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My biggest fear about FB isn't regarding privacy, but its enormous ability to spread misinformation.
by n72 10y ago
My biggest fear about FB isn't regarding privacy, but its enormous ability to spread misinformation.
- Eerie 10y agoWhy single FB? Internet in general gives anyone an enormous ability (well, potential, really) to spread misinformation.
- curiousgal 10y agoFB has definitely made it easier; it's just a matter of a button click. (Share button)
- rschuetzler 10y agoI was thinking about this the other day. In the pre-social network days, it was obnoxious to blast your political opinions out to your friends and family. You had to create or forward an email, and very few people did. Mostly grandparents. Now it seems that everyone can and will share their political views through a social network. Is it just that it's easier, or is there something else about the platform that invites that type of sharing?
- snom380 10y agoWell, it's not only easier, but it's easy to find others that share your (obnoxious or not) opinions in various groups. So now you're in an echo chamber where your opinions will gather likes and reposts, while your friends and family might try to ignore you as best they can. And of course, the more you associate and interact with groups that fit your opinions and interests, the more Facebook and other ad-supported services will try to prioritize showing you those posts, so the echo chamber effect is amplified. And when you step out into the real world, you'll be inclined to think of others that don't share your "informed" opinion as uninformed or naive, after all you have seen all this evidence to back you your opinions and theories. [Edit:spelling]
- neutronicus 10y agoI mean, it's still obnoxious, everyone bitches about _that person_ on their Facebook. Or don't they?
- rschuetzler 10y agoEveryone has _that_ person, but a lot more people share a couple posts per week, or some similar lower volume but nonetheless obnoxious posts.
- riprowan 10y agoConsider reddit, where anyone can create - and curate - a discussion board on any topic; or wikipedia, where topics are often heavily trolled by the self-appointed "guardians of the holy page." In general, in these situations, it seems that the greater tyrant always seems to win, to the detriment of the community.
- pizza 10y agoPamphlet, newspaper, telegram, radio, telephone, television..
- kingkawn 10y agoVoice, body, mind...
- adrianratnapala 10y agoIndeed, I think the problem with Facebook, is that like Television it is not anarchic enough. A society with free speech is supposed to tolerate the expression of really bad ideas partly because nothing other than the consent of human minds lets society distnguish good ideas from bad. But no particular organisation has a duty to be a forum for all ideas. And that's why it's OK to kick a racist out of your dinner party, and OK for reddit to try and censor its worst users. But when such organisations are main forum for conversion, then the censorship starts to look total.
- adrianlmm 10y ago>but its enormous ability to spread misinformations I think there are worse sources of missinformation, like Redit.