Interesting prompt. I haven’t really thought about this much for a while. I think I have mixed feelings on it. I hate the new Twitter thing, it’s not as good, harder to find stuff I want to engage with, and the new logo freaks me out a little. I like Instagram to look at, but I don’t love posting because I’m not one who enjoys being in front of the camera, so it’s not really for me. Same with TikTok. I used to love Facebook – I enjoy sharing funny memes – but it is a bit hard to get the content you really want now, so I still use it, but it’s not quite the same. It’s useful for keeping in touch with people, though, and there are a lot of people I probably would have lost touch with without it.
I think social media can be a negative thing for people who are not as experienced at sorting through the disinformation or who try to emulate the photoshopped lives that are presented there. As a parent, I’m also worried about the impact it’ll have on my kid during the teenage years and the potential for cyberbullying, grooming, etc. So as I said, I have mixed feelings about it.
What about you guys? Anyone out there who has similar mixed feelings? Any other points I didn’t think of?
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Kids can learn strategies to deal with ordinary bullying and even with grooming online, but they certainly will need help to learn what “minority” actually means and how to deal with disagreement…especially when it comes to the popular products whose manufacturers are really behind the censorship of social media sites.
Oh man, things are so easily twisted these days!
Honestly, I think you covered it pretty well. Social media was supposed to be an easy way to keep up with people through the Internet, and as a general thing it does that very well; the problem is that it’s also much more public, which means you need some way to avoid bullying, harassment, pointless arguments… Smaller online communities could maintain that by having clear rules and active moderators, but social media sites almost have to have effective block buttons so the users can do the moderating themselves.
Very good point. I also stopped feeling as comfortable sharing images since having a kid – I have Instagram that’s private now for that reason!
I consider myself a social media minimalist. I stopped using twitter for Lent a few years back to it, and since Musk has taken over I’ve revisited it — but it and Firefox don’t get along, so I’m not able to get into it much.
I just find it worrying now.
I’m with you on the Twitter thing. It’s become a free for all for trolls, bigots and idiots.
LOL! Well put.