you never needed and don’t need that. 24hrs news channels are an equivalent of a dopamine high, guilt tripping you to ‘never miss a story’. It’s no strange all successful people living fruitful lives do not participate on social media, do not watch tv, do not watch news channels.

I stopped watching or having on in the background 24hour rolling news TV, it's a stream of negativity and FOMO. Any really important stories will reach me soon enough through other avenues anyway. I felt much better without the doom and gloom piped into my home.

 

[V1LÆM]

there is nothing to debate. the answer is simple: yes.

fuck Facebook. fuck Instagram. fuck Twitter. fuck TikTok. fuck them all.

the only good social media site was MySpace.

 

[RJMacready73]

there is nothing to debate. the answer is simple: yes.

fuck Facebook. fuck Instagram. fuck Twitter. fuck TikTok. fuck them all.

the only good social media site was MySpace.

the only good social media site now is the local pub with your mates and a match on

 

[dr_octagon]

internet and early web is godfather part 1

iphone and smartphones is godfather part 2

social media is godfather 3, game of thrones season 8, the rise of skywalker, alien 3 etc

 

[strange headache]

This is how I view social media.

 

[SJRB]

Yes and to a catastrophic level, I'd say.

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

The same material that their increasingly morally lax parents don’t let them see on TV, movies, the news, or video games?

Your whole OP ignores the real problems of social media. It sounds like an evangelical Christian criticism of violence and sex in media from the 1980s.

Get back to me when you catch a clue.

Can you put the real problems?

 

[Cyberpunkd]

I stopped watching or having on in the background 24hour rolling news TV, it's a stream of negativity and FOMO. Any really important stories will reach me soon enough through other avenues anyway. I felt much better without the doom and gloom piped into my home.

Likewise, and I made sure the whole family doesn’t watch it as well.

 

[strange headache]

The problems started when old media propagandists and Governments started using the platforms and they changed from social media to news and propaganda platforms

I dont think the idea of social media networks are any more to blame than the idea of a printing press or TV is in leading to tabloids and 24 hour TV news

As with any media once it gets commercialized and the general public gets ahold of it. Then it starts to become corrupted.

There used to be a time when TV didn't broadcast 24/7, when it had recordings of classical music orchestras playing at noon, news coverage was decent, lots of good documentaries and culture magazines and advertisement was at a minimum. Nowadays TV has degraded into lowest common denominator entertainment, fake reality TV, people eating vermin on camera, quiz shows, pop-science shows so simplistic they make everybody feel smart. It has become an endless stream of advertisement interspersed by short bouts of content.

If anything social media has emphasized the importance of a good education, as the internet is flooded with absolute cretins trying to copy each other. Giving people a voice has only shown how f*cking dumb and spoiled most of us really are.

 

[Kev Kev]

There is a way to do it right, but yeah it’s been a shit show so far and there is no end in sight. Showing people targeted ads that have a political slant has divided us, unquestionably. It just shows them what they want to see, playing to their side or their bias, and shitting on the other side, whether factual or not.

 

[Daymos]

Objectively it's a tool that can reveal the true nature of humanity. Whether that's useful or not depends on what your personal views on life are.