Long WashPo article on the viral contagion of Social Media

[Jimmy Higgins]

Washington Post has a pretty in depth article about a number of cases regarding children/teens/adults, assumption, and conspiracy theories... and how all of this stuff has such a greater manner of contagious spread because of Social Media, both when a story breaks... and well after nothing actually ever broke but some CT meanders on, at times (read often) drowning out real cases of real abuse.

I have article gifting powers, so you should be able to read it, even if you don't sub to WashPo.

 

[Gospel]

Article gifting powers? Bartender!! A round of drinks for this man!!

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Between SoHy and myself, no one here will ever need to subscribe to Washington Post ever again.

 

[ZiprHead]

Between SoHy and myself, no one here will ever need to subscribe to Washington Post ever again.

I'm a subscriber but I have no idea how I could gift an article.

 

[Gospel]

OMG that Liliana Carrillo interview.

 

[rousseau]

When you break it down I don't think people were designed to be confronted by as much information as we are today. There's our entire million plus year history and then.. what.. 25 years of the internet? And now we have the internet in our pocket, in multiple rooms of our home, and maybe on a few tablets too.

People were built to live in low-density, quiet communities, spending their days being physical and having face-to-face interaction with others. Instead we now spend our days looking at screens while media outlets, literally everywhere, scream for our attention. We're just not designed to interpret that kind of chaos.

Twitter is pretty much the archetype of the phenomena in your article - something, anything happens and then an entire mob is immediately on high alert. I used to defend it, but since I left the site my mental health has been *way* better.

Anyway, this is a weird time in history, literally the birth of the internet. I have a feeling that in a few decades we're going to look at social media in the same way we do cigarettes now. A few decades ago they were normalized until we fully realized how awful they are, then regulation set in.

 

[Ruth Harris]

Between SoHy and myself, no one here will ever need to subscribe to Washington Post ever again.

I'm a subscriber but I have no idea how I could gift an article.

I'm a subscriber too, and this is how you gift articles. Look for a little wrapped gift box near the top, usually just below whatever graphic heads the article. Click on that and you will see the following options:

Select "Copy link" and it will provide a link you can paste into wherever you want to link the article.

Ruth

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

When you break it down I don't think people were designed to be confronted by as much information as we are today. There's our entire million plus year history and then.. what.. 25 years of the internet? And now we have the internet in our pocket, in multiple rooms of our home, and maybe on a few tablets too.

People were built to live in low-density, quiet communities, spending their days being physical and having face-to-face interaction with others. Instead we now spend our days looking at screens while media outlets, literally everywhere, scream for our attention. We're just not designed to interpret that kind of chaos.

Twitter is pretty much the archetype of the phenomena in your article - something, anything happens and then an entire mob is immediately on high alert. I used to defend it, but since I left the site my mental health has been *way* better.

eMobs. The interesting aspect though is "children" portion. I see this on Facebook with people randomly posting missing children info, even if from several states away. Some people seem addicted to different aspects of social media. You have the people addicted to the crime, child protection, GOP lynching mobbing. People are getting addicted to self presumed purpose and rage, and let's not forget the "likes".

And this is ignoring when little seeds are anonymously planted like the teenager and the Native American in DC. People intentionally trying to stir stuff up. Add in the latest TikTok, school gun thing and it is apparent that the wild west Social Media model is unsustainable for an open society.

Anyway, this is a weird time in history, literally the birth of the internet. I have a feeling that in a few decades we're going to look at social media in the same way we do cigarettes now. A few decades ago they were normalized until we fully realized how awful they are, then regulation set in.

I simply think of this web board. There are limits and constraints on it. Of course, it doesn't make money and requires volunteers to make it work. TikTok, Facebook wanna make money, and just let it all hang out until tear gas is repelling people at the Capitol Building.

 

[Gospel]

Humans are known for gathering mobs around a perceived good cause This has been a struggle for a long time and so even if the internet vanished humans would find other ways to do so. At least today's mobs don't seem interested in going on bloody crusades to conquer entire continents.

 

[ZiprHead]

Select "Copy link" and it will provide a link you can paste into wherever you want to link the article.

Ruth

Thanks for the explanation. That was helpful.

 

[prideandfall]

Some people seem addicted to different aspects of social media. You have the people addicted to the crime, child protection, GOP lynching mobbing. People are getting addicted to self presumed purpose and rage, and let's not forget the "likes".

And this is ignoring when little seeds are anonymously planted like the teenager and the Native American in DC. People intentionally trying to stir stuff up. Add in the latest TikTok, school gun thing and it is apparent that the wild west Social Media model is unsustainable for an open society.

i always find this mentality so fascinating and so utterly baffling as to why it's so prevalent.

this bizarre reactionary tendency to blame the symptom... "it's the internet!" or "it's social media!" or "it's the gossip rags!" or "it's the TV!" or "it's the radio!" or "it's the penny pornos!" or whatever thing it is that exists that some humanist minded tit can blame all of our ills on, instead of the obvious and far simpler reality that humans are fucking retarded.

at the end of the day that's what it really comes down to: nearly all humans are pants-on-head, damaged chromosome, giant foreheaded dipshits, and literally any stupidity dangled in front of them will result in a herd-panic shit show.
even if you stripped civilization down so that humans only lived in isolated clustered of a few hundred (or less) you'd still have the same problem, it would just manifest differently - likely as stonings or lynchings, if history is anything to go by.

so, all this "blame the internet" that's so in vogue right now seems very strange to me, since no attention is paid whatsoever to the more underlying problem.

 

[southernhybrid]

Between SoHy and myself, no one here will ever need to subscribe to Washington Post ever again.

I just need to be more diligent about remembering to gift more articles. I can gift ten from the NYTimes each month as well. I need to use up my gifts this week or I'll lose them.